53 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 58 scored contests and 12,968 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 MD record book — every record below counts only contests held in MD. 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.
WOLF'S REVENGE BBQ at The Beltway BBQ Showdown Jun 1, 2024
19-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Leaning Jowler BBQ at MD State BBQ Bash Oct 10, 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.
LO' -N- SLO' BBQ at Naptown barBAYq Contest & Music Festival May 2, 2014
won the category with it
Held jointly by 9 — 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.
Brown Liquor BBQ at 14th Annual Maryland State BBQ Bash Aug 14, 2015
won the category with it
Held jointly by 5 — 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.
JACKED UP BBQ at 12th Annual Maryland State BBQ Bash Aug 9, 2013
won the category with it
Held jointly by 7 — 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.
PAVONE BROTHERS BBQ at Naptown barBAYq Contest and Music Festival May 6, 2016
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.
SMOKIN SKULLIES at The Beltway BBQ Showdown Jun 1, 2024
finished 2nd, behind WOLF'S REVENGE BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
CHIX, SWINE & BOVINE BBQ at Pork In The Park BBQ Festival May 9, 2014
and still beat 42 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.
Interstate BBQ Festival - Day 2 Apr 17, 2021
34 teams · won with 701.6688
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Dirty Boots BBQ and Meat Contest - Day 2 Aug 28, 2021
20 teams · top score 697.1204
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Beltway BBQ Showdown May 29, 2015
39 teams · even the win only took 674.7768
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE Oct 14, 2022
31 contests · best 695.9428
Anyone can catch one good day. This is the highest anybody has averaged across a real career.
3 EYZ BBQ at Naptown barBAYq Contest and Music Festival May 1, 2015
over CHIX, SWINE & BOVINE BBQ
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
JACKED UP BBQ at Naptown barBAYq Contest & Music Festival May 3, 2013
over 3 EYZ BBQ
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
3 EYZ BBQ Aug 5, 2016
from 35 contests · first in 2013
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
3 EYZ BBQ Aug 17, 2018
from 35 contests · 5 titles
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
CHECKERED FLAG 500 BBQ Aug 10, 2018
across 29 contests, still waiting
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
3 EYZ BBQ Jun 1, 2024
5 titles from 35 contests
Winning often matters more than winning a lot. This is how often a team turns up and takes the whole thing.
Top Gun Barbecue Aug 27, 2021
the 2021 season
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
3 EYZ BBQ Aug 5, 2016
5 titles in all
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE at The Great Brunswick BBQ Throwdown Mar 2, 2018
won 2017–2018
The contest a team has made their own — turning up every year and taking it home again.
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE at The Great Brunswick BBQ Throwdown Mar 2, 2018
2017–2018, straight
Defending a title once is an achievement. Nobody on this board gave one up willingly.
4:20 Q at Pork in the Park Barbeque Festival Apr 19, 2013
won it with 676.5712
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
PAVONE BROTHERS BBQ at Naptown barBAYq Cooking Contest May 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.
WOLF'S REVENGE BBQ Jun 1, 2024
2017 → 2024 · 4 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
Leaning Jowler BBQ Oct 10, 2025
in 1 state
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
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.
3 EYZ BBQ Aug 17, 2018
across all four meats
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
Top Gun Barbecue Aug 27, 2021
the 2021 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
3 EYZ BBQ May 6, 2016
in 1 different meat · first in 2014
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.
WOLF'S REVENGE BBQ at The Beltway BBQ Showdown Jun 1, 2024
Brisket, Pork
One perfect card is a story worth retelling. Two before the awards ceremony is a record.
WOLF'S REVENGE BBQ Jun 1, 2024
the 2024 season
A whole year of turning in boxes nobody at the table could mark down.
PAVONE BROTHERS BBQ at Naptown barBAYq Cooking Contest May 5, 2018
first in 2016 · 29 contests to complete the set
Held jointly by 3 — 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.
JACKED UP BBQ at 12th Annual Maryland State BBQ Bash Aug 9, 2013
Pork · Aug 9, 2013
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
MD State BBQ Bash Oct 10, 2025
shared by 3 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.
3 EYZ BBQ Jun 1, 2024
2013 → 2024
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
FAT MAXINE'S BBQ Oct 10, 2025
2013 → 2025 · 16 contests
Rigs wear out and cooks retire. These teams were still turning in boxes more than a decade after their first one.
Team Meat Coma Oct 10, 2025
26 contests, 2013 → 2025
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
3 EYZ BBQ Dec 31, 2019
2013 → 2019, no gaps
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE Aug 11, 2017
the 2017 season · 1 title
Held jointly by 5 — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
3 EYZ BBQ Jun 1, 2024
from 35 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.
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE Oct 14, 2022
29 from 31 contests
Consistency, stated as a percentage. Turn up, and this is how often you were still standing at the end.
Team Meat Coma at Maryland State BBQ Bash Oct 13, 2023
2017 → 2023
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.
Pork in the Park Barbeque Festival Apr 19, 2013
won with 676.5712
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Maryland State BBQ Bash Oct 13, 2023
2017 → 2023 · about 32 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Interstate BBQ Festival Apr 19, 2019
3 editions · biggest 67
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Maryland State BBQ Bash Oct 13, 2023
from 6 editions with a champion on file
The contests nobody owns. Turn up here and last year counts for nothing.
Interstate BBQ Festival Apr 19, 2019
in a field of 54 · won with 689.0856
Out of 720 points, this many teams finished inside ONE of the leader. Any of them could have won it with a better garnish.
The Beltway BBQ Showdown Jun 1, 2024
19 teams cooking for it
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
May 29, 2015 May 29, 2015
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2013 season Oct 11, 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.
Bill Jones Oct 16, 2026
2019 → 2026
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Robert McKee Oct 15, 2021
the 2021 season
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Robert McKee Oct 10, 2025
at 12 contests
How many separate teams have taken a Grand Championship at a contest this rep was running.
| 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 | 2,150 | 157.92 | 176.29 | 5 | 2.3 |
| Pork Ribs | 2,492 | 159.07 | 175.46 | 5 | 2 |
| Pork | 2,151 | 160.06 | 175.92 | 8 | 3.7 |
| Chicken | 2,493 | 161.82 | 176.85 | 12 | 4.8 |
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.