Riding a hot streak
4
straight overall top-10s
Currently on a 4-contest overall top-10 run.
- career best 4
Always Forward BBQ
Always Forward BBQ is a competition barbecue team with 5 Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) contests on record between 2023 and 2026. Their best overall finish is 4th of 67 at the Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff (2024). They are ranked #1750 of 6,476 teams in the KCBS power rankings.
At a glance (the record in numbers)
Rating
1550
peak 1550 · rated over 5 contests
Contests
5
in the data
First seen
Sep 8, 2023
latest Sep 11, 2026 · 3 years on the trail
Grand champs
0
0 reserve
Category wins
0
1 podium
Overall top-10s
4
80% of 5 contests
Best top-10 run
4
straight overall top-10s, still running
Avg finish
top 21%
overall standings
Perfect 180s
0
Walk rate
80%
contests with a top-10 call
Consistency
±5.52
spread of their Master overall scores (lower = steadier)
Strongest meat
Pork
avg 174.71 · weakest Brisket (166.84)
Road miles
42
across 5 mapped stops
Schedule strength
14%
of rated fields were softer than their average draw (1521)
Purse competed for
$185K
listed at 4 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0 🏅
won from 4 state-championship entries
Master avg
685.58 / 720
4 Master contests · 0 GCs
Backyard avg
333.61 / 360
1 Backyard contest · 0 GCs
These overall scores sit on different scales (Master out of 720, Backyard out of 360), so they're kept separate — averaging them together would be misleading.
This team cooks the Backyard series — its own boards, records and Team of the Year are here.
Team of the Year (rank per category by season — the year links to the full board on kcbs.us)
| Year | Series | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 ↗ | Master | #802 (145 pts) | #1041 (110 pts) | #1293 (60 pts) | #683 (235 pts) | #1190 (60 pts) |
| 2024 ↗ | Master | #708 (210 pts) | #800 (185 pts) | #1213 (85 pts) | #839 (165 pts) | #1011 (110 pts) |
| 2023 ↗ | Master | #1148 (85 pts) | #1175 (95 pts) | #1432 (60 pts) | #964 (125 pts) | #1296 (60 pts) |
Overall rank by season
Teams like this (closest power rating)
The teams rated closest to Always Forward BBQ, each with one reason worth a look.
57 rated teams sit within a point of this rating, so a place on this list means the numbers match — no more than that.
#1,743 of the rated field
- Contests
- 13
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1550
2–0 in 2 shared contests (100% to Always Forward BBQ)
2 contests in common so far: too few to settle anything, but a team Always Forward BBQ has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-head#1,758 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 60%
- Peak
- 1550
Their last contest in the data was back in 2013, 13 years before Always Forward BBQ's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careers#1,746 of the rated field
- Contests
- 6
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 17%
- Peak
- 1550
Careers of much the same size, 6 contests to 5, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careers#1,755 of the rated field
- Contests
- 7
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 43%
- Peak
- 1550
Level with Always Forward BBQ on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Compare careers#1,752 of the rated field
- Contests
- 6
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1550
They were already cooking in 2013, 10 years before Always Forward BBQ's first contest.
⚔ Compare careers#1,751 of the rated field
- Contests
- 8
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 13%
- Peak
- 1553
This is the highest they've ever been rated, 8 rated contests in — a team sitting at its own career peak.
⚔ Compare careersBy meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 176.5716 | 165.0856 | 171.42 | top 29% |
| Pork Ribs | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 175.4744 | 168 | 170.52 | top 36% |
| Pork | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 178.2972 | 170.8572 | 174.71 | top 15% |
| Brisket | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 169.7028 | 161.0972 | 166.84 | top 35% |
“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.
By field size and state
By contest size
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small (<20 teams) | 1 | 0 | top 60% |
| Large (40+) | 4 | 0 | top 11% |
Repeat visits (contests they've cooked twice or more)
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff | 3 | 4 | 0 | top 12% | Sep 12, 2025 |
More numbers
Busiest season
2024
2 contests
Contests a season
1.3
across 4 seasons in the data
Most contests held in
TX
5 of 5 contests
Contests visited
3
1 of them more than once
Opponents faced
231
finished ahead 297 times, behind 41
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
20262 milestones
- Peak power rating (1550) Danny Dietz Memorial World Championship Cookoff
- Most recent contest Danny Dietz Memorial World Championship Cookoff
20251 milestone
- Career-best single call (Pork)178.2972 Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff
20243 milestones
- First call NSDDF presents the Inaugural Baylor Backyard BBQ Bash (BACKYARD ONLY)
- First overall top-10 NSDDF presents the Inaugural Baylor Backyard BBQ Bash (BACKYARD ONLY)
- Career-best overall score692.5604 Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff
20232 milestones
- First tracked contest Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff
- First overall past 90% of a perfect score677.1200 Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff
Power rating over time (1500 = average; recomputed nightly)
📈 Biggest rating jumps
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +15.3 | Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff | Sep 13, 2024 |
| +13.5 | Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff | Sep 12, 2025 |
| +12.6 | Danny Dietz Memorial World Championship Cookoff | Sep 11, 2026 |
| +10.6 | Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff | Sep 8, 2023 |
📉 Toughest weekends
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -2.2 | NSDDF presents the Inaugural Baylor Backyard BBQ Bash (BACKYARD ONLY) | Jul 12, 2024 |
Scores over time (% of a perfect score — tap a meat to add it)
Overall finish over time (top-% of field, lower is better)
Where they finish (overall)
Best vs average (by meat)
How entries end (by meat)
Season by season
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100% | top 9% | 95.4% | 95.4% |
| 2025 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100% | top 10% | 95.2% | 95.2% |
| 2024 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 100% | top 33% | 96.2% | 94.4% |
| 2023 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 20% | 94% | 94% |
Contest history (click a row for the event, a column to sort)
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 11, 2026 | Danny Dietz Memorial World Championship Cookoff 🏅 Waller, TX | 7 / 75 (686.9028) | 24 (170.8684) | 5 (175.4744) | 25 (170.8572) | 18 (169.7028) |
| Sep 12, 2025 | Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff 🏅 Waller, TX | 9 / 92 (685.7372) | 15 (172.5600) | 44 (168) | 3 (178.2972) | 31 (166.8800) |
| Sep 13, 2024 | Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff 🏅 Waller, TX | 4 / 67 (692.5604) | 5 (176.5716) | 20 (171.4516) | 7 (174.8572) | 15 (169.6800) |
| Jul 12, 2024 | NSDDF presents the Inaugural Baylor Backyard BBQ Bash (BACKYARD ONLY) Tomball, TX | 6 / 10 (333.6112) | 7 (165.0856) | 6 (168.5256) | — | — |
| Sep 8, 2023 | Navy SEAL Danny Dietz Memorial Classic Cookoff 🏅 Waller, TX | 20 / 99 (677.1200) | 18 (172.0228) | 37 (169.1544) | 12 (174.8456) | 60 (161.0972) |