39 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 4 scored contests and 264 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 NS record book — every record below counts only contests held in NS. 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.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
15-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025
won the category with it
Held jointly by 3 — 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.
CycloneBBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025
won the category with it
Held jointly by 3 — 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.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
won the category with it
Held jointly by 3 — 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.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025
won the category with it
Held jointly by 3 — 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.
Cook the books at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
finished 2nd, behind Prairie Smoke & Spice BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025
and still beat 11 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.
Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
15 teams · won with 717.7144
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
15 teams · top score 717.7144
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
15 teams · even the win only took 717.7144
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
GOOD GOOGLY GOO BBQ at The Great Atlantic BBQ Competition Jul 19, 2025
over Cook the books
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
Cook the books at Smoke on the Bay BBQ Cookoff Aug 22, 2026
over Ye Olde Smokers
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Jun 6, 2026
from 2 contests · first in 2025
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
Cook the books Jun 6, 2026
from 4 contests · 1 title
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
won 2025–2026
The contest a team has made their own — turning up every year and taking it home again.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
won it with 717.7144
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
Cook the books at Smoke on the Bay BBQ Cookoff Aug 22, 2026
the title finally came in 2026
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Jun 6, 2026
2025 → 2026 · 2 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.
Cook the books Aug 22, 2026
across 2 of the four meats
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
GOOD GOOGLY GOO BBQ Jul 19, 2025
the 2025 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Jun 6, 2026
in 3 different meats · first in 2025
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025
Brisket, Chicken
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
One perfect card is a story worth retelling. Two before the awards ceremony is a record.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Jun 8, 2025
the 2025 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
A whole year of turning in boxes nobody at the table could mark down.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
first in 2025 · 7 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.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025
Chicken · Jun 8, 2025
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
shared by 4 teams in a field of 15
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.
Cook the books Aug 22, 2026
2025 → 2026
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
Cook the books Aug 22, 2026
4 contests, 2025 → 2026
Held jointly by 7 — nobody has beaten it.
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
Cook the books Aug 22, 2026
the 2026 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.
Cook the books Aug 22, 2026
from 4 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
2025 → 2026 · won it 2×
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.
Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
won with 717.7144
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026
2025 → 2026 · about 14 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025
12 teams cooking for it
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Jun 8, 2025 Jun 8, 2025
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2025 season Jul 19, 2025
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.
Craig Maidens Aug 22, 2026
2023 → 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.
Craig Maidens Jul 19, 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.
Craig Maidens Aug 22, 2026
at 4 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 |
|---|---|
| PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ | 1 |
| Cook the books | 1 |
| Team | Category | Contest |
|---|---|---|
| Cook the books | Brisket | Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026 |
| Cook the books | Chicken | Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026 |
| PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ | Chicken | Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026 |
| PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ | Pork | Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026 |
| MOTLEY QUE | Pork | Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026 |
| Back 40 Smoke Co | Pork | Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 6, 2026 |
| Rub Sweat and Beers | Brisket | The Great Atlantic BBQ Competition Jul 19, 2025 |
| PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ | Brisket | Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025 |
| PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ | Chicken | Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025 |
| SMELLAQUE | Chicken | Throttled Up BBQ Throwdown Jun 8, 2025 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pork Ribs toughest room | 48 | 166.93 | 176.99 | 0 | 0 |
| Brisket | 48 | 167.18 | 177.57 | 3 | 62.5 |
| Pork | 48 | 168.50 | 178.57 | 3 | 62.5 |
| Chicken | 48 | 170.18 | 178.43 | 4 | 83.3 |
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.