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.
Montana Bar-B-Q 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 145 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 Montana Bar-B-Q has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-headThis is the highest they've ever been rated, 13 rated contests in — a team sitting at its own career peak.
⚔ Head-to-headA longer road to the same neighbourhood — 5 contests to 2.
⚔ Head-to-headThey turned up 12 years after Montana Bar-B-Q did, first appearing in 2025.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with Montana Bar-B-Q on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ 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 | 148.5714 | 136.5828 | 142.58 | top 95% |
| Pork Ribs | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 168.5716 | 153.1428 | 160.86 | top 50% |
| Pork | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 158.8800 | 156.5714 | 157.73 | top 69% |
| Brisket | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 146.8572 | 115.3600 | 131.11 | top 94% |
“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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 88% | 86.2% | 82.3% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-10-31 | Riverside Resort Casino USA Barbecue Championship Laughlin, NV | 84 / 85 (563.9656) | 84 (136.5828) | 74 (153.1428) | 57 (158.8800) | 85 (115.3600) |
| 2013-01-25 | 5th Annual Lake Havasu Music Brews & BBQ Championship Lake Havasu City, AZ | 67 / 86 (620.5716) | 79 (148.5714) | 11 (168.5716) | 61 (156.5714) | 75 (146.8572) |