This team cooks the Backyard series — its own boards, records and Team of the Year are here.
Each card leads with the number that made it a story — read straight out of their results, no editorialising.
92.8% of a perfect 360
Their best day on record: 334.2516 at Reelin N Smokin Backyard BBQ Competition (BACKYARD ONLY) — 92.8% of a perfect 360.
Hickory Hangover ahead in 100% of their meetings
Hickory Hangover has come out ahead in 3 of their 3 shared contests.
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.
Ball & Chain Smokers has 3 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 106 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.
A longer road to the same neighbourhood — 5 contests to 3.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with Ball & Chain Smokers on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2019, 3 years before Ball & Chain Smokers's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headThey were already cooking in 2013, 8 years before Ball & Chain Smokers's first contest.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2013, 9 years before Ball & Chain Smokers's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2013, 9 years before Ball & Chain Smokers'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 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 170.2744 | 154.2172 | 163.79 | top 52% |
| Pork Ribs | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 166.2744 | 148.5032 | 159.58 | top 72% |
| 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.
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium (20–39) | 2 | 0 | top 93% |
| Large (40+) | 1 | 0 | top 8% |
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whistlestop Festival & Rocket City BBQ | 2 | 4 | 0 | top 70% | 2022-09-08 |
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +15.2 | Whistlestop Festival & Rocket City BBQ | 2021-08-13 |
| +1.3 | Reelin N Smokin Backyard BBQ Competition (BACKYARD ONLY) | 2021-06-11 |
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -11.6 | Whistlestop Festival & Rocket City BBQ | 2022-09-08 |
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 131% | 84.1% | 84.1% |
| 2021 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100% | top 32% | 92.8% | 92.7% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-09-08 | Whistlestop Festival & Rocket City BBQ 🏅 Huntsville, AL | 46 / 35 (302.7204) | 39 (154.2172) | 48 (148.5032) | — | — |
| 2021-08-13 | Whistlestop Festival & Rocket City BBQ 🏅 Huntsville, AL | 4 / 49 (333.1432) | 6 (166.8688) | 4 (166.2744) | — | — |
| 2021-06-11 | Reelin N Smokin Backyard BBQ Competition (BACKYARD ONLY) Huntsville, AL | 17 / 31 (334.2516) | 10 (170.2744) | 22 (163.9772) | — | — |