A multi-meat day
1
contest with 2+ category wins
They've won two or more meats on the same day 1 time — the best of them 2 category wins at Fire it up Frostproof! (Apr 12, 2019).
- Pork Ribs 1st
- Brisket 1st
White Lightning
White Lightning is a competition barbecue team with 5 Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) contests on record between 2017 and 2020. They have won 1 Grand Championship, at the Fire it up Frostproof! (2019).
At a glance (the record in numbers)
Rating
1513
Unranked — needs 5 rated contests, has 4
Contests
5
in the data
First seen
Jan 27, 2017
latest Mar 6, 2020 · 3.1 years on the trail
Grand champs
1
0 reserve · wins it all 20% of the time
Category wins
2
2 podiums
Overall top-10s
1
20% of 5 contests
Avg finish
top 45%
overall standings
Perfect 180s
0
Walk rate
40%
contests with a top-10 call
Strongest meat
Brisket
avg 163.53 · weakest Pork (160.97)
Road miles
109
across 5 mapped stops
Schedule strength
37%
of rated fields were softer than their average draw (1550)
Purse competed for
$35K
listed at 2 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
1 🏅
won from 3 state-championship entries
Master avg
639.54 / 720
2 Master contests · 0 GCs
Backyard (4-meat) avg
659.38 / 720
2 Backyard (4-meat) contests · 1 GC
These overall scores sit on different scales (Master out of 720, Backyard (4-meat) out of 720), 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.
Teams like this (closest power rating)
The teams rated closest to White Lightning, each with one reason worth a look.
White Lightning has 4 rated contests, short of the five a power ranking needs, so its rating is still close to the 1500 every team starts on and 123 rated teams sit within a point of it.
#2,717 of the rated field
- Contests
- 11
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1513
1–0 in 1 shared contest (100% to White Lightning)
One contest in common so far: too few to settle anything, but a team White Lightning has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-head#2,708 of the rated field
- Contests
- 12
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 8%
- Peak
- 1518
0–1 in 1 shared contest (0% to White Lightning)
A longer road to the same neighbourhood — 12 contests to 5.
⚔ Head-to-head#2,706 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1513
They turned up 7 years after White Lightning did, first appearing in 2024.
⚔ Compare careers#2,686 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1514
Level with White Lightning on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Compare careers#2,701 of the rated field
- Contests
- 7
- GCs
- 1
- Top-10s
- 14%
- Peak
- 1513
Their rating is built on 1 Grand Championship in 7 contests, alongside a 14% overall top-10 rate.
⚔ Compare careers#2,721 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 40%
- Peak
- 1513
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 5, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careersBy meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 168.5944 | 157.0628 | 161.97 | top 46% |
| Pork Ribs | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 169.1316 | 154.8572 | 162.99 | top 45% |
| Pork | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 167.9772 | 158.2400 | 160.97 | top 52% |
| Brisket | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 174.8572 | 158.8000 | 163.53 | top 41% |
“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 field size and state
By contest size
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium (20–39) | 2 | 1 | top 43% |
| Large (40+) | 2 | 0 | top 48% |
Repeat visits (contests they've cooked twice or more)
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire it up Frostproof! | 2 | 1 | 1 | top 43% | Mar 6, 2020 |
| Lakeland Pig Festival | 2 | 11 | 0 | top 48% | Jan 24, 2020 |
More numbers
Busiest season
2020
2 contests
Contests a season
1.3
across 4 seasons in the data
Most contests held in
FL
5 of 5 contests
Contests visited
2
2 of them more than once
First title
Apr 12, 2019
Fire it up Frostproof!
Opponents faced
181
finished ahead 134 times, behind 89
Longest layoff
2.2 yrs
Jan 27, 2017 → Apr 12, 2019
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
20202 milestones
- Peak power rating (1522) Lakeland Pig Festival
- Most recent contest Fire it up Frostproof!
201910 milestones
- First call Fire it up Frostproof!
- First category win (Pork Ribs) Fire it up Frostproof!
- First overall top-10 Fire it up Frostproof!
- First overall podium Fire it up Frostproof!
- First Grand Championship Fire it up Frostproof!
- First state championship Fire it up Frostproof!
- First multi-meat day Fire it up Frostproof!
- First overall past 90% of a perfect score663.3716 Fire it up Frostproof!
- Career-best overall score663.3716 Fire it up Frostproof!
- Career-best single call (Brisket)174.8572 Fire it up Frostproof!
20161 milestone
- First tracked contest Lakeland Pig Festival
Power rating over time (1500 = average; recomputed nightly)
📈 Biggest rating jumps
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +17.2 | Fire it up Frostproof! | Apr 12, 2019 |
| +9.8 | Lakeland Pig Festival | Jan 24, 2020 |
📉 Toughest weekends
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -8.8 | Fire it up Frostproof! | Mar 6, 2020 |
| -5 | Lakeland Pig Festival | Jan 27, 2017 |
Scores over time (% of a perfect score — tap a meat to add it)
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50% | top 51% | 91% | 89.9% |
| 2019 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 100% | top 4% | 92.1% | 92.1% |
| 2017 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 75% | 88.9% | 88.9% |
| 2016 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | — | — | — |
Contest history (click a row for the event, a column to sort)
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 6, 2020 | Fire it up Frostproof! 🏅 Frostproof, FL | 26 / 32 (638.6972) | 27 (157.0628) | 29 (154.8572) | 17 (167.9772) | 23 (158.8000) |
| Jan 24, 2020 | Lakeland Pig Festival 🏅 Lakeland, FL | 11 / 53 (655.3828) | 7 (168.5944) | 9 (168.5600) | 30 (158.2400) | 17 (159.9884) |
| Apr 12, 2019 | Fire it up Frostproof! 🏅 Frostproof, FL | 1 / 25 (663.3716) | 4 (161.0856) | 1 (169.1316) | 6 (158.2972) | 1 (174.8572) |
| Jan 27, 2017 | Lakeland Pig Festival Lakeland, FL | 45 / 60 (640.3772) | 42 (161.1316) | 42 (159.3944) | 45 (159.3600) | 33 (160.4912) |
| Jan 29, 2016 | Lakeland Pig Festival Lakeland, FL | — | — | — | — | — |