This team cooks the Backyard series — its own boards, records and Team of the Year are here. Still inside their first twelve months: see what a first season usually looks like.
Each card leads with the number that made it a story — read straight out of their results, no editorialising.
94.3% of a perfect 360
Their best day on record: 339.3828 at Spring into Summer Backyard BBQ Competition (BACKYARD ONLY) — 94.3% of a perfect 360.
The nearest teams in the power rankings, with a different reason on each card — six teams on one rating are rarely on it for the same reason. Rating decides who makes the list; where teams tie on it, the ones this team has actually cooked against come first, then teams at a similar point in their own career. KCBS doesn’t publish where a team is from, so nothing here is inferred from geography.
Smokin Gopher BBQ Team has 1 rated contest — short of the five it takes to earn a power ranking — so this rating has barely moved off the 1500 every team starts on and 112 rated teams sit within a point of it. Read the list as the nearest company at a number nobody here has moved far from, not as a verdict on who this team belongs with.
5 contests to 1: their number has had years to settle where Smokin Gopher BBQ Team's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-headThey were already cooking in 2020, 6 years before Smokin Gopher BBQ Team's first contest.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with Smokin Gopher BBQ Team on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2023, 3 years before Smokin Gopher BBQ Team's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2022, 4 years before Smokin Gopher BBQ Team's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2018, 8 years before Smokin Gopher BBQ Team's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-head| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 169.1084 | 169.1084 | 169.11 | top 56% |
| Pork Ribs | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 170.2744 | 170.2744 | 170.27 | top 28% |
| Pork | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — |
| Brisket | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — |
“Calls” = top-10 category finishes (getting called to the stage). Scores here are the final weighted totals KCBS publishes; per-criterion appearance/taste/tenderness marks aren’t in the public results feed.
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100% | top 40% | 94.3% | 94.3% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-29 | Spring into Summer Backyard BBQ Competition (BACKYARD ONLY) Owatonna, MN | 10 / 25 (339.3828) | 14 (169.1084) | 7 (170.2744) | — | — |