52 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 45 scored contests and 5,863 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 MA record book — every record below counts only contests held in MA. 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.
GETTIN' BASTED at Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 23, 2023
42-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
FIRE DOWN BELOW at Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown (DAY 2) CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES May 18, 2019
won the category with it
Held jointly by 7 — 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.
GETTIN' BASTED at Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 1) Sep 22, 2023
won the category with it
Held jointly by 2 — 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.
GOOD SMOKE BBQ at Bay State BBQ Championship Oct 14, 2017
won the category with it
Held jointly by 5 — 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.
Dr. Pearl's Medicinal Smoke BBQ Team at Bay State BBQ Championship Oct 14, 2017
won the category with it
Held jointly by 5 — 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.
Uncle Pig's Barbeque Pit at Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 23, 2023
finished 2nd, behind Gettin' Basted
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
STUBBORN BULL BBQ at The Polish Hungry for Que BBQ Bash May 10, 2014
and still beat 16 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.
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 23, 2023
42 teams · won with 713.1200
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 13, 2025
16 teams · top score 706.2860
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
The Lexington Battle-Green BBQ Festival May 18, 2013
30 teams · even the win only took 678.8574
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
FIRE AT THE END OF THE DAY Aug 8, 2026
22 contests · best 708.5600
Anyone can catch one good day. This is the highest anybody has averaged across a real career.
QUE AND A HALF MEN at Harvard Fall Festival BBQ Contest Sep 14, 2013
over CAN U SMELL MY PITS BBQ
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
Brookside BBQ at Mass in May (Day 2) May 16, 2026
over FIRE AT THE END OF THE DAY
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
from 31 contests · first in 2014
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Sep 13, 2025
from 31 contests · 6 titles
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
HOG WASH BBQ May 16, 2025
across 14 contests, still waiting
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
6 titles from 31 contests
Winning often matters more than winning a lot. This is how often a team turns up and takes the whole thing.
FIRE AT THE END OF THE DAY Sep 12, 2025
the 2025 season
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
6 titles in all
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
GETTIN' BASTED at Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 20, 2024
won 2023–2024
The contest a team has made their own — turning up every year and taking it home again.
GETTIN' BASTED at Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 20, 2024
2023–2024, straight
Defending a title once is an achievement. Nobody on this board gave one up willingly.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA at Harvard Fall Festival BBQ Contest Sep 13, 2014
won it with 686.2744
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
FIRE AT THE END OF THE DAY at Massachusetts in May (Day 1) May 16, 2025
the title finally came in 2025
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
2014 → 2026 · 6 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
FIRE AT THE END OF THE DAY Sep 12, 2025
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.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
across all four meats
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
FIRE AT THE END OF THE DAY Sep 13, 2025
the 2025 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
GETTIN' BASTED Sep 20, 2024
in 3 different meats · first in 2023
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
GETTIN' BASTED at Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 1) Sep 20, 2024
Chicken, Pork Ribs
One perfect card is a story worth retelling. Two before the awards ceremony is a record.
GETTIN' BASTED Sep 23, 2023
the 2023 season
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
A whole year of turning in boxes nobody at the table could mark down.
GETTIN' BASTED at Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 1) Sep 20, 2024
first in 2023 · 27 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.
GOOD SMOKE BBQ at Bay State BBQ Championship Oct 14, 2017
Pork · Oct 14, 2017
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 23, 2023
shared by 3 teams in a field of 42
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
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.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
2013 → 2026
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
2013 → 2026 · 36 contests
Rigs wear out and cooks retire. These teams were still turning in boxes more than a decade after their first one.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
36 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.
CIDER BOYS BBQ Dec 31, 2019
2013 → 2019, no gaps
Held jointly by 6 — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
ELJEFE SMOKE Oct 26, 2024
the 2024 season · 1 title
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
from 31 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Aug 8, 2026
28 from 31 contests
Consistency, stated as a percentage. Turn up, and this is how often you were still standing at the end.
FIRE AT THE END OF THE DAY at Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 13, 2025
2022 → 2025 · won it 1×
Held jointly by 3 — 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.
Harvard Fall Festival BBQ Contest Sep 13, 2014
won with 686.2744
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 13, 2025
2022 → 2025 · about 20 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Harvard Fall Festival BBQ Contest Sep 12, 2015
3 editions · biggest 43
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 13, 2025
from 12 editions with a champion on file
The contests nobody owns. Turn up here and last year counts for nothing.
Mass in May (Day 2) May 16, 2026
in a field of 31 · won with 698.2628
Out of 720 points, this many teams finished inside ONE of the leader. Any of them could have won it with a better garnish.
Nor'Easter BBQ Showdown - CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES (Day 2) Sep 23, 2023
42 teams cooking for it
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Sep 21, 2024 Sep 21, 2024
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2024 season Oct 26, 2024
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.
Bill Wright Aug 8, 2026
2021 → 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.
Bill Wright Sep 13, 2025
the 2025 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Bill Wright Aug 8, 2026
at 17 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 |
|---|---|
| SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA | 1 |
| Brookside 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 | 990 | 161.63 | 176.56 | 5 | 5.1 |
| Pork Ribs | 1,072 | 164.27 | 176.45 | 3 | 2.8 |
| Pork | 990 | 164.49 | 177.13 | 7 | 7.1 |
| Chicken | 1,054 | 165.31 | 177.59 | 7 | 6.6 |
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.