The comeback
2.4 yrs
off the trail, then back
Off the trail for 2.4 years, then back at *Downtown BBQ Showdown (2018-08-17).
- last seen 2016-03-25
- back 2018-08-17
Taste-Buds
At a glance (everything the results say about this team, in numbers)
Rating
1506
peak 1506 · rated over 2 contests ⓘ
Contests
3
in the data
First seen
2018-08-17
latest 2019-02-22
Grand champs
0
0 reserve
Category wins
0
0 podiums
Overall top-10s
1
of 3 contests
Avg finish
top 50%
overall standings
Perfect 180s
0
Walk rate
67%
contests with a top-10 call
Strongest meat
Pork
avg 169.70 · weakest Chicken (157.39)
Road miles
158
mi across 3 mapped stops · furthest 88 mi
Purse competed for
$6K
listed at 1 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0 🏅
GCs in 1 state-championship entries
Master avg
654.15 / 720
1 Master contest · 0 GCs
Backyard avg
321.10 / 360
1 Backyard contest · 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 (1 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.
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.
Taste-Buds has 2 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 120 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.
#2956 of the rated field
- Contests
- 11
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 27%
- Peak
- 1516
1–0 in 1 shared contest (100% to Taste-Buds)
One contest in common so far: too few to settle anything, but a team Taste-Buds has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-head#2955 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1507
No shared contest yet.
A longer road to the same neighbourhood — 5 contests to 3.
⚔ Head-to-head#2967 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1506
No shared contest yet.
Level with Taste-Buds on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-head#2985 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1513
No shared contest yet.
They were already cooking in 2013, 5 years before Taste-Buds's first contest.
⚔ Head-to-head#2966 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1506
No shared contest yet.
A longer road to the same neighbourhood — 5 contests to 3.
⚔ Head-to-head#2968 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1506
No shared contest yet.
Their last contest in the data was back in 2015, 4 years before Taste-Buds's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headBy meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 159.9544 | 154.8344 | 157.39 | top 68% |
| Pork Ribs | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 166.2628 | 165.1200 | 165.69 | top 34% |
| Pork | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 169.7028 | 169.7028 | 169.70 | top 27% |
| Brisket | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 159.3716 | 159.3716 | 159.37 | top 63% |
“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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small (<20 teams) | 1 | 0 | top 38% |
| Medium (20–39) | 1 | 0 | top 63% |
The story so far (17 numbers that describe this team)
On the trail
0.5 yrs
2018-08-17 → 2019-02-22
Busiest season
2019
1 contest
Contests a season
1
across 3 seasons in the data
Cooks most in
MS
2 of 3 contests · 2 states/provinces in all
Contests visited
2
0 of them cooked more than once
Most-entered meat
Chicken
2 entries · 0 wins · 1 calls
Strongest meat
Pork
averages 169.70 · weakest Chicken (157.39)
Walk rate
67%
a top-10 call in 2 of 3 contests
Overall top-10 rate
33%
1 of 3 contests
Master average
654.15
out of 720 · 1 contest · 0 GCs
Backyard average
321.10
out of 360 · 1 contest · 0 GCs
Opponents faced
59
34–28 across every shared overall standing
Road miles
158
3 mapped stops · furthest 88 mi
Purse competed for
$6,000
listed at 1 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0
from 1 state-championship entries
Longest layoff
2.4 yrs
2016-03-25 → 2018-08-17
Power rating
1506
peak 1506 · #null of 6,413 rated
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
- 2016
- First tracked contest Hamond BBQ
- 2018
- First call *Downtown BBQ Showdown
- First overall past 90% of a perfect score654.1488 *Downtown BBQ Showdown
- Career-best overall score654.1488 *Downtown BBQ Showdown
- Career-best single call (Pork)169.7028 *Downtown BBQ Showdown
- 2019
- First overall top-10 D'Iberville BBQ Throw Down Festival
- Most recent contest D'Iberville BBQ Throw Down Festival
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100% | top 38% | 89.2% | 89.2% |
| 2018 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% | top 63% | 90.9% | 90.9% |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-02-22 | D'Iberville BBQ Throw Down Festival 🏅 Diberville, MS | 6 / 16 (321.0972) | 8 (154.8344) | 4 (166.2628) | — | — |
| 2018-08-17 | *Downtown BBQ Showdown Hattiesburg, MS | 19 / 30 (654.1488) | 26 (159.9544) | 13 (165.1200) | 8 (169.7028) | 19 (159.3716) |
| 2016-03-25 | Hamond BBQ Hammond, LA | — | — | — | — | — |