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.
Half Smoked with Kickback 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 121 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 Half Smoked with Kickback BBQ has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-head19 contests to 1: their number has had years to settle where Half Smoked with Kickback BBQ's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-headThey turned up 11 years after Half Smoked with Kickback BBQ did, first appearing in 2025.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with Half Smoked with Kickback 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 Half Smoked with Kickback BBQ's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-head5 contests to 1: their number has had years to settle where Half Smoked with Kickback 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 | 166.8228 | 166.8228 | 166.82 | top 42% |
| Pork Ribs | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 164.0000 | 164.0000 | 164.00 | top 49% |
| Pork | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 155.9772 | 155.9772 | 155.98 | top 79% |
| Brisket | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 163.9656 | 163.9656 | 163.97 | top 42% |
“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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 56% | 90.4% | 90.4% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-10-02 | 35th Annual American Royal World Series of Barbecue Open Kansas City, MO | 307 / 552 (650.7656) | 233 (166.8228) | 271 (164.0000) | 436 (155.9772) | 230 (163.9656) |