The battle lines have been drawn, and this Saturday (November 12) in Toronto, teams representing two of KOTD's most important staff members will face off in Team Ganik vs. Team Gully. Ganik vs. Gully is replacing the Flatline event, and according to KOTD, this will be an annual event. The card is not a strictly speaking Rookies vs. Vets type event, but instead features battlers generally more associated with the King Of The Dot brand facing battlers generally thought to represent the Ground Zero brand.
The full lineup and trailer are below:
- Daylyt vs. Gjonaj
- Charlie Clips vs. Shotti P
- The Saurus vs. Carter Deems
- Bender vs. PNut
- Real Deal vs. A. Ward
- Marv Won vs. Lexx Luthor
In what is likely to be the main event, KOTD veteran Daylyt will take on Gjonaj, who since a shaky showing against Dizaster, has rebounded with a pair of very strong performances against Psycoses and Danny Myers. Daylyt has always been very well respected in battle rap, and after his classic performance against Mike P on URL, his stock may be at an all-time high. At their best, both guys are very talented and capable of stealing the show.
Carter Deems vs. The Saurus is probably the most predictable battle on the card. The Saurus is one of the most consistent battlers in the world, and Carter is always Carter. The Saurus will bring strong writing, his ever-capable freestyle game and legendary consistency, and Carter will employ clever wordplay and awkwardness. If you like Carter's battles, there's no reason to think you won't like this. If you don't, I don't imagine anything will change here, but Saurus is always good, so there will still be something for you.
Shotti P vs. Charlie Clips and A. Ward vs. Real Deal are two battles very much in a similar mold. Both involve two of the best relative newcomers to KOTD taking on long-time, established top tier names in the battle culture. There is some risk that the Clips we see in this battle won’t be one in top form. He has a very important battle at NOME 6 against Ill Will a week after, so it is possible that he will not give Shotti his full attention. If this is not the case, and Clips does give a peak performance, the night will be much tougher for Shotti.
A battle to watch as having potential to steal the show is Bender vs. PNut. PNut has for years been one of the most underrated emcees in the battle world, and lately has been generating a lot of buzz with his performances. Bender has for years been thought of as one of the best pens in battle rap, but consistency has been an issue. At his best he's incredible, having a very broad range of topics he draws from and an underrated delivery, but stumbles and chokes have in the past plagued him.
Lexx is one of the hardest grinding emcees in the world, taking countless battles to build his own name, and using his role as head of BeastMODE NY to build the names of others. At this event his work pays off as he battles highly respected veteran Marv Won. Much like The Saurus, if you like Marv's style, he will almost never disappoint you, as his consistency is very impressive. Lexx is much in the same mold, even on short notice, you can always depend on Lexx to deliver, as evidenced by his Blackout battle with Jay Rell. Probably the safest battle on the card, as neither guy has a history of forgetting material or phoning it in.
If you can't be there live, you can order the PPV at kotdtv.com.
Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
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