53 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 76 scored contests and 12,629 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 KY record book — every record below counts only contests held in KY. 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.
CONTINENTAL BARBEQUE CO. at Big Buffalo Crossing BBQ Cook-Off Oct 15, 2021
27-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Fire Pig at Bands and BBQ at the Point Sep 12, 2025
won the board
The Backyard board runs on its own scale, so it keeps its own record — pooled with Master it would never surface at all.
Making Meat BBQ at Bands & BBQ at the Point Sep 6, 2013
won the category with it
Held jointly by 10 or more — 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.
TENACIOUS Q at Barbourville BBQ Festival Jun 20, 2014
won the category with it
Held jointly by 8 — nobody has beaten 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.
EAT MOR BUTT BBQ at Jim Beam BBQ Classic Oct 4, 2013
won the category with it
Held jointly by 10 or more — 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.
QUE'N STEW'N & BREW'N at Jim Beam BBQ Classic Oct 4, 2013
won the category with it
Held jointly by 10 or more — 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.
BLUE CHIP BBQ at Grillin and Chillin BBQ Sep 17, 2021
finished 2nd, behind Continental BBQ Co
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
GOVERNMENT PORK at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Jun 14, 2013
and still beat 26 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.
Big Buffalo Crossing BBQ Cook-Off Oct 15, 2021
27 teams · won with 712.5716
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Big Buffalo Crossing BBQ Cook-Off Oct 15, 2021
27 teams · top score 712.5716
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Jun 14, 2013
27 teams · even the win only took 672.5710
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
GREY STREET BBQ Oct 18, 2019
20 contests · best 707.9772
Anyone can catch one good day. This is the highest anybody has averaged across a real career.
GREY STREET BBQ at Big Buffalo Crossing BBQ Cook-Off Oct 19, 2018
over A FINE SWINE
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
GREY STREET BBQ at Barbourville BBQ Cookoff & Festival Jun 14, 2019
over WHO CARES BBQ
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
GREY STREET BBQ Jun 14, 2019
from 20 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.
BLUE CHIP BBQ Oct 31, 2025
from 59 contests · 7 titles
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
SMOKE ON THIS Jul 26, 2019
across 20 contests, still waiting
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
SCUFFLETOWN SMOKERS Oct 31, 2025
4 titles from 28 contests
Winning often matters more than winning a lot. This is how often a team turns up and takes the whole thing.
GREY STREET BBQ Oct 19, 2018
the 2018 season
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
GREY STREET BBQ Jun 14, 2019
7 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.
BLUE CHIP BBQ at Bands & BBQ at the Point Sep 13, 2019
won 2014–2019
The contest a team has made their own — turning up every year and taking it home again.
BLUE CHIP BBQ at Bourbon City BBQ Festival Cookoff Jun 6, 2014
2013–2014, straight
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
Defending a title once is an achievement. Nobody on this board gave one up willingly.
WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS at Grillin and Chillin BBQ Sep 27, 2013
won it with 697.0856
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
WeQ4U at Jim Beam BBQ Classic Oct 5, 2018
the title finally came in 2018
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
BLUE CHIP BBQ Jul 25, 2025
2013 → 2025 · 7 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
CONTINENTAL BARBEQUE CO. Oct 15, 2021
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.
BLUE CHIP BBQ Oct 31, 2025
across all four meats
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
GREY STREET BBQ Oct 19, 2018
the 2018 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
SCUFFLETOWN SMOKERS Oct 31, 2025
in 3 different meats · first in 2015
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.
CONTINENTAL BARBEQUE CO. at Grillin and Chillin BBQ Sep 17, 2021
Chicken, Pork
One perfect card is a story worth retelling. Two before the awards ceremony is a record.
CONTINENTAL BARBEQUE CO. Oct 15, 2021
the 2021 season
A whole year of turning in boxes nobody at the table could mark down.
GREY STREET BBQ at Barbourville BBQ Cookoff & Festival Jun 14, 2019
first in 2016 · 54 contests to complete the set
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.
Making Meat BBQ at Bands & BBQ at the Point Sep 6, 2013
Chicken · Sep 6, 2013
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Sam's Club National BBQ Tour May 12, 2017
shared by 6 teams in a field of 29
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.
BLUE CHIP BBQ Jul 24, 2026
2013 → 2026
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
WeQ4U Sep 11, 2026
2013 → 2026 · 43 contests
Rigs wear out and cooks retire. These teams were still turning in boxes more than a decade after their first one.
BLUE CHIP BBQ Jul 24, 2026
60 contests, 2013 → 2026
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
BLUE CHIP BBQ Dec 31, 2026
2013 → 2026, no gaps
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
BLUE CHIP BBQ Oct 17, 2014
the 2014 season · 2 titles
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
BLUE CHIP BBQ Jul 24, 2026
from 59 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS Oct 15, 2021
29 from 35 contests
Consistency, stated as a percentage. Turn up, and this is how often you were still standing at the end.
WeQ4U at Bands & BBQ at the Point Sep 11, 2026
2013 → 2026 · won it 1×
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.
Grillin and Chillin BBQ Sep 27, 2013
won with 697.0856
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Bands & BBQ at the Point Sep 11, 2026
2013 → 2026 · about 32 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Jim Beam BBQ Classic Oct 4, 2019
7 editions · biggest 45
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Bands & BBQ at the Point Sep 11, 2026
from 12 editions with a champion on file
The contests nobody owns. Turn up here and last year counts for nothing.
Big Buffalo Crossing BBQ Cook-off Oct 20, 2017
in a field of 36 · won with 689.6916
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Out of 720 points, this many teams finished inside ONE of the leader. Any of them could have won it with a better garnish.
Big Buffalo Crossing BBQ Cook-Off Oct 18, 2019
31 teams cooking for it
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Oct 4, 2013 Oct 4, 2013
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 6 — nobody has beaten it.
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2013 season Oct 18, 2013
across 1 states and provinces
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.
Kent Schuetz Sep 11, 2026
2019 → 2026
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Kent Schuetz Oct 4, 2019
the 2019 season
Held jointly by 6 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Kent Schuetz Sep 11, 2026
at 9 contests
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
How many separate teams have taken a Grand Championship at a contest this rep was running.
| Team | GCs this season |
|---|---|
| Shiggin aint easy | 1 |
| PUDDLEDUCK BBQ | 1 |
| DANG GOOD BBQ | 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 | 2,304 | 163.90 | 177.09 | 20 | 8.7 |
| Pork Ribs | 2,278 | 165.06 | 176.73 | 9 | 4 |
| Pork | 2,279 | 165.90 | 177.80 | 25 | 11 |
| Chicken | 2,285 | 166.50 | 177.64 | 26 | 11.4 |
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.