These are the Master-series boards. The Backyard series keeps its own record board, scored out of 360.
33 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 9 scored contests and 1,621 result rows. Beat one and you appear here the next morning.
Showing the NL record book — every record below counts only contests held in NL. 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.
IQ - NETHERLANDSat Farm Meat 10 Sep 2016
27-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
IQ - NETHERLANDSat 4th Annual BBQ Society Cook-off 8 Oct 2016
won the category with 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.
IQ - NETHERLANDSat 4th Annual BBQ Society Cook-off 8 Oct 2016
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.
Smokey Banditsat 4th Annual BBQ Society Cook-off 8 Oct 2016
won the category with 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.
DE VLIEGENDE HOLLANDER BBQ-TEAMat Vuur en Vlees (Fire and Meat) 4 Jun 2016
won the category with it
Held jointly by 2 — 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.
DE VLIEGENDE HOLLANDER BBQ-TEAMat Vuur en Vlees (Fire and Meat) 4 Jun 2016
finished 2nd, behind BBQ LONGHORN RANCH HANDS
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
BUNCH OF SWINESat Baseball & BBQ Cookoff II 23 Apr 2016
and still beat 33 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.
Tony Stone Low & Slow BBQ Competition 14 May 2016
65 teams · won with 686.2056
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Delft BBQ Fest 2016 18 Jun 2016
18 teams · top score 687.3712
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Meat the East 19 Mar 2016
33 teams · even the win only took 680.0344
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
IQ - NETHERLANDSat Farm Meat 10 Sep 2016
over BUNCH OF SWINES
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
IQ - NETHERLANDSat Meat the East 19 Mar 2016
over MISS PIGGY'S U.K.
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
IQ - NETHERLANDS 8 Oct 2016
from 7 contests · first in 2016
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
MISS PIGGY'S U.K. 8 Oct 2016
from 3 contests · 1 title
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
DE FILOUS 18 Jun 2016
across 7 contests, still waiting
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
IQ - NETHERLANDS 8 Oct 2016
the 2016 season
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
IQ - NETHERLANDS 8 Oct 2016
3 titles in all
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
FLAMING PIG BBQ (SE)at Tony Stone Low & Slow BBQ Competition 14 May 2016
won it with 686.2056
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
DE VLIEGENDE HOLLANDER BBQ-TEAMat Regahfest 2016 27 Aug 2016
the title finally came in 2016
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
IQ - NETHERLANDS 8 Oct 2016
2016 → 2016 · 3 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
The four meats: who wins them, and who has been handed a flawless card.
IQ - NETHERLANDS 8 Oct 2016
across 3 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.
IQ - NETHERLANDS 8 Oct 2016
the 2016 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
DE VLIEGENDE HOLLANDER BBQ-TEAMat Vuur en Vlees (Fire and Meat) 4 Jun 2016
Brisket · 4 Jun 2016
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
4th Annual BBQ Society Cook-off 8 Oct 2016
shared by 3 teams in a field of 46
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.
BUNCH OF SWINES 8 Oct 2016
2016 → 2016
Held jointly by 9 — nobody has beaten it.
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
PUREBBQ 8 Oct 2016
7 contests, 2015 → 2016
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
IQ - NETHERLANDS 8 Oct 2016
the 2016 season · 3 titles
Held jointly by 5 — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
BUNCH OF SWINES 8 Oct 2016
from 7 contests
Held jointly by 4 — 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.
BBQ LONGHORN RANCH HANDSat Vuur En Vlees 4 Jun 2016
2016 → 2016 · 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.
Tony Stone Low & Slow BBQ Competition 14 May 2016
won with 686.2056
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Certified Bbq Judging Class 17 May 2013
2013 → 2013
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
6 Jun 2015 6 Jun 2015
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 9 — nobody has beaten it.
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2016 season 8 Oct 2016
across 1 states and provinces
The high-water mark for the sport itself — the year the calendar was fullest.
| Team | Category | Contest |
|---|---|---|
| BUNCH OF SWINES | Brisket | 4th Annual BBQ Society Cook-off 2016-10-08 |
| IQ - NETHERLANDS | Chicken | 4th Annual BBQ Society Cook-off 2016-10-08 |
| Smokey Bandits | Pork | 4th Annual BBQ Society Cook-off 2016-10-08 |
| DE VLIEGENDE HOLLANDER BBQ-TEAM | Brisket | Vuur en Vlees (Fire and Meat) 2016-06-04 |
| Year | Series | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 ↗ | Backyard | DAWGS BBQ 🏆 | 1356 |
| 2026 ↗ | Master | B'S QUE 🏆 | 2607 |
| 2025 ↗ | Backyard | Electro-Que-ted 🏆 | 1414 |
| 2025 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2826 |
| 2024 ↗ | Backyard | WEEZ'S GROOVIN' BBQ 🏆 | 1404 |
| 2024 ↗ | Master | CHUNKY BBQ 🏆 | 2734 |
| 2023 ↗ | Master | JANKY LEG BBQ 🏆 | 2773 |
| 2022 ↗ | Master | Uncle Pig's Barbeque Pit 🏆 | 2761 |
| 2021 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2804 |
| 2020 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2670 |
| 2019 ↗ | Master | B-S BBQ OUTLAWS 🏆 | 2774 |
| 2018 ↗ | Master | GETTIN' BASTED 🏆 | 2840 |
| 2017 ↗ | Master | CLARK CREW BBQ 🏆 | 2850 |
| 2016 ↗ | Master | PORKY BUTTS BBQ 🏆 | 2846 |
| 2015 ↗ | Master | CLARK CREW BBQ 🏆 | 2843 |
| 2014 ↗ | Master | WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS 🏆 | 2936 |
| 2013 ↗ | Master | WARREN COUNTY PORK CHOPPERS 🏆 | 2940 |
| 2013 ↗ | Master | TRUEBUD BBQ 🏆 | 2940 |
| Category | Entries | Avg score | Avg winning score | Perfect 180s | 180s per 1,000 entries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brisket toughest room | 293 | 160.03 | 176.44 | 2 | 6.8 |
| Pork Ribs | 294 | 162.52 | 174.53 | 0 | 0 |
| Pork | 294 | 163.14 | 177.79 | 1 | 3.4 |
| Chicken | 294 | 164.62 | 177.01 | 1 | 3.4 |
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.