A tough matchup
5–1
behind in the head-to-head
Smokin' Bandits BBQ ahead in 83% of their meetings
Smokin' Bandits BBQ has come out ahead in 5 of their 6 shared contests.
sHOGun BBQ
At a glance (everything the results say about this team, in numbers)
Rating
1496
peak 1506 · rated over 3 contests ⓘ
Contests
6
in the data
First seen
2024-03-15
latest 2026-05-01
Best ToY finish
#927
Master 2026
Grand champs
0
0 reserve
Category wins
1
3 podiums
Overall top-10s
2
of 6 contests
Avg finish
top 48%
overall standings
Perfect 180s
0
Walk rate
33%
contests with a top-10 call
Strongest meat
Chicken
avg 165.02 · weakest Brisket (156.56)
Road miles
120
mi across 6 mapped stops
Schedule strength
84%
of rated fields were softer than their average draw (1611)
Purse competed for
$49K
listed at 6 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0 🏅
GCs in 3 state-championship entries
Master avg
638.71 / 720
1 Master contest · 0 GCs
Backyard avg
316.19 / 360
2 Backyard contests · 0 GCs
Master and Backyard overall scores sit on different scales (Master is out of 720, Backyard out of 360), so they're kept separate — averaging them together would be misleading.
This team cooks the Backyard series — its own boards, records and Team of the Year are here.
Storylines (3 found in this team's record)
Each card leads with the number that made it a story — read straight out of their results, no editorialising.
A strong matchup
3–0
ahead in the head-to-head
Ahead in 100% of their meetings
They've finished ahead of Smokin Pimp in 3 of their 3 shared contests.
They cook the hard rooms
1611
average field rating faced
A tougher draw than 84% of rated fields
The fields they enter average a 1611 power rating — a tougher draw than 84% of every rated contest in the data.
- 3 rated contests
Teams like this (closest power rating)
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.
sHOGun BBQ 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 117 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.
#3350 of the rated field
- Contests
- 50
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 16%
- Peak
- 1565
2–1 in 3 shared contests (67% to sHOGun BBQ)
These two have cooked 3 of the same contests — sHOGun BBQ ahead 2–1 — so there's a record behind this pairing and not just a matching number.
⚔ Head-to-head#3340 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1500
No shared contest yet.
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 6, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Head-to-head#3366 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1507
No shared contest yet.
Both teams' first contest in the data came in 2024.
⚔ Head-to-head#3363 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1496
No shared contest yet.
Their last contest in the data was back in 2023, 3 years before sHOGun BBQ's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-head#3369 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1505
No shared contest yet.
Level with sHOGun BBQ on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-head#3329 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 40%
- Peak
- 1509
No shared contest yet.
Their last contest in the data was back in 2017, 9 years before sHOGun BBQ's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headFamiliar foes (most-met opponents in overall standings — one meeting per contest)
| Opponent | Meetings | Ahead | Behind | Win rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smokin' Bandits BBQ | 6 | 1 | 5 | 17% | ⚔ compare |
| Bad company cookers | 5 | 3 | 2 | 60% | ⚔ compare |
| RTQue | 5 | 3 | 2 | 60% | ⚔ compare |
| Hogs B Hatin' | 5 | 2 | 3 | 40% | ⚔ compare |
| LEE LA Q | 5 | 1 | 4 | 20% | ⚔ compare |
By meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 174.2972 | 159.3600 | 165.02 | top 47% |
| Pork Ribs | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 177.7144 | 147.9316 | 163.87 | top 43% |
| Pork | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 167.9656 | 161.6688 | 164.53 | top 45% |
| Brisket | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 156.5600 | 156.5600 | 156.56 | top 95% |
“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.
By contest size
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium (20–39) | 3 | 0 | top 37% |
| Large (40+) | 3 | 0 | top 58% |
Contest-by-contest record (recurring contests they've cooked twice or more)
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship | 3 | 34 | 0 | top 58% | 2026-03-20 |
| Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITOR SERIES) | 2 | 6 | 0 | top 29% | 2026-05-01 |
The story so far (17 numbers that describe this team)
On the trail
2.1 yrs
2024-03-15 → 2026-05-01
Busiest season
2026
2 contests
Contests a season
2
across 3 seasons in the data
Cooks most in
TN
6 of 6 contests
Contests visited
3
2 of them cooked more than once
Most-entered meat
Chicken
6 entries · 0 wins · 2 calls
Strongest meat
Chicken
averages 165.02 · weakest Brisket (156.56)
Walk rate
33%
a top-10 call in 2 of 6 contests
Overall top-10 rate
33%
2 of 6 contests
Master average
638.71
out of 720 · 1 contest · 0 GCs
Backyard average
316.19
out of 360 · 2 contests · 0 GCs
Opponents faced
304
199–352 across every shared overall standing
Road miles
120
6 mapped stops
Schedule strength
1611
average field rating faced — tougher than 84% of rated contests
Purse competed for
$48,600
listed at 6 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0
from 3 state-championship entries
Power rating
1496
peak 1506 · #null of 6,413 rated
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
- 2024
- First tracked contest Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship
- 2025
- Peak power rating (1506) Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship
- First call Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITOR SERIES)
- First overall top-10 Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITOR SERIES)
- 2026
- Career-best overall score638.7084 Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship
- First category win (Pork Ribs) Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITOR SERIES)
- Career-best single call (Pork Ribs)177.7144 Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITOR SERIES)
- Most recent contest Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITOR SERIES)
Power rating over time (1500 = average; recomputed nightly)
📈 Biggest rating jumps
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +5.2 | Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship | 2024-03-15 |
| +1.2 | Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship | 2025-03-14 |
📉 Toughest weekends
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -10 | Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship | 2026-03-20 |
Category scores over time
Overall finish over time (top-% of field, lower is better)
Where they finish (overall)
Best vs average (by meat)
How entries end (by meat)
Season by season
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 50% | top 59% | 88.7% | 88.7% |
| 2025 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 50% | top 38% | 86.2% | 86.2% |
| 2024 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 45% | 89.5% | 89.5% |
Contest history (click a row for the event, a column to sort)
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-01 | Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITOR SERIES) unrated Murfreesboro, TN | 6 / 23 (518.8000) | 3 (173.7028) | 1 (177.7144) | — | — |
| 2026-03-20 | Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship 🏅 Lebanon, TN | 116 / 125 (638.7084) | 118 (159.4172) | 119 (154.7656) | 88 (167.9656) | 119 (156.5600) |
| 2025-04-25 | Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITOR SERIES) unrated Murfreesboro, TN | 10 / 31 (513.1088) | 4 (174.2972) | 3 (175.4172) | — | — |
| 2025-03-14 | Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship 🏅 Lebanon, TN | 44 / 100 (310.1716) | 41 (162.2400) | 47 (147.9316) | 36 (163.9428) | — |
| 2024-04-19 | Dr. George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITORS SERIES) unrated Murfreesboro, TN | 20 / 37 (504.5372) | 31 (159.3600) | 25 (166.2972) | — | — |
| 2024-03-15 | Smoke on the Shores BBQ Championship 🏅 Lebanon, TN | 34 / 93 (322.2060) | 35 (161.0972) | 31 (161.1088) | 27 (161.6688) | — |
Career map (orange GC · green top-10 · grey the rest — tap a pin)
Team of the Year standings (rank per category by season — year links to the full board on kcbs.us)
| Year | Series | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 ↗ | Master | #927 (60 pts) | #1010 (60 pts) | #1051 (60 pts) | #970 (60 pts) | #950 (60 pts) |