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.
Up In Smoke DC 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 146 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.
2 contests in common so far: too few to settle anything, but a team Up In Smoke DC 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 turned up 12 years after Up In Smoke DC did, first appearing in 2025.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with Up In Smoke DC on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-head6 contests to 2: their number has had years to settle where Up In Smoke DC's is still finding its level.
⚔ Head-to-headA longer road to the same neighbourhood — 5 contests to 2.
⚔ Head-to-head| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 155.4972 | 151.9884 | 153.74 | top 81% |
| Pork Ribs | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 162.2628 | 157.6912 | 159.98 | top 58% |
| Pork | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 159.4284 | 143.9884 | 151.71 | top 81% |
| Brisket | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 160.5372 | 157.1084 | 158.82 | top 55% |
“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 69% | 88.6% | 88.6% |
| 2013 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 78% | 84.8% | 84.8% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-10-02 | 35th Annual American Royal World Series of Barbecue Open Kansas City, MO | 380 / 552 (637.7256) | 448 (155.4972) | 315 (162.2628) | 378 (159.4284) | 312 (160.5372) |
| 2013-10-03 | 34th Annual American Royal World Series of Barbecue Open Kansas City, MO | 416 / 535 (610.7764) | 430 (151.9884) | 310 (157.6912) | 500 (143.9884) | 285 (157.1084) |