41 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 11 scored contests and 1,657 result rows. Beat one and you appear here the next morning.
Overall scores are only ever ranked against their own series — Master out of 720, Backyard out of 360 — so the overall-score records here are Master boards unless they say Backyard. The Backyard series keeps a full record board of its own.
State and provincial record books are here; outside North America, every country has its own page under Regions →
Showing the ID record book — every record below counts only contests held in ID. Records that can't honestly be cut by state are left out rather than shown with their national holder: power ratings, career streaks and Team of the Year are computed over a team's whole career, wherever they cooked it.
The biggest — and smallest — numbers anybody has ever put in front of six judges.
SMELLAQUE at Smoke-N-Wings Jun 26, 2026
31-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
PHIL & LOU BBQ at Bands brews & BBQ Sep 13, 2019
won the category with it
Held jointly by 6 — nobody has beaten it.
The best chicken anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
CROOKED PIGS at Meat & Tater BBQ Fest Sep 4, 2026
won the category with it
The best pork ribs anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
Spuds BBQ at Rock'n Brews & BBQ Festival Sep 16, 2016
won the category with it
Held jointly by 6 — nobody has beaten it.
The best pork anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
MADDDOG'S BBQ at The Great Northwest Barbecue & Beer Festival Jul 13, 2018
won the category with it
Held jointly by 7 — nobody has beaten it.
The best brisket anybody has ever turned in. 180 is the ceiling — every judge at the table handing back a nine — so a tie goes to whoever got there first.
GETTIN' BASTED at Meat & Tater BBQ Fest Aug 29, 2025
finished 2nd, behind Smokin' Volts BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
GOT SMOKE BAR-B-QUE at Rock'n Brews & BBQ Festival Sep 15, 2017
and still beat 27 other teams
The days the judges gave nothing away. Somebody still had to win, and this is the smallest number that ever did it in a real field.
Smoke-N-Wings Jun 26, 2026
31 teams · won with 709.1772
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Smoke-N-Wings Jun 26, 2026
31 teams · top score 709.1772
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Rock'n Brews & BBQ Festival Sep 15, 2017
28 teams · even the win only took 696.0000
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
GOT SMOKE BAR-B-QUE at Rock'n Brews & BBQ Festival Sep 16, 2016
over BOWLING OVER PIGS
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
Cynical BBQ at Meat & Tater BBQ Fest Sep 4, 2026
over IOWA'S SMOKEY D'S BBQ
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
GOT SMOKE BAR-B-QUE Sep 15, 2017
from 2 contests · first in 2016
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
CROOKED PIGS Jun 28, 2024
from 8 contests · 0 titles
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
CROOKED PIGS Jun 28, 2024
across 8 contests, still waiting
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
SMELLAQUE Jun 26, 2026
2 titles in all
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
Cynical BBQ at Meat & Tater BBQ Fest Sep 4, 2026
won it with 706.2516
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
Smoke324 at Rockn & BBQ Brew Festival Sep 7, 2018
the title finally came in 2018
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
GOT SMOKE BAR-B-QUE Sep 15, 2017
2016 → 2017 · 2 titles
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
SMELLAQUE Jun 26, 2026
in 1 state
Some contests hand out a state championship alongside the trophy. These teams have collected the most of them.
The four meats: who wins them, and who has been handed a flawless card.
CROOKED PIGS Sep 4, 2026
across 2 of the four meats
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
Smoke324 Sep 7, 2018
the 2018 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
Smoke324 Sep 4, 2026
in 2 different meats · first in 2018
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
CROOKED PIGS at Meat & Tater BBQ Fest Sep 4, 2026
first in 2024 · 17 contests to complete the set
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
A perfect card in chicken, ribs, pork AND brisket. The date is the day the set was completed; the board is led by whoever needed the fewest contests to finish it.
Spuds BBQ at Rock'n Brews & BBQ Festival Sep 16, 2016
Pork · Sep 16, 2016
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Meat & Tater BBQ Fest Sep 4, 2026
shared by 8 teams in a field of 52
Some tables run hot. At these contests the judges handed out flawless cards all afternoon.
Longevity — the teams who keep turning up, and keep turning it in.
CROOKED PIGS Sep 4, 2026
2016 → 2026
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
CROOKED PIGS Sep 4, 2026
9 contests, 2016 → 2026
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
CROOKED PIGS Dec 31, 2019
2016 → 2019, no gaps
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
SMELLAQUE Sep 4, 2026
the 2026 season · 1 title
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
CROOKED PIGS Aug 29, 2025
from 8 contests
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
SMELLAQUE at Smoke-N-Wings Jun 27, 2025
2024 → 2025 · won it 1×
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
The contest a team never misses — on the calendar in ink, every single year.
Records held by the contests themselves rather than by the teams.
Meat & Tater BBQ Fest Sep 4, 2026
won with 706.2516
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Bands,Brews & BBQ (POSTPONED) Sep 10, 2021
2019 → 2021 · about 25 teams a year
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Meat & Tater BBQ Fest Sep 4, 2026
in a field of 52 · won with 706.2516
Out of 720 points, this many teams finished inside ONE of the leader. Any of them could have won it with a better garnish.
Meat & Tater BBQ Fest Aug 29, 2025
39 teams cooking for it
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Sep 4, 2026 Sep 4, 2026
across 1 states and provinces
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2025 season Aug 29, 2025
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The high-water mark for the sport itself — the year the calendar was fullest.
Somebody has to run the table. These are the ones who have run the most.
Steven Flewallen Sep 4, 2026
2019 → 2026
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Steven Flewallen Sep 4, 2026
the 2026 season
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Steven Flewallen Sep 4, 2026
at 6 contests
How many separate teams have taken a Grand Championship at a contest this rep was running.
| Team | GCs this season |
|---|---|
| Cynical BBQ | 1 |
| SMELLAQUE | 1 |
| Year | Series | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 ↗ | Backyard | DAWGS BBQ 🏆 | 1,356 |
| 2026 ↗ | Master | JANKY LEG BBQ 🏆 | 2,682 |
| 2025 ↗ | Backyard | Electro-Que-ted 🏆 | 1,414 |
| 2025 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,826 |
| 2024 ↗ | Backyard | WEEZ'S GROOVIN' BBQ 🏆 | 1,404 |
| 2024 ↗ | Master | CHUNKY BBQ 🏆 | 2,734 |
| 2023 ↗ | Master | JANKY LEG BBQ 🏆 | 2,773 |
| 2022 ↗ | Master | Uncle Pig's Barbeque Pit 🏆 | 2,761 |
| 2021 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,804 |
| 2020 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,670 |
| 2019 ↗ | Master | B-S BBQ OUTLAWS 🏆 | 2,774 |
| 2018 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2,840 |
| 2017 ↗ | Master | CLARK CREW BBQ 🏆 | 2,850 |
| 2016 ↗ | Master | PORKY BUTTS BBQ 🏆 | 2,846 |
| 2015 ↗ | Master | CLARK CREW BBQ 🏆 | 2,843 |
| 2014 ↗ | Master | WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS 🏆 | 2,936 |
| 2013 ↗ | Master | WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS 🏆 | 2,940 |
| 2013 ↗ | Master | TRUEBUD BBQ 🏆 | 2,940 |
| Category | Entries | Avg score | Avg winning score | Perfect 180s | 180s per 1,000 entries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brisket toughest room | 304 | 166.78 | 178.69 | 7 | 23 |
| Pork Ribs | 338 | 168.27 | 178.35 | 1 | 3 |
| Chicken | 304 | 168.38 | 178.24 | 6 | 19.7 |
| Pork | 300 | 169.07 | 179.37 | 6 | 20 |
Sorted by average score — the category at the top scores lowest across the whole field, which usually means the judges are hardest to please there.