Their season
2019
their best year
2019 was the year it came together: 3 contests, 0 Grand Championships and 1 category win, at an average finish in the top 54%.
- 3 contests
- 1 overall top-10
- 1 category win
- average top 54%
Playground Smokers
Playground Smokers is a competition barbecue team with 7 Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) contests on record between 2019 and 2025. Their best overall finish is 8th of 18 at The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES) (2019).
At a glance (the record in numbers)
Rating
1505
Unranked — needs 5 rated contests, has 16 invitational or side-series contests not counted
Contests
7
in the data
First seen
May 11, 2019
latest Jun 13, 2025 · 6.1 years on the trail
Grand champs
0
0 reserve
Category wins
1
1 podium
Overall top-10s
1
14% of 7 contests
Avg finish
top 72%
overall standings
Best overall
619.2344 / 720
Competitor Series · The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES)
Perfect 180s
0
Walk rate
14%
contests with a top-10 call
Best single call
176
Strongest meat
Chicken
avg 161.76 · weakest Pork (155.84)
Road miles
135
across 7 mapped stops · furthest 41 mi
Purse competed for
$23K
listed at 6 contests — purses, not winnings
State championships
0 🏅
won from 1 state-championship entry
This team cooks the Backyard series — its own boards, records and Team of the Year are here.
Teams like this (closest power rating)
The teams rated closest to Playground Smokers, each with one reason worth a look.
Playground Smokers has 1 rated contest, short of the five a power ranking needs, so its rating is still close to the 1500 every team starts on and 100 rated teams sit within a point of it.
#3,027 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1508
Careers of much the same size, 5 contests to 7, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Compare careers#3,018 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1507
Their last contest in the data was back in 2022, 3 years before Playground Smokers's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careers#3,016 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 60%
- Peak
- 1505
They were already cooking in 2013, 6 years before Playground Smokers's first contest.
⚔ Compare careers#3,005 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1513
Level with Playground Smokers on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Compare careers#3,019 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 20%
- Peak
- 1508
Their last contest in the data was back in 2013, 12 years before Playground Smokers's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careers#3,029 of the rated field
- Contests
- 5
- GCs
- 0
- Top-10s
- 0%
- Peak
- 1510
Their last contest in the data was back in 2013, 12 years before Playground Smokers's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Compare careersFamiliar foes (most-met opponents in overall standings — one meeting per contest)
| Opponent | Meetings | Ahead | Behind | Win rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pig Destroyer | 7 | 2 | 5 | 29% | ⚔ compare |
| Serious Hog | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0% | ⚔ compare |
| Smokin in the Country | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0% | ⚔ compare |
By meat
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 176 | 146.7772 | 161.76 | top 64% |
| Pork Ribs | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 173.1200 | 145.6688 | 156.91 | top 81% |
| Pork | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 163.4172 | 141.6456 | 155.84 | top 91% |
“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 44% |
| Medium (20–39) | 5 | 0 | top 77% |
| Large (40+) | 1 | 0 | top 78% |
Repeat visits (contests they've cooked twice or more)
| Contest | Visits | Best | GCs | Avg finish | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES) | 3 | 8 | 0 | top 77% | Jun 10, 2022 |
| Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITOR SERIES) | 2 | 25 | 0 | top 80% | Jun 13, 2025 |
More numbers
Busiest season
2019
3 contests
Contests a season
1.4
across 5 seasons in the data
Most contests held in
TN
7 of 7 contests
Contests visited
4
2 of them more than once
Opponents faced
173
finished ahead 79 times, behind 160
Longest layoff
2 yrs
Jun 10, 2022 → Jun 7, 2024
Milestones (the firsts, the round numbers and the personal bests)
20251 milestone
- Most recent contest Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITOR SERIES)
20221 milestone
- Career-best overall score619.2344 The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES)
20196 milestones
- First tracked contest Dr.George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITORS SERIES)
- First call The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES)
- First category win (Chicken) The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES)
- First overall top-10 The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES)
- First overall past 90% of a perfect score493.6572 The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES)
- Career-best single call (Chicken)176 The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES)
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 69% | 91.8% | 91.8% |
| 2024 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 91% | 89.6% | 89.6% |
| 2022 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 96% | 86% | 86% |
| 2021 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 90% | 83% | 83% |
| 2019 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 33% | top 54% | 91.4% | 90.1% |
Contest history (click a row for the event, a column to sort)
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 13, 2025 | Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITOR SERIES) unrated Springfield, TN | 25 / 36 (495.9316) | 27 (162.2516) | 12 (173.1200) | 32 (160.5600) | — |
| Jun 7, 2024 | Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITOR SERIES) unrated Springfield, TN | 30 / 33 (483.8396) | 25 (163.3596) | 31 (157.0628) | 27 (163.4172) | — |
| Jun 10, 2022 | The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES) unrated Springfield, TN | 25 / 26 (619.2344) | 13 (164.5256) | 26 (145.6688) | 25 (155.9428) | — |
| Jun 11, 2021 | The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES) unrated Springfield, TN | 18 / 20 (597.4856) | 20 (146.7772) | 20 (151.9200) | 20 (141.6456) | — |
| Aug 23, 2019 | Great Americana BBQ Festival 🏅 Franklin, TN | 15 / 39 (325.6916) | — | — | — | — |
| Jun 7, 2019 | The Robertson County Fair Assoc. Barbeque Throwdown (COMPETITORS SERIES) unrated Springfield, TN | 8 / 18 (493.6572) | 1 (176) | 13 (160) | 16 (157.6572) | — |
| May 11, 2019 | Dr.George Smith BBQ Brawl (COMPETITORS SERIES) unrated Murfreesboro, TN | 32 / 41 (478.2284) | 31 (157.6684) | 36 (153.7028) | — | — |
An unrated contest — an invitational, or a Competitor or Kosher Series board — is in the record but doesn’t move the power rating.