Each card leads with the number that made it a story — read straight out of their results, no editorialising.
The ratings favoured the top seed the other 70 times in 100
Their Grand Championship at La Classique BBQ Labonte (2024-08-02) came as the ratings underdog — roughly a 30-in-100 shot against the field's top-rated team, Rusty's BBQ.
2 wins from 5 entries
When pork is on the table, watch out — they've won it in 40% of their entries (2 of 5).
La Classique BBQ Labonte is their spot: 1 Grand Championship in 2 visits.
They've won two or more meats on the same day 1 time — the best of them 2 category wins at La Classique What the Pork? (2025-08-01).
96.6% of a perfect 720
Their best day on record: 695.4628 at La Classique BBQ Labonte — 96.6% of a perfect 720.
Brisket is where the weekend gets away from them — it averages 7.67 points below their chicken, and turns into a call 20% of the time against 80%.
Ahead in 75% of their meetings
They've finished ahead of Team Sunrise BBQ in 3 of their 4 shared contests.
Something about August: average finish in the top 15% across 3 contests, versus top 40% the rest of the year.
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.
SweetMax BBQ has 4 rated contests — 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 62 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.
These two have cooked 3 of the same contests — BBQ a la maison ahead 2–1 — so there's a record behind this pairing and not just a matching number.
⚔ Head-to-headCareers of much the same size, 6 contests to 5, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2021, 5 years before SweetMax BBQ's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headThey were already cooking in 2013, 10 years before SweetMax BBQ's first contest.
⚔ Head-to-head4 straight overall top-10s says this rating is a moving target.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with SweetMax BBQ on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-head| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 178.8572 | 163.4400 | 171.66 | top 25% |
| Pork Ribs | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 174.8800 | 163.4172 | 169.84 | top 36% |
| Pork | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 178.2972 | 162.8456 | 169.23 | top 38% |
| Brisket | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 170.8456 | 153.6800 | 163.99 | top 56% |
“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.
| Where | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| QC | 4 | 1 | top 26% |
| TN | 1 | 0 | top 94% |
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small (<20 teams) | 1 | 0 | top 17% |
| Medium (20–39) | 3 | 1 | top 29% |
| Large (40+) | 1 | 0 | top 94% |
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Classique BBQ Labonte | 2 | 1 | 1 | top 14% | 2024-08-02 |
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +15.8 | La Classique BBQ Labonte | 2024-08-02 |
| +10.9 | La Classique What the Pork? | 2025-08-01 |
| +10 | La Classique BBQ Labonte | 2023-08-04 |
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -1.3 | La Classique - L'Entrepot de Viandes | 2026-05-29 |
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% | top 58% | 92.4% | 92.4% |
| 2025 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 50% | top 56% | 96.3% | 96.3% |
| 2024 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 100% | top 4% | 96.6% | 96.6% |
| 2023 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100% | top 24% | 91.5% | 91.5% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-29 | La Classique - L'Entrepot de Viandes Montreal, QC | 14 / 24 (665.0284) | 7 (169.7028) | 14 (163.4172) | 15 (163.9312) | 12 (167.9772) |
| 2025-10-10 | Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue (Competitor's Series) (JUDGES BY INVITATION ONLY) unrated Lynchburg, TN | 85 / 90 (661.0056) | 45 (172.5600) | 62 (169.6800) | 78 (165.0856) | 89 (153.6800) |
| 2025-08-01 | La Classique What the Pork? Sainte-Perpetue, QC | 3 / 18 (693.1428) | 1 (178.8572) | 6 (172.0228) | 1 (178.2972) | 13 (163.9656) |
| 2024-08-02 | La Classique BBQ Labonte Sainte-Perpetue, QC | 1 / 26 (695.4628) | 3 (173.7372) | 2 (174.8800) | 1 (176.0000) | 6 (170.8456) |
| 2023-08-04 | La Classique BBQ Labonte Sainte-Perpetue, QC | 8 / 33 (658.9372) | 9 (163.4400) | 4 (169.1888) | 10 (162.8456) | 11 (163.4628) |