2012 Year In Review | The Year In King Of The Dot

In the third installment of our 2012 Year In Review, we take a look back at King Of The Dot’s 2012. Much like we did on our review of URL, we will be taking a deeper look at a few aspects of King Of The Dot’s year. These are the things that not only played a big part in KOTD’s 2012, but look to have an impact on their future as well. One things become clear when looking back on King Of The Dot’s biggest year, is that 2013 should be even bigger.

2012 Year In Review | The Year In King Of The Dot | Grand Prix

The Grand Prix did a lot for King Of The Dot, this year. Not only did it create a worthy challenger for the title, when Arcane won the Grand Prix for a second time. But it also helped expose some of King Of The Dot’s new talent to the more casual fans. Other than border issues pulling Caustic out of the tournament early, this year’s Grand Prix still managed to be a success.

There’s no question that the Grand Prix helped establish 100 Bulletz, in King Of The Dot. Before the Grand Prix, he was a Ground Zero battler who had shown a lot of promise. Following the Grand Prix, he’s considered one of the top battlers in King Of The Dot, with some big opportunities lined up for 2013. He may not have won the 2012 Grand Prix Tournament, but he certainly gained a lot from his impressive run.

Although it’s unfortunate that Caustic was pulled from the Grand Prix because of issues with the border, he still gained a lot from the tournament. Caustic had always shown promise in the past, and everyone knew he was capable of being one of the best. The problem was, he always seemed to “play down” to his competition’s level. He didn’t do that in the GP, instead he put on impressive performance, after impressive performance, regardless of the opponent. Many people feel he could have won the GP, if he’d been able to continue, and would like to see him face Arcane at some point down the road.

While those three probably benefited most from the tournament, they weren’t the only ones. Step Easy, Chedda Cheese, and a few others had their stock rise due to their involvement. With the 2013 Grand Prix focusing on Ground Zero, it should be interesting to see who benefits from the tournament, and makes a name for themselves in the new year.

2012 Year In Review | The Year In King Of The Dot | Ground Zero

Which brings us to our next topic, Ground Zero. In a lot of ways, Ground Zero played a big part in King Of The Dot. Not only did a few Ground Zero battlers make names for themselves in the Grand Prix, but quite a few other established themselves throughout the year. Between the Vancouver, Calgary, West Coast and Toronto divisions, a lot of groundwork was laid for the future of KOTD in Ground Zero.

It’s safe to say that the Vancouver division of King Of The Dot, had a breakout year in 2012. They managed to brush off some of the negative sentiment fans had towards their division, from the past. They rebuilt with some talented new battlers, and hosted events consistently. The venue seemed more packed with each event, and by the end of the year, they had a dedicated local fanbase, eager to see battlers from their own division.

Calgary had its share of success in 2012, as well. They may not have made as big of a leap as the Vancouver division, but they have a few battlers who show promise. The Vancouver vs Calgary battles that happened throughout the year, seemed to get a lot of interest at events. It’s refreshing to see each division starting to form their own identities, and a friendly rivalry between the two divisions could be interesting in the future.

Toronto’s Ground Zero division obviously got the most exposure, with many of their battlers frequently battling on some of the bigger King Of The Dot cards. With a few of them making the transition into regular main card battlers, it will be interesting to see if a crop of new talent takes their place in Ground Zero. With the 2013 Grand Prix focusing on Ground Zero battlers, it’s safe to say that a lot of the battlers who put in the work in 2012, will have an opportunity to showcase themselves in the new year.

2012 Year In Review | The Year In King Of The Dot | West Coast

It was an interesting first year for the West Coast division of King Of The Dot. They held a few successful events towards the beginning of the year, with Cali Is Active and Str8 Gassin. A couple of quality main events, and quite a few impressive performances from some of the new talent.

Vendetta was on an entirely different level, the biggest event that KOTD had ever held, and one of the biggest events in battle rap history. The line up was filled with potential main event battles, and featured Canibus making his battle rap debut. Despite a few problems in some of the battles, and the chaos of the Canibus situation, the event still managed to put out quite a few great battles. It didn’t hurt when the Canibus performance went viral, and got the attention of far more people, than it would have if he’d actually done what he was supposed to.

The West Coast division didn’t put on another event in 2012, following Vendetta. It became clear that it’s just not feasible to continually host events on such a large scale, financially. Instead, King Of The Dot took the time to restructure, and put together a strong team capable of building up the division from a long term standpoint. With Aspect One, J Pro and Malathion running things, along with Lush One, the division is in good hands.

As great as some of the moments were in 2012 for the West Coast, it only scratched the surface of the division’s potential. With a strong talent base of well known battlers and promising newcomers to choose from, 2013 should be a big year for King Of The Dot’s West Coast division. In fact, they’ve already started the year off strong, with the Prove Yourself and Resurgence events.

2012 Year In Review | The Year In King Of The Dot | Championship

It was an interesting year for the King Of The Dot Championship, to say the least. Following Bender’s surprising loss, fans never seemed satisfied with whoever held the chain. The backlash to Sketch Menace as champion, became even more vocal once poRICH won the title. Fans practically clamored for a new champion, someone top tier, a big name of some kind. They got that in Dizaster.

Strangely, Dizaster as champion hasn’t necessarily felt right, either. He didn’t seem to put all of his effort into his title match with poRICH, and many felt that Dizaster lost the battle because of it. poRICh managed to have his most impressive performance in years, and while Dizaster’s delivery and presence live was there as always, poRICh seemed to say a lot more with his material. So while it seemed like everyone felt Dizaster was going to win the championship, it became a little hard to accept when he did, based on the performance.

It didn’t help things, when Dizaster turned all of his attention to URL, once he won the chain. Saying that he wouldn’t battle in KOTD until he battled in URL, only made it worse. His constant downplaying of both poRICH, and his first challenger in Arcane, by saying he doesn’t have to put in effort to beat them, is almost too much. The casual arrogance in recent interviews and tweets has somewhat turned a large portion of his fanbase against him, and turned him into a bit of a villain.

All of that said, it has managed to build interest in the upcoming battle between Dizaster and Arcane. By winning the Grand Prix for the second time in a row, with a series of impressive performances, Arcane has left no doubt into anyone’s mind of whether or not he deserves a second shot at the chain. That is, unless your Dizaster. The question now is, was all of that bravado just for the cameras, or has Dizaster really slept on someone who’s very capable of beating him.

2012 Year In Review | The Year In King Of The Dot | Future

In a lot of ways, 2012 was King Of The Dot’s biggest year. Coming into the year off of the success of Dizaster vs DNA with Drake in attendance, and exceeding that with the Canibus vs Dizaster battle. There’s no question that their fanbase is the largest it has ever been, and shows no signs of slowing down. Still, 2012 had a few road bumps along the way.

The important thing is, King Of The Dot recognized when there were problems, and made the appropriate adjustments. There was a lot of groundwork laid throughout the year, with a clear emphasis on the future in mind. Instead of making the same mistakes others have made in the past, they looked at things in the long term, and chose longevity over momentary gains.

Now, they’re going into 2013 with a clear focus, and that forethought should pay out for them in a big way. There’s a lot of new talent in multiple divisions, that will have the opportunity to shine with the 2013 Ground Zero Grand Prix. They’ve got an intriguing main event, between the underachieving champion and a determined contender who’s earned his shot, and wants the title like never before. They have quite a bit of interest from outside talent, looking to make their KOTD debuts, as well. The year’s only started, and it already looks promising.

KOTD just held a successful event with the West Coast’s Resurgence, and Blackout 3 is less than a week away. Along with the aforementioned title match, you have the highly anticipated Pat Stay vs Math Hoffa battle, an intriguing match up between Shotty Horroh and Ness Lee, and a battle that could steal the show in Sun Tzu vs J Pro. If you can’t make it to the event on January 26th, be sure to order it on PPV the following day.