The GBA 2018-2019 season has come to a successful close, and we’re proud to have helped provide you the opportunity to do the thing you love – cook barbecue! The GBA has worked hard to make these contests fun and fair, and we’ll continue working hard in the off season to make things even better.
We’d like to thank all of our Teams, Judges, and Contest Organizers. It takes all 3 working together to make a successful season and the GBA is proud of our role in the process. Our teams are some of the best on the barbecue circuit, and our judges are second to none. The Contest organizers deserve a huge thank you for doing all the hard work (and putting up with all of us!).
The statistics provided here are sourced from the new BBQ Scoring system the GBA formally adopted this year. The scoring system is database-driven, which means we can quickly and easily retrieve this information. If you find any issues with this data please email webmaster@bbqga.org
Contest Stats
The GBA sanctioned 10 Professional contests this year, and one In Association With contest. We’ve already got 7 on the books for next year, with a few more possibilities in the works, so get ready for a full year of Barbecue in the 2019-2020 season!
The GBA averaged just below 41 teams per contest. The largest contest this year was the Smokin’ Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival with a total of 59 teams. Dilly Dally in Dooly wasn’t far behind with 51 teams.
Contest Attendance
6 Teams attended all 10 GBA professional events:
- Big Butts BBQ
- Fire In The Hole
- Hootie Q
- Of the Chain BBQ
- Rescue Smokers
- Weekend Warriors Competition BBQ Team
3 Teams competed in 9 events (We want Que, Peach Coast BBQ, Pirates of PorkScents), 7 teams cooked 8 events, 2 teams cooked 7 events, and 6 teams cooked 5 events.
Grand Championships
The GBA Grand Champion is the team with the highest finals score among all 9 finals entries. We had a total of 8 Grand Champions this year, with only Holy Smokes (2) and Off the Chain (3) winning more than one Grand Championship during the season.
Ribs were the judges favorite last year, winning 4 of the 10 contests. Ribs narrowly beat out both Loin and Pork, each of which won Grand in 3 contests.
| Contest |
Team |
Category |
| Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff |
Bite My Butt BBQ |
Ribs |
| Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
budmeister bbq |
Pork |
| Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash |
Hold Your Horses BBQ |
Ribs |
| South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival |
Holy Smokes |
Pork |
| Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest |
Holy Smokes |
Ribs |
| Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival |
Off the Chain BBQ |
Ribs |
| Firehouse BBQ Festival |
Off the Chain BBQ |
Loin |
| Dilly Dally in Dooly |
Off the Chain BBQ |
Loin |
| Brickyard BBQ Bash |
Smoke “Em Low |
Pork |
| Smokin Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival |
Weekend Warriors Competition BBQ Team |
Loin |
Reserve Championships
The Reserve Champion is the team that has the highest total scores in all 3 categories at a contest where they did not win the Grand Championship. We had a total of 7 different teams win a Reserve Championship, with Rescue Smokers, We Want Que, and Off the Chain all winning 2 Reserve Championships.
| Team |
Reserve Score |
Contest |
| Smokin the Good Stuff |
1797.30 |
Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest |
| Rescue Smokers |
1796.10 |
Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
| Rescue Smokers |
1793.70 |
Dilly Dally in Dooly |
| We Want Que |
1792.30 |
Doc Holliday BBQ and Music Festival |
| We Want Que |
1793.30 |
South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival |
| The Pit Crew GA |
1791.00 |
Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash |
| Off the Chain BBQ |
1789.70 |
Brickyard BBQ Bash |
| Big Papa’s Country Kitchen |
1788.60 |
Smokin’ Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival |
| Off the Chain BBQ |
1779.90 |
Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff |
| budmesiter bbq |
1784.40 |
Firehouse BBQ Festival |
The average overall score in all 3 categories was 1744.63. This total does include dropped or disqualified entries, although there were very few of those.
The highest reserve score of the season was 1797.30 awarded to Smokin the Good Stuff at the Deep Roots Festival with scores of 598.8 in Loin, 599.1 in Pork, and 599.4 in Rib . The top 10 Reserve scores are shown below:
| Score |
Team |
Event |
| 1797.30 |
Smokin the Good Stuff |
Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest |
| 1796.10 |
Rescue Smokers |
Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
| 1793.70 |
We Want Que |
Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival |
| 1793.30 |
We Want Que |
South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival |
| 1793.30 |
Off the chain BBQ |
Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival |
| 1793.00 |
budmeister bbq |
Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
| 1792.30 |
Rescue Smokers |
Dilly Dally in Dooly |
| 1791.80 |
Off the chain BBQ |
Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
| 1791.00 |
The Pit Crew GA |
Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash |
| 1790.60 |
Pot’s BBQ |
Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival |
The highest average reserve scores were awarded at the Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival, where the 33 teams attending the event averaged a total score of 1759.08. Note too that Reserve scores do include dropped or disqualified entries. The average Reserve scores at each contest are shown below:
| Contest |
Average Reserve Score |
| Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
1759.08 |
| Brickyard BBQ Bash |
1757.30 |
| South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival |
1750.39 |
| Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash |
1747.57 |
| Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival |
1746.50 |
| Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff |
1742.82 |
| Smokin Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival |
1742.32 |
| Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest |
1724.62 |
| Firehouse BBQ Festival |
1695.94 |
| Dilly Dally in Dooly |
1686.49 |
Preliminary Scoring
We’re proud of our GBA Judges! They seem to be pretty consistent in their scoring, as evidenced by the preliminary scoring averages below. Note these scores don’t include any dropped or disqualified entries.
- The overall average score given by judges in the last season was 115.80
- The average Loin score given by judges in the last season was 115.71
- The average Pork score given by judges in the last season was 115.86
- The average Rib score given by judges in the last season was 115.84
Preliminary Scores by Category, for each Contest
The table below lists all 10 contests and shows the average score for that contest in each Category. The Brickyard BBQ Bash had the highest average Loin scores, judges at the Moultrie Mood Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff enjoyed the best Ribs, and the Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival turned out the best Pork. The Totals rows shows the average score for the Category over the entire season.
| Contest |
Loin |
Pork |
Rib |
| Brickyard BBQ Bash |
586.109677 |
585.783870 |
585.409677 |
| Deep Roots Festival BBQ Contest |
583.176744 |
584.272093 |
583.700000 |
| Dilly Dally in Dooly |
578.593750 |
581.028000 |
583.746000 |
| Doc Holiday BBQ and Music Festival |
580.015000 |
582.632500 |
583.852500 |
| Fire Ant Festival BBQ Bash |
580.065853 |
580.919512 |
586.587804 |
| Firehouse BBQ Festival |
580.107142 |
578.358620 |
577.392857 |
| Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff |
569.057894 |
586.652631 |
587.110526 |
| Rhythm and Ribs BBQ Festival |
586.015151 |
587.124242 |
585.945454 |
| Smokin Flamingo BBQ and Music Festival |
581.411864 |
581.944067 |
578.967796 |
| South Georgia BBQ and Outdoor Festival |
583.145454 |
583.990909 |
583.254545 |
| Totals |
580.7699 |
583.2710 |
583.5967 |
Preliminary Criteria Scores
GBA Judges are asked to rate each entry for Appearance, Tenderness, Taste, and Overall Impression. The average scores for those criteria in each category are shown below, and those averages don’t include dropped or disqualified entries.
Loin
- Appearance: 9.94
- Tenderness: 9.57
- Taste: 9.45
- Overall: 9.78
Pork
- Appearance: 9.80
- Tenderness: 9.42
- Taste: 9.30
- Overall: 9.78
Ribs
- Appearance: 9.77
- Tenderness: 9.40
- Taste: 9.28
- Overall: 9.77
Top 10 Preliminary Finishes
Quite a few teams got a coveted finals box during the season, although no single team made it to the top 10 in one or more categories for every contest.
Off the Chain and Weekend Warriors Competition BBQ Team hit the top 10 a total of 9 times in the Loin category. Off the Chain also made the list 7 times for Pork and 4 times for ribs, for a total of 20 Top 10 finishes. Rescue Smokers made the list 7 times in Pork, 6 times in Loin, and 6 times in Ribs for a total of 19 top 10 finishes. Weekend Warriors made the Top 10 9 times in Loin, 4 times in Pork, and twice in Ribs for a total of 15 Top 10 finishes, and We Want Que made it 5 times each in Pork and Ribs and 4 times in Loin for a total of 14 Top 10 finishes. Pot’s BBQ finished in the top 10 11 times, 6 in Pork, 3 in Ribs, and 2 in Loin. Smokin the Good Stuff hit the top 10 a total of 10 times, 6 in Ribs, 3 in Loin and once in Pork.
Finals Scoring
Our finals judges did a great job of making sure the best product of the day was awarded the grand prize. Their scoring averages are shown below. Note these scores don’t include dropped or disqualified scores.
- The average finals scores given by judges last season was 118.33
- The average Loin Finals score given by judges last season was 118.05
- The average Pork finals score given by judges last season was 118.36
- The average Rib finals score given by judges last season was 118.58
The average total finals score awarded was 581.76.
The highest finals score awarded was 596.6, awarded to the Rib entry from Bite My Butt BBQ at the Moultrie Moose Lodge 1158 BBQ Cookoff
Off the Chain appeared in finals 9 times, the most of any team this season. Rescue Smokers made it to finals a total of 7 times, while Weekend Warriors Competition BBQ Team made the grade 6 times. We Want Que and Holy Smokes went to the finals table 5 times, and both Budmesiter BBQ and Pot’s BBQ showed up 4 times.
Highest Overall Averages, by Category
For teams cooking at least 50% of the Professional GBA Events in the 2018-2019 season, Off the Chain BBQ had the highest average Loin score at 597.46 (10 contests), Pots BBQ had the highest average Pork score at 596.53 (7 contests) and Smokin the Good Stuff had the highest average Rib score at 596.34 (7 contests).
Finals Criteria Scores
The same criteria are used to rate the finals products. The average scores given by finals judges in each of those criteria are shown below:
Loin
- Appearance: 9.75
- Tenderness: 9.63
- Taste: 9.57
- Overall: 9.57
Pork
- Appearance: 9.76
- Tenderness: 9.65
- Taste: 9.60
- Overall: 9.61
Ribs
- Appearance: 9.76
- Tenderness: 9.67
- Taste: 9.63
- Overall: 9.63
600s and Perfect Scores
The teams stepped up this year and made it tough for our judges! Anytime our judges are handing out 600’s we know the competition is tight. There were a total of 20 600 scores awarded this season:
- 4 events awarded 1 600 score
- 4 events awarded 2 600 scores
- The Dilly Dally in Dooly event awarded 3 600 scores
- The Fire Ant festive handed out the most with a total of 5 600 scores
And to top that off, there were 3 PERFECT scores awarded in GBA contests this year. A Perfect Score is an entry that is awarded a score of 10 in every criteria by all 6 judges at the table. The teams who hit that magical mark this season were:
- The Pit Crew Ga, at the Firehouse BBQ Festival in the Pork category
- Holy Smokes, at the Deep Roots Festival in the Loin Category
- Weekend Warriors Competition BBQ Team, at the Fire Ant Festival in the Loin Category
If any team would like to know their personal stats from this year (averages, etc) please send your request to webmaster@bbqga.org. Please be sure to include your Team Name in your email, and please understand it may take several days for me to get to this.
