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.
Came within 2.8572 points of the Grand Championship at 8th Annual KCBS World Invitational: Master Series Invitational and the Backyard Series Invitational (Sunday, May 24, 2026) (2026-05-24).
1 perfect 180 in the data — every judge at the table handing back a nine, all in brisket.
The ratings favoured the top seed the other 87 times in 100
Their Grand Championship at Smoke in the Valley (2025-09-27) came as the ratings underdog — roughly a 13-in-100 shot against the field's top-rated team, SMELLAQUE.
Their power rating has climbed 52 points across 10 contests since 2025-05-24 — from 1496 up to 1548.
A call in 14 of 16 contests
A top-10 category call in 88% of their 16 contests — they get to the stage more often than not.
98.3% of a perfect 720
Their best day on record: 707.9772 at 8th Annual KCBS World Invitational: Master Series Invitational and the Backyard Series Invitational (Sunday, May 24, 2026) — 98.3% of a perfect 720.
Slam Dunk BBQ has finished one call ahead of Phantom Smoke & BBQ 2 times — their closest competition in the data.
2025 was the year it came together: 9 contests, 1 Grand Championship and 2 category wins, at an average finish in the top 28%.
Q Cartel ahead in 78% of their meetings
Q Cartel has come out ahead in 7 of their 9 shared contests.
Ahead in 100% of their meetings
They've finished ahead of Mc Que It in 8 of their 8 shared contests.
Field size changes the story: they average a top 42% finish in large fields against top 54% in small ones.
Contest to contest, they've covered roughly 5,461 miles across 16 mapped stops — the longest single trip being 1,941 miles to Grand American Barbecue World Championship Invitational (COMPETITOR SERIES).
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.
55 rated teams sit within a point of this rating, so a place on this list means the numbers match — no more than that.
2 contests in common so far: too few to settle anything, but a team Phantom Smoke & BBQ has actually stood beside rather than a stranger on the same rating.
⚔ Head-to-headThis is the highest they've ever been rated, 12 rated contests in — a team sitting at its own career peak.
⚔ Head-to-headFewer contests behind them than Phantom Smoke & BBQ has cooked, 11 to 16, which makes theirs the less settled rating of the two.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir last contest in the data was back in 2015, 11 years before Phantom Smoke & BBQ's most recent — their rating stopped moving when they stopped cooking.
⚔ Head-to-headThey were already cooking in 2018, 5 years before Phantom Smoke & BBQ's first contest.
⚔ Head-to-headTheir rating is built on 1 Grand Championship in 18 contests, alongside a 28% overall top-10 rate.
⚔ Head-to-head| Opponent | Meetings | Ahead | Behind | Win rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brisket Butts | 9 | 4 | 5 | 44% | ⚔ compare |
| Q Cartel | 9 | 2 | 7 | 22% | ⚔ compare |
| Mc Que It | 8 | 8 | 0 | 100% | ⚔ compare |
| Kreiser Barbecue | 8 | 5 | 3 | 63% | ⚔ compare |
| MOTLEY QUE | 8 | 5 | 3 | 63% | ⚔ compare |
| SMELLAQUE | 8 | 1 | 7 | 13% | ⚔ compare |
| ROKER Q | 7 | 6 | 1 | 86% | ⚔ compare |
| No Measurements BBQ | 7 | 5 | 2 | 71% | ⚔ compare |
| Bottle Hill BBQ | 7 | 5 | 2 | 71% | ⚔ compare |
| EFFIN'EH GRAY'S | 7 | 3 | 4 | 43% | ⚔ compare |
| BIGG SMOAK BBQ | 7 | 2 | 5 | 29% | ⚔ compare |
| KillerbunnyBBQ | 6 | 6 | 0 | 100% | ⚔ compare |
| Homestead Smoke Shack | 6 | 4 | 2 | 67% | ⚔ compare |
| Slam Dunk BBQ | 6 | 2 | 4 | 33% | ⚔ compare |
| ARROWHEAD NORTH BBQ | 6 | 1 | 5 | 17% | ⚔ compare |
| Category | Entries | Calls | Wins | Podiums | Best | Worst | Average | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 17 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 176.0000 | 161.1428 | 169.97 | top 45% |
| Pork Ribs | 17 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 178.8572 | 154.2744 | 168.39 | top 43% |
| Pork | 16 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 178.8800 | 154.8684 | 169.03 | top 44% |
| Brisket | 16 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 180.0000 🔥 | 155.4516 | 168.84 | top 41% |
“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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AB | 8 | 1 | top 25% |
| SK | 3 | 0 | top 77% |
| TN | 2 | 0 | top 46% |
| NY | 2 | 0 | top 38% |
| MB | 1 | 0 | top 50% |
| Field | Contests | GCs | Avg finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small (<20 teams) | 4 | 0 | top 54% |
| Medium (20–39) | 8 | 1 | top 33% |
| Large (40+) | 4 | 0 | top 42% |
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +17.6 | Smoke in the Valley | 2025-09-27 |
| +12.1 | Embers and Ice Pitmaster Championship | 2025-05-24 |
| +11.9 | Bean Town BBQ Cookoff | 2025-10-11 |
| +11.1 | Didsbury Lions BBQ | 2025-07-26 |
| +10.2 | Barbeque on the Bow Festival | 2025-08-30 |
| Swing | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| -11.4 | Father's Day Smoke n' Bones BBQ | 2023-06-16 |
| -11.3 | Big Smoke Bonnyville | 2025-09-06 |
| -8 | Smoke 'N the Valley | 2023-09-23 |
| -1.8 | Grand American Barbecue New York State Championship Open (OPEN FORMAT) | 2026-05-02 |
| Season | Contests | GCs | Top-10s | Category wins | Walk rate | Avg finish | Best overall (% of perfect) | Avg overall (% of perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 75% | top 42% | 98.3% | 95.2% |
| 2025 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 100% | top 28% | 96.5% | 94% |
| 2024 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 100% | top 52% | 92.9% | 92.9% |
| 2023 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50% | top 89% | 90.5% | 89.8% |
| Date | Event | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-24 | 8th Annual KCBS World Invitational: Master Series Invitational and the Backyard Series Invitational (Sunday, May 24, 2026) unrated Lebanon, TN | 2 / 82 (707.9772) | 37 (174.8572) | 8 (178.8572) | 35 (174.2628) | 3 (180.0000) |
| 2026-05-23 | 8th Annual KCBS World Invitational: Wells Cup, Cocktail Ancillary, Dessert Ancillary (Saturday, May 23, 2026) unrated Lebanon, TN | 104 / 117 (671.8512) | 110 (165.0740) | 95 (166.8344) | 57 (171.9656) | 79 (167.9772) |
| 2026-05-02 | Grand American Barbecue New York State Championship Open (OPEN FORMAT) 🏅 New Paltz, NY | 35 / 59 (676.4456) | 40 (169.6800) | 30 (169.6800) | 10 (174.2628) | 47 (162.8228) |
| 2026-05-01 | Grand American Barbecue World Championship Invitational (COMPETITOR SERIES) unrated New Paltz, NY | 7 / 43 (699.4056) | 19 (173.7028) | 21 (171.4056) | 2 (178.2972) | 7 (176.0000) |
| 2025-10-11 | Bean Town BBQ Cookoff Bow Island, AB | 3 / 15 (672.4680) | 1 (176.0000) | 6 (167.3712) | 9 (163.4284) | 6 (165.6684) |
| 2025-09-27 | Smoke in the Valley Edmonton, AB | 1 / 23 (694.8916) | 4 (174.8572) | 8 (169.7144) | 3 (173.1772) | 3 (177.1428) |
| 2025-09-12 | Summer Grillin' BBQ Festival Leduc, AB | 7 / 16 (679.9316) | 6 (171.4172) | 4 (172.5600) | 10 (163.9772) | 3 (171.9772) |
| 2025-09-06 | Big Smoke Bonnyville Bonnyville, AB | 9 / 15 (677.6572) | 9 (170.8344) | 10 (169.7028) | 9 (169.1200) | 9 (168.0000) |
| 2025-08-30 | Barbeque on the Bow Festival Calgary, AB | 5 / 38 (686.7768) | 23 (167.4172) | 8 (171.9656) | 8 (171.9884) | 3 (175.4056) |
| 2025-07-26 | Didsbury Lions BBQ Didsbury, AB | 7 / 32 (681.6456) | 1 (176.0000) | 19 (165.1200) | 13 (170.8228) | 8 (169.7028) |
| 2025-06-30 | Blue Bombers BBQ Pit Master Showdown Winnipeg, MB | 12 / 24 (666.7656) | 11 (167.9772) | 7 (171.9772) | 18 (161.7028) | 14 (165.1084) |
| 2025-05-31 | Small Town Smoke Down Bassano, AB | 6 / 25 (694.8456) | 5 (174.8456) | 7 (173.7028) | 6 (174.2972) | 8 (172.0000) |
| 2025-05-24 | Embers and Ice Pitmaster Championship Calmar, AB | 4 / 34 (319.3944) | 4 (165.1200) | 4 (154.2744) | 25 (158.2516) | 10 (170.2856) |
| 2024-09-21 | Smoke 'N the Valley Fort Qu'Appelle, SK | 11 / 21 (668.6400) | 17 (161.1428) | 7 (173.1656) | 1 (178.8800) | 16 (155.4516) |
| 2023-09-23 | Smoke 'N the Valley Lumsden, SK | 22 / 26 (651.4516) | 22 (162.8800) | 24 (156.0228) | 18 (165.1316) | 13 (167.4172) |
| 2023-06-16 | Father's Day Smoke n' Bones BBQ Regina, SK | 15 / 16 (641.7484) | 9 (169.1656) | 13 (161.1772) | 15 (154.8684) | 13 (156.5372) |
| Year | Series | Overall | Chicken | Ribs | Pork | Brisket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 ↗ | Master | #411 (380 pts) | #694 (180 pts) | #583 (275 pts) | #562 (255 pts) | #447 (355 pts) |
| 2025 ↗ | Backyard | #228 (182 pts) | #232 (182 pts) | #247 (182 pts) | — | — |
| 2025 ↗ | Master | #116 (1509 pts) | #106 (1524 pts) | #157 (1339 pts) | #178 (1169 pts) | #111 (1489 pts) |
| 2024 ↗ | Master | #946 (116 pts) | #1148 (86 pts) | #920 (151 pts) | #650 (271 pts) | #1077 (91 pts) |
| 2023 ↗ | Master | #837 (157 pts) | #809 (192 pts) | #989 (157 pts) | #822 (177 pts) | #761 (212 pts) |