Each card leads with the number that made it a story — read straight out of their results, no editorialising.
94.9% of a perfect 720
Their best day on record: 683.3140 at American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Open Contest — 94.9% of a perfect 720.
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE ahead in 100% of their meetings
OLD VIRGINIA SMOKE has come out ahead in 3 of their 3 shared contests.
Off the trail for 10.3 years, then back at American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Open Contest (2025-11-05).
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.
The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint 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 109 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.
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 4, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Head-to-headBoth teams' first contest in the data came in 2015.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2020, 5 years before The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2019, 6 years before The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2018, 7 years before The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint'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 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 174.8456 | 163.9772 | 170.26 | top 49% |
| Pork Ribs | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 174.2860 | 163.9656 | 168.56 | top 48% |
| Pork | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 175.4172 | 169.6800 | 171.98 | top 36% |
| Brisket | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 171.9656 | 143.3140 | 161.09 | top 66% |
“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.
| Where | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| KS | 2 | 0 | top 57% |
| VA | 1 | 0 | top 72% |
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium (20–39) | 1 | 0 | top 72% |
| Large (40+) | 2 | 0 | top 57% |
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 57% | 94.9% | 94.5% |
| 2015 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100% | top 72% | 91% | 91% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-11-05 | American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Sides Kansas City, KS | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2025-11-05 | American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Invitational Contest unrated Kansas City, KS | 117 / 158 (677.0976) | 141 (163.9772) | 45 (174.2860) | 78 (170.8572) | 107 (167.9772) |
| 2025-11-05 | American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Open Contest 🏅 Kansas City, KS | 157 / 401 (683.3140) | 162 (171.9656) | 310 (163.9656) | 71 (175.4172) | 116 (171.9656) |
| 2015-07-17 | Smoke on the Mountain - VA State BBQ Championship Galax, VA | 21 / 29 (655.2568) | 5 (174.8456) | 11 (167.4172) | 12 (169.6800) | 29 (143.3140) |