36 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 9 scored contests and 918 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 SK record book — every record below counts only contests held in SK. 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.
ARROWHEAD NORTH BBQ at These Were the Days BBQ Showdown Aug 8, 2015
15-team field · won the contest
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Smoke 'N the Valley Sep 23, 2023
won the category with it
Held jointly by 2 — 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.
Q Cartel at Smoke 'N the Valley Sep 21, 2024
won the category with it
Held jointly by 2 — 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.
GETTIN' SAUCED BBQ CANADA at These Were the Days BBQ Showdown Aug 8, 2015
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.
Q Cartel at Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 21, 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.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ at Smoke 'N the Valley Sep 23, 2023
finished 2nd, behind 333 BBQ
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
SMELLAQUE at Those Were The Days BBQ Showdown Aug 12, 2017
and still beat 17 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.
Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 21, 2025
27 teams · won with 697.7144
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
These Were the Days BBQ Showdown Aug 8, 2015
15 teams · top score 702.2972
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Bare Bones BBQ Cookoff Jun 8, 2019
19 teams · even the win only took 673.0744
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
SMELLAQUE at Those Were The Days BBQ Showdown Aug 12, 2017
over YOU NEED A BBQ
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
Brisket Butts at Smoke 'N the Valley Sep 21, 2024
over SMOKIN' OUTLAWS
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
Eggspert BBQ Minnesota Jun 8, 2019
from 1 contests · first in 2019
Held jointly by 9 — nobody has beaten it.
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Sep 23, 2023
from 3 contests · 0 titles
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Sep 23, 2023
across 3 contests, still waiting
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
Kreiser Barbecue at Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 21, 2025
won it with 697.7144
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
BIGG SMOAK BBQ at Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 19, 2026
the title finally came in 2026
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
The four meats: who wins them, and who has been handed a flawless card.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Sep 23, 2023
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.
PRAIRIE SMOKE & SPICE BBQ Sep 23, 2023
the 2023 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
Q Cartel Jun 21, 2025
in 2 different meats · first in 2024
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
Q Cartel at Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 21, 2025
first in 2024 · 5 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.
GETTIN' SAUCED BBQ CANADA at These Were the Days BBQ Showdown Aug 8, 2015
Pork · Aug 8, 2015
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 19, 2026
shared by 2 teams in a field of 24
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.
ARROWHEAD NORTH BBQ Jun 21, 2025
2015 → 2025
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
ARROWHEAD NORTH BBQ Jun 21, 2025
7 contests, 2015 → 2025
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
BURNT TREES BBQ Dec 31, 2026
2022 → 2026, no gaps
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
An unbroken run. Every single year, the rig came back out of the shed.
333BBQ Sep 23, 2023
the 2023 season · 1 title
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
ARROWHEAD NORTH BBQ Jun 21, 2025
from 7 contests
The measure of a team that is always in it — not always winning, but always there at the end of the day.
Kreiser Barbecue at Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 19, 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.
Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 21, 2025
won with 697.7144
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 19, 2026
2025 → 2026 · about 26 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Aug 8, 2015 Aug 8, 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 2015 season Aug 8, 2015
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 4 — 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.
Brenda Black Jun 21, 2025
2019 → 2025
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The people who make a contest a contest — table captains, score checkers, keepers of the rulebook.
Brenda Black Sep 21, 2024
the 2024 season
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
Thirty contests in a year means most of a summer spent beside a scoring table.
Brenda Black Jun 21, 2025
at 6 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 |
|---|---|
| BIGG SMOAK BBQ | 1 |
| Team | Category | Contest |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado Bulldawg BBQ | Pork | Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 19, 2026 |
| BIGG SMOAK BBQ | Pork Ribs | Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 19, 2026 |
| Q Cartel | Brisket | Smokey Skies BBQ Competition Jun 21, 2025 |
| Q Cartel | Pork Ribs | Smoke 'N the Valley Sep 21, 2024 |
| Slam Dunk BBQ | Pork | Smoke 'N the Valley Sep 23, 2023 |
| GETTIN' SAUCED BBQ CANADA | Pork | These Were the Days BBQ Showdown Aug 8, 2015 |
| 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 | 183 | 161.88 | 176.12 | 1 | 5.5 |
| Pork Ribs | 184 | 164.44 | 177.67 | 2 | 10.9 |
| Pork | 164 | 165.18 | 178.36 | 3 | 18.3 |
| Chicken | 184 | 165.79 | 174.86 | 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.