48 all-time KCBS records — every one with a holder, a number, and the date it was set, read out of 21 scored contests and 2,518 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 WA record book — every record below counts only contests held in WA. 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.
Rusty's BBQ at 2nd Annual Hudson Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cook Off Aug 18, 2018
27-team field · won the contest
Four meats, six judges, one afternoon. The biggest total anybody has ever assembled.
Fire In My Belly at Pitboss Backyarder BBQ Series Round 2 (Backyard Only)
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.
Rusty's BBQ at 5th Annual Hudson's Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cookoff Aug 20, 2022
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.
DANCES WITH SMOKE BARBEQUE at 2nd Annual Hudson Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cook Off Aug 18, 2018
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.
Hoggin' Da Sauce BBQ Team at 4th Annual Hudson's Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cookoff Aug 21, 2021
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.
SLOW PORKIN at Hudson Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cook Off Aug 19, 2017
won the category with it
Held jointly by 5 — 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.
Small Axe BBQ at 5th Annual Hudson's Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cookoff Aug 20, 2022
finished 2nd, behind Rusty's BBQ
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
A day this good takes a Grand Championship almost anywhere. These are the ones that ran into somebody having a better one.
Wine Country Q at Washington State Spring BBQ Championship Apr 25, 2014
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.
8th Annual DuPont BBQ Competition Aug 16, 2025
30 teams · won with 701.0972
What it cost to walk. At these contests a total that wins most weekends was only good enough for tenth.
8th Annual DuPont BBQ Competition Aug 16, 2025
30 teams · top score 701.0972
Judging tables are not interchangeable. At these contests the whole field scored high — not just the winner.
Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Apr 12, 2013
29 teams · even the win only took 666.8574
The other end of the same measurement: the contests where hardly anybody got a good card all day.
Colorado Bulldawg BBQ at Smoke on the Sound Sep 25, 2026
over Alderfire BBQ
Not a contest so much as an exhibition — the runner-up in each of these was closer to tenth than to the winner.
MOVIN' THE CHAINS at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Apr 12, 2013
over PIGGY D'S BBQ
A whole weekend — four meats, twenty-four judging cards — decided by a rounding error.
Grand Championships, reserve finishes, dynasties and droughts.
Colorado Bulldawg BBQ Sep 25, 2026
from 2 contests · first in 2026
Held jointly by 5 — nobody has beaten it.
The headline record of the sport: how many times a team has walked away with the whole thing.
RJs Smokehouse Aug 24, 2024
from 8 contests · 0 titles
Held jointly by 5 — nobody has beaten it.
Second overall is the hardest place to finish. These teams have done it more than anybody.
RJs Smokehouse Aug 24, 2024
across 8 contests, still waiting
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
The cruellest record in the book. Every team here has stood on the stage second, and never once first.
Colorado Bulldawg BBQ Sep 25, 2026
the 2026 season
The best year anybody has ever had. Four in a season is a career year; these went past it.
Colorado Bulldawg BBQ Sep 25, 2026
2 titles in all
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
A dynasty at one contest is one kind of record. Winning at thirty different ones is another kind entirely.
MOVIN' THE CHAINS at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Apr 3, 2015
won 2013–2015
Held jointly by 2 — nobody has beaten it.
The contest a team has made their own — turning up every year and taking it home again.
BAD BONES BBQ at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Apr 4, 2014
won it with 676.5488
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
Every Grand Championship counts the same in the standings. Not every one means beating this many people.
Rob's Smokin and Grillin BBQ at 8th Annual DuPont BBQ Competition Aug 16, 2025
the title finally came in 2025
Proof it is worth going back. Every team here cooked for years before the call finally came.
Rusty's BBQ Aug 20, 2022
2018 → 2022 · 2 titles
Staying good is harder than getting good. These teams were winning contests more than a decade apart.
Colorado Bulldawg BBQ Sep 25, 2026
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.
SLOW PORKIN Aug 22, 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.
SLOW PORKIN Aug 19, 2017
the 2017 season
One team, one year, and a stack of first-place calls that would furnish most careers.
SLOW PORKIN Aug 20, 2022
in 1 different meat · first in 2017
Held jointly by 4 — nobody has beaten it.
A 180 means all six judges handed back a nine for appearance, taste and tenderness. These teams have collected them.
Rusty's BBQ at 5th Annual Hudson's Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cookoff Aug 20, 2022
Chicken, Pork
One perfect card is a story worth retelling. Two before the awards ceremony is a record.
Rusty's BBQ Aug 20, 2022
the 2022 season
A whole year of turning in boxes nobody at the table could mark down.
Rusty's BBQ at 5th Annual Hudson's Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cookoff Aug 20, 2022
first in 2022 · 1 contests to complete the set
Held jointly by 2 — 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.
SLOW PORKIN at Hudson Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cook Off Aug 19, 2017
Brisket · Aug 19, 2017
Where the 180 club starts. These are the oldest perfect cards anywhere in the data.
5th Annual Hudson's Bay Heritage Days BBQ Cookoff Aug 20, 2022
shared by 3 teams in a field of 29
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.
SLOW PORKIN Aug 22, 2026
2013 → 2026
Before anything else, competition barbecue is showing up. Nobody has shown up more often than this.
SLOW PORKIN Aug 22, 2026
2013 → 2026 · 16 contests
Held jointly by 3 — 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.
SLOW PORKIN Aug 22, 2026
16 contests, 2013 → 2026
Not just a long career — a busy one, season after season, with no quiet years in the middle.
FAHRENHEIT 250 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.
Colorado Bulldawg BBQ Sep 25, 2026
the 2026 season · 2 titles
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
A season spent almost entirely in a parking lot somewhere, next to a smoker.
SLOW PORKIN Aug 22, 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.
BAD BONES BBQ at Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 31, 2017
2013 → 2017 · 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.
Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Apr 4, 2014
won with 676.5488
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
The largest gathering of smokers the data has ever recorded in one place.
Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 31, 2017
2013 → 2017 · about 29 teams a year
The institutions. These contests have been feeding judges for as long as the data goes back.
Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 31, 2017
5 editions · biggest 30
One big year is a fluke. These contests pull a crowd every single time they run.
Sam's Club National BBQ Tour Mar 31, 2017
from 5 editions with a champion on file
The contests nobody owns. Turn up here and last year counts for nothing.
DuPont-Hudson's Bay BBQ Competition Aug 19, 2023
30 teams cooking for it
Held jointly by 3 — nobody has beaten it.
What was actually on the table. Listed purses only — KCBS does not publish who took home which slice of it.
Apr 12, 2013 Apr 12, 2013
across 1 states and provinces
Held jointly by 10 or more — nobody has beaten it.
One Saturday, this many contests, every one of them lighting a fire at the same hour.
The 2026 season Sep 26, 2026
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.
Ian Schmidt Sep 25, 2026
2021 → 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.
Ian Schmidt Sep 25, 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.
Ian Schmidt Sep 25, 2026
at 8 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 |
|---|---|
| Colorado Bulldawg BBQ | 2 |
| The King & His Q | 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 | 479 | 161.95 | 177.03 | 6 | 12.5 |
| Pork Ribs | 499 | 163.94 | 174.92 | 2 | 4 |
| Pork | 478 | 164.49 | 176.38 | 3 | 6.3 |
| Chicken | 500 | 164.83 | 175.28 | 4 | 8 |
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.