40 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 23 scored contests and 2,498 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 ON record book — every record below counts only contests held in ON. 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.
Rub Sweat and Beers at Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
22-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Raised In Smoke at Camper's Corner BBQ Cookoff Aug 1, 2026
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.
Rub Sweat and Beers at Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
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.
Rub Sweat and Beers at Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
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.
PARROTHEAD SMOKERS at Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
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.
Shiggin aint easy at Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
won the category with 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.
BrewsCue at Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
finished 2nd, behind Rub Sweat and Beers
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
SMOKIN BOYS AND HOT GRILLS at Fatboys Canadian Capital Classic BBQ Competition Aug 8, 2015
and still beat 21 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.
Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
22 teams · won with 704.5828
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
22 teams · top score 704.5828
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Fatboys Canadian Capital Classic BBQ Competition Aug 8, 2015
22 teams · even the win only took 642.3320
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
PARROTHEAD SMOKERS at Jack 9 Memorial May 25, 2024
over Shiggin aint easy
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
FATTY MAC BARBECUE at Drayton Kinsmen Smoke and Sounds Festval Jul 10, 2015
over Q'N CANUCKS
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.
SHORTSVILLE SMOKERS Aug 23, 2019
from 6 contests · first in 2016
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ Aug 1, 2026
from 16 contests · 3 titles
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
SMELLAQUE May 25, 2019
across 5 contests, still waiting
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
IOWA'S SMOKEY D'S BBQ Jun 24, 2017
the 2017 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ May 23, 2026
3 titles in all
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
The Pig's Pajamas at Capital BBQ Festival May 25, 2019
won it with 674.8800
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ at Jack 9 Memorial Sep 11, 2021
the title finally came in 2021
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ May 23, 2026
2021 → 2026 · 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.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ Jun 19, 2026
across 3 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.
IOWA'S SMOKEY D'S BBQ Jun 24, 2017
the 2017 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
Rub Sweat and Beers at Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
Chicken · Aug 23, 2025
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025
shared by 3 teams in a field of 22
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.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ Aug 1, 2026
2016 → 2026
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ Aug 1, 2026
2016 → 2026 · 17 contests
Rigs wear out and cooks retire. These teams were still turning in boxes more than a decade after their first one.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ Aug 1, 2026
17 contests, 2016 → 2026
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
TRANQUIL CARNIVORES Dec 31, 2019
2015 → 2019, no gaps
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ Aug 1, 2026
the 2026 season · 1 title
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ Aug 1, 2026
from 16 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
MEAN MOE'S BBQ at JACK9 Memorial BBQ Competition May 23, 2026
2025 → 2026 · 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.
Capital BBQ Festival May 25, 2019
won with 674.8800
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Certified BBQ Judging Class Aug 4, 2017
2015 → 2017
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Summer Daze BBQ Classic Aug 23, 2019
23 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 9, 2026 May 9, 2026
across 1 states and provinces
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2017 season Aug 5, 2017
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
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 1, 2026
2019 → 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 Aug 1, 2026
the 2026 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 1, 2026
at 13 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 |
|---|---|
| GOOD GOOGLY GOO BBQ | 2 |
| Raised In Smoke | 1 |
| SMOKIN' OUTLAWS | 1 |
| MEAN MOE'S BBQ | 1 |
| Team | Category | Contest |
|---|---|---|
| Shiggin aint easy | Brisket | Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025 |
| Rub Sweat and Beers | Chicken | Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 2025 |
| PARROTHEAD SMOKERS | Pork | Rock N Hogs BBQ Battle Aug 23, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brisket toughest room | 460 | 159.62 | 174.62 | 1 | 2.2 |
| Pork Ribs | 479 | 161.28 | 174.65 | 0 | 0 |
| Pork | 462 | 162.26 | 175.46 | 1 | 2.2 |
| Chicken | 468 | 163.29 | 175.61 | 1 | 2.1 |
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.