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.
Blue River BBQ 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 148 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.
One contest in common so far: too few to settle anything, but a team Blue River BBQ has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-head5 contests to 1: their number has had years to settle where Blue River BBQ's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-headThey turned up 6 years after Blue River BBQ did, first appearing in 2025.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with Blue River BBQ on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-head6 contests to 1: their number has had years to settle where Blue River BBQ's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-head5 contests to 1: their number has had years to settle where Blue River BBQ's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-head| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 129.0856 | 129.0856 | 129.09 | top 99% |
| Pork Ribs | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 155.3828 | 155.3828 | 155.38 | top 93% |
| Pork | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 147.4744 | 147.4744 | 147.47 | top 95% |
| Brisket | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 147.9428 | 147.9428 | 147.94 | top 89% |
“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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 98% | 80.5% | 80.5% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-04-12 | Smoke In the Springs 🏅 Osage City, KS | 102 / 104 (579.8856) | 103 (129.0856) | 97 (155.3828) | 99 (147.4744) | 93 (147.9428) |