53 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 177 scored contests and 32,035 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 OK record book — every record below counts only contests held in OK. 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.
Smoked & Furious at 2nd Annual Alva Police Department Cars, Concerts and BBQ Contest May 5, 2023
15-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Breaking Slabs BBQ at Smokin on the Route Jul 26, 2024
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.
WILDCATTERS Q CREW at Bixby BBQ & Blues Festival May 3, 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.
N S P BBQ at Bixby BBQ & Blues Festival May 3, 2013
won the category with it
Held jointly by 10 or more — 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.
BUFFALO'S BBQ at Grand Lake BBQ Festival May 17, 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.
THE AMERICAN DREAM BBQ at Grand Lake BBQ Festival May 17, 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.
MUNNY'S STOVE at Sugar Creek Casino's Sweet & Smoky BBQ Competition Aug 16, 2024
finished 2nd, behind Fire Dancer BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
RUBBING BUTTS BBQ KS at Stillwater Elks 25th Annual Blazathon Apr 5, 2013
and still beat 51 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.
3rd Annual KCBS World Invitational - Master Invitational Nov 13, 2021
92 teams · won with 706.8228
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
2nd Annual Alva Police Department Cars, Concerts and BBQ Contest May 5, 2023
15 teams · top score 713.1428
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Hog Wild BBQ & Chrome Fest Jun 14, 2013
32 teams · even the win only took 705.1432
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
RAZORRACKS Sep 12, 2025
23 contests · best 711.4288
Anyone can catch one good day. This is the highest anybody has averaged across a real career.
THE AMERICAN DREAM BBQ at Mocklahoma Ribs & Roll BBQ Championship-Day 1 Jun 9, 2017
over OLD 99 MEAT CO.
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
WOOD HOOK BBQ at Beats, Brews, & BBQ Apr 1, 2022
over DOUBLE BARREL BBQ - OK
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Plus 1 championship where the top two finished dead level on points and the KCBS tiebreaker decided it — counted here rather than listed, because a board of identical 0.0000 margins says nothing about who nearly won what.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
CLARK CREW BBQ Apr 22, 2022
from 65 contests · first in 2014
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
BUTCHER BBQ Jul 28, 2023
from 115 contests · 13 titles
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
INDIAN TERRITORY SMOKE Mar 27, 2015
across 46 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.
CLARK CREW BBQ Sep 15, 2023
22 titles from 65 contests
Winning often matters more than winning a lot. This is how often a team turns up and takes the whole thing.
CLARK CREW BBQ Oct 24, 2014
the 2014 season
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
CLARK CREW BBQ Apr 22, 2022
22 titles in all
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
CAVEMAN CUISINE at Hog Wild BBQ & Chrome Fest Jun 26, 2015
won 2014–2015
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
The contest a team has made their own — turning up every year and taking it home again.
CAVEMAN CUISINE at Hog Wild BBQ & Chrome Fest Jun 26, 2015
2014–2015, straight
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
Defending a title once is an achievement. Nobody on this board gave one up willingly.
Heavy Smoke BBQ at 3rd Annual KCBS World Invitational - Open Nov 11, 2021
won it with 705.1428
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
BIG BUTTS NEED RUBBIN TOO at CASA's Grab, Root and Growl BBQ Aug 12, 2016
the title finally came in 2016
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
FIRE DANCER BBQ Aug 16, 2024
2015 → 2024 · 2 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
RAZORRACKS 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.
CLARK CREW BBQ Sep 15, 2023
across all four meats
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
CLARK CREW BBQ Oct 24, 2014
the 2014 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
CLARK CREW BBQ Sep 15, 2023
in 4 different meats · first in 2014
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
CLARK CREW BBQ at Firelake BBQ Cook Off (Day 1) Mar 24, 2017
Pork, Pork Ribs
Held jointly by 9 — nobody has beaten it.
One perfect card is a story worth retelling. Two before the awards ceremony is a record.
CLARK CREW BBQ Oct 24, 2014
the 2014 season
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
A whole year of turning in boxes nobody at the table could mark down.
BUFFALO'S BBQ at Chillin & Grillin Apr 8, 2016
first in 2013 · 60 contests to complete the set
Held jointly by 4 — 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.
WILDCATTERS Q CREW at Bixby BBQ & Blues Festival May 3, 2013
Chicken · May 3, 2013
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Smokin on the Route Jul 26, 2024
shared by 12 teams in a field of 27
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.
BUTCHER BBQ Sep 18, 2026
2013 → 2026
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
BUFFALO'S BBQ Sep 18, 2026
2013 → 2026 · 107 contests
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
Rigs wear out and cooks retire. These teams were still turning in boxes more than a decade after their first one.
BUTCHER BBQ Sep 18, 2026
115 contests, 2013 → 2026
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
BUTCHER BBQ Dec 31, 2026
2013 → 2026, no gaps
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
Three Hog Night Smokers Oct 27, 2017
the 2017 season · 2 titles
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
BUFFALO'S BBQ Sep 18, 2026
from 107 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
CLARK CREW BBQ Sep 15, 2023
56 from 65 contests
Consistency, stated as a percentage. Turn up, and this is how often you were still standing at the end.
THE AMERICAN DREAM BBQ at Stillwater Elks Lodge Blazathon Apr 5, 2019
2014 → 2019 · won it 1×
Held jointly by 5 — 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.
3rd Annual KCBS World Invitational - Open Nov 11, 2021
won with 705.1428
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Cherokee Strip BBQ & Chili Cook-Off Sep 19, 2025
2021 → 2025 · about 20 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Firelake BBQ Cook Off-Day 1 Mar 19, 2021
3 editions · biggest 74
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Cherokee Strip BBQ & Chili Cook-Off Sep 19, 2025
from 9 editions with a champion on file
The contests nobody owns. Turn up here and last year counts for nothing.
Firelake BBQ Cook Off (Day 1) Mar 24, 2017
in a field of 87 · won with 704.0232
Held jointly by 3 — 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.
Third Annual KCBS World Invitational Barbeque Competition and Judging Nov 11, 2021
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
May 20, 2022 May 20, 2022
across 1 states and provinces
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2016 season Dec 2, 2016
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.
Ralph Williams Oct 17, 2025
2019 → 2025
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Karen Jane Williams Nov 13, 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.
Karen Jane Williams Oct 17, 2025
at 35 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 |
|---|---|
| BULL IN THE RING 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 | 5,851 | 162.87 | 178.12 | 61 | 10.4 |
| Pork Ribs | 6,265 | 164.28 | 177.46 | 25 | 4 |
| Pork | 5,688 | 165.46 | 178.47 | 79 | 13.9 |
| Chicken | 6,090 | 165.86 | 178.30 | 85 | 14 |
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.