Still inside their first twelve months: see what a first season usually looks like.
Each card leads with the number that made it a story — read straight out of their results, no editorialising.
95.0% of a perfect 720
Their best day on record: 683.9428 at American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Open Contest — 95.0% of a perfect 720.
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.
Runnin' Buddies 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 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.
One contest in common so far: too few to settle anything, but a team Runnin' Buddies BBQ has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-headA longer road to the same neighbourhood — 5 contests to 2.
⚔ Head-to-headThey were already cooking in 2017, 8 years before Runnin' Buddies BBQ's first contest.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with Runnin' Buddies BBQ on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2022, 3 years before Runnin' Buddies BBQ'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 Runnin' Buddies BBQ'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 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 165.0856 | 162.8112 | 163.95 | top 85% |
| Pork Ribs | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 173.1544 | 171.9888 | 172.57 | top 36% |
| Pork | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 176.5828 | 169.6800 | 173.13 | top 37% |
| Brisket | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 172.5600 | 167.4172 | 169.99 | top 47% |
“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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 57% | 95% | 94.4% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-11-05 | American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Invitational Contest unrated Kansas City, KS | 122 / 158 (675.3372) | 139 (165.0856) | 64 (173.1544) | 102 (169.6800) | 109 (167.4172) |
| 2025-11-05 | American Royal World Series of Barbecue - Open Contest 🏅 Kansas City, KS | 149 / 401 (683.9428) | 328 (162.8112) | 129 (171.9888) | 40 (176.5828) | 100 (172.5600) |