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.
Cue The Smoke 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 118 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 Cue The Smoke 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 Cue The Smoke's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-headThey turned up 5 years after Cue The Smoke did, first appearing in 2021.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with Cue The Smoke on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-head5 contests to 1: their number has had years to settle where Cue The Smoke's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-head5 contests to 1: their number has had years to settle where Cue The Smoke's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-head| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 157.1428 | 157.1428 | 157.14 | top 56% |
| Pork Ribs | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 151.4172 | 151.4172 | 151.42 | top 79% |
| Pork | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 157.7600 | 157.7600 | 157.76 | top 59% |
| Brisket | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 156.6400 | 156.6400 | 156.64 | top 52% |
“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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 64% | 86.5% | 86.5% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-06-24 | Great Lenexa BBQ Battle-Kansas State Championship 🏅 Lenexa, KS | 117 / 183 (622.9600) | 102 (157.1428) | 145 (151.4172) | 108 (157.7600) | 95 (156.6400) |