35 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 9 scored contests and 1,549 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 RI record book — every record below counts only contests held in RI. 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.
INSANE SWINE BBQ at HOGS 4 HEROES May 6, 2023
50-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Q HAVEN BBQ at Wakefield Rotary Campus Cook Off & State BBQ Championships Jul 18, 2014
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.
Chicken Chokers at Wakefield Rotary Campus Cook Off & State BBQ Championships Jul 18, 2014
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.
Smokin Aces at Wakefield Rotary Campus Cook Off & State BBQ Championships Jul 18, 2014
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.
MEAT @ SLIMS at Wakefield Rotary Campus Cook Off & State BBQ Championships Jul 18, 2014
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.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA at HOGS 4 HEROES May 6, 2023
finished 2nd, behind Insane Swine BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
INSANE SWINE BBQ at Ocean Sate BBQ Championship-CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES Oct 20, 2018
and still beat 36 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.
HOGS 4 HEROES May 6, 2023
50 teams · won with 694.8344
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
Wakefield Rotary Campus Cook Off Jul 17, 2015
37 teams · top score 689.8060
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Ocean Sate BBQ Championship-CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES Oct 20, 2018
37 teams · even the win only took 676.5828
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
CAN U SMELL MY PITS BBQ at Wakefield Rotary Campus CookOff & State BBQ Championships Jul 20, 2013
over Jacked Up
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
CAN U SMELL MY PITS BBQ at Rotary Club of Wakefield Rhode Island Jul 22, 2016
over INSANE SWINE BBQ
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
CAN U SMELL MY PITS BBQ Jul 22, 2016
from 4 contests · first in 2013
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.
INSANE SWINE BBQ Jul 22, 2016
from 7 contests · 2 titles
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
INSANE SWINE BBQ May 6, 2023
2 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.
INSANE SWINE BBQ at HOGS 4 HEROES May 6, 2023
won it with 694.8344
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
Rogue Hog BBQ at Ocean Sate BBQ Championship-CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES Sep 28, 2019
the title finally came in 2019
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
INSANE SWINE BBQ May 6, 2023
2018 → 2023 · 2 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
Rogue Hog BBQ Sep 28, 2019
in 1 state
Held jointly by 2 — 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.
INSANE SWINE BBQ May 6, 2023
across 3 of the four meats
Every category win is a walk to the stage. This is the longest walk in the sport.
ACK-QUE Oct 20, 2018
the 2018 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.
Longevity — the teams who keep turning up, and keep turning it in.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA May 6, 2023
2013 → 2023
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA May 6, 2023
8 contests, 2013 → 2023
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA Dec 31, 2019
2013 → 2019, no gaps
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
BEVERAGE BROTHERS Sep 6, 2014
the 2014 season · 1 title
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
SMOKIN HOGGZ BBQ - MA May 6, 2023
from 8 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
CAN U SMELL MY PITS BBQ at Wakefield Rotary Campus CookOff & State BBQ Championships Jul 20, 2013
2013 → 2013 · 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.
HOGS 4 HEROES May 6, 2023
won with 694.8344
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Wakefield Rotary Campus CookOff & State BBQ Championships Jul 20, 2013
2013 → 2013 · about 46 teams a year
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.
Ocean Sate BBQ Championship-CAMPGROUND BBQ SERIES Sep 28, 2019
36 teams cooking for it
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Jul 20, 2013 Jul 20, 2013
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 2014 season Sep 6, 2014
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.
Bill Jones May 6, 2023
2023 → 2023
Held jointly by 8 — nobody has beaten it.
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Don Lovely Sep 28, 2019
the 2019 season
Held jointly by 8 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Don Lovely Sep 28, 2019
at 1 contests
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
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 | 301 | 160.07 | 175.62 | 0 | 0 |
| Pork | 304 | 160.74 | 175.19 | 0 | 0 |
| Pork Ribs | 304 | 161.06 | 176.71 | 0 | 0 |
| Chicken | 302 | 162.85 | 175.82 | 0 | 0 |
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.