Master and Backyard overall scores sit on different scales (Master is 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.
Each card leads with the number that made it a story — read straight out of their results, no editorialising.
2024 was the year it came together: 3 contests, 0 Grand Championships and 0 category wins, at an average finish in the top 44%.
Meat Candy Q ahead in 100% of their meetings
Meat Candy Q has come out ahead in 4 of their 4 shared contests.
Ahead in 100% of their meetings
They've finished ahead of AJ’S SMOKEHOUSE BBQ in 3 of their 3 shared contests.
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.
Big J's So Cal Bbq has 4 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 122 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 Big J's So Cal Bbq has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-headCareers of much the same size, 5 contests to 4, so neither rating has had more chance to settle than the other.
⚔ Head-to-headBoth teams' first contest in the data came in 2024.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with Big J's So Cal Bbq on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2020, 5 years before Big J's So Cal Bbq's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2016, 9 years before Big J's So Cal Bbq's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-head| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 164.5828 | 153.6456 | 160.25 | top 53% |
| Pork Ribs | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 161.6916 | 149.6572 | 156.39 | top 55% |
| Pork | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 159.3944 | 150.2400 | 154.82 | top 97% |
| Brisket | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 161.6688 | 148.5372 | 155.10 | top 92% |
“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.
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +12.3 | 20th Annual Burnt Offerings BBQ Contest | 2024-06-28 |
| +6.9 | Horsetown Brew n' Que Festival | 2024-05-31 |
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -12 | 21st Annual Burnt Offerings BBQ Contest | 2025-09-12 |
| -10.9 | BBQ Boots & Brew | 2024-04-12 |
| 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 97% | 86.8% | 86.8% |
| 2024 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 67% | top 44% | 89% | 87.3% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09-12 | 21st Annual Burnt Offerings BBQ Contest 🏅 Riverside, CA | 34 / 35 (625.0516) | 32 (164.5828) | 32 (161.6916) | 35 (150.2400) | 35 (148.5372) |
| 2024-06-28 | 20th Annual Burnt Offerings BBQ Contest 🏅 Riverside, CA | 5 / 35 (320.4916) | 5 (162.2516) | 6 (158.2400) | — | — |
| 2024-05-31 | Horsetown Brew n' Que Festival 🏅 Norco, CA | 9 / 39 (303.3028) | 9 (153.6456) | 9 (149.6572) | — | — |
| 2024-04-12 | BBQ Boots & Brew 🏅 Perris, CA | 37 / 39 (637.5320) | 33 (160.5028) | 35 (155.9660) | 37 (159.3944) | 33 (161.6688) |
| Year | Series | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 ↗ | Master | #1148 (60 pts) | #1221 (60 pts) | #1293 (60 pts) | #1190 (60 pts) | #1190 (60 pts) |
| 2024 ↗ | Backyard | #259 (158 pts) | #265 (158 pts) | #277 (148 pts) | — | — |
| 2024 ↗ | Master | #1182 (60 pts) | #1242 (60 pts) | #1317 (60 pts) | #1231 (60 pts) | #1204 (60 pts) |