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.
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.
The BBQ Lab 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 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 The BBQ Lab 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 were already cooking in 2017, 5 years before The BBQ Lab's first contest.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2018, 5 years before The BBQ Lab's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headLevel with The BBQ Lab on power rating, which is the whole reason they're on the list.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2015, 8 years before The BBQ Lab'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 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 169.7144 | 146.2516 | 157.98 | top 71% |
| Pork Ribs | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 161.7140 | 142.8572 | 152.29 | top 75% |
| Pork | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 157.1200 | 157.1200 | 157.12 | top 90% |
| Brisket | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 147.3944 | 147.3944 | 147.39 | top 93% |
“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.
| Where | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| IL | 1 | 0 | top 38% |
| KS | 1 | 0 | top 97% |
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medium (20–39) | 1 | 0 | top 38% |
| Large (40+) | 1 | 0 | top 97% |
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0% | top 38% | 92.1% | 92.1% |
| 2022 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% | top 97% | 82.4% | 82.4% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-08-25 | Up in Smoke on the Square (BACKYARD ONLY) Lincoln, IL | 10 / 26 (331.4284) | 11 (169.7144) | 13 (161.7140) | — | — |
| 2022-03-18 | Qlathe BBQ Championship 🏅 Olathe, KS | 69 / 71 (593.6232) | 71 (146.2516) | 71 (142.8572) | 64 (157.1200) | 66 (147.3944) |
| Year | Series | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 ↗ | Master | #411 (538 pts) | #358 (678 pts) | #379 (673 pts) | #437 (523 pts) | #349 (688 pts) |