The History Of: Text Rookie Of The Year

[Revan]

The History Of: Text Rookie Of The Year

This is an overview of the history regarding the Rookie Of The Year award for the text section of Letsbeef. The Rookie Of The Year award has been an unoffical award up until 2011 when the title was first competed in an offical tournament format.

List Of The Rookie Of The Year Champions


2008: AkRid_ArTz (http://www.letsbeef.com/forums/member.php?u=76674)
2009: RULE (http://www.letsbeef.com/forums/member.php?u=859014)
2010: AmbitiousFlow
2011: Mr SPLAT
2012: Jimmy Dean™
2013: Obey (https://www.letsbeef.com/forums/member.php?u=892298)
2018: Edgeworth (https://www.letsbeef.com/forums/member.php?u=905997)
2019: Kiwi Peewee (https://www.letsbeef.com/forums/member.php?u=907283)

[RULE]

The Rookie Of The Year 2005-2007

In the early years of Letsbeef.com, the subject of a 'Rookie Of The Year' award or distinction was never brought up or enquired into. Hindsight allows us to see the possible and probable candidates should the title of been in action back then. In August of 2005 the site first came to be, so locating possible ROTY's for that short amount of time is difficult. 2006 however is a different story, and the people who joined up in that year reads like the whos-who of Letsbeef textcees. People like Real Talk, LEFT FIELD, Conceited, iLLimit, Top Notch, DaDDiO, MahVulus etc etc would all of been eligible to compete. 2007 also boasts a fantastic line-up spearheaded by UNKNOWN ARTIST, NawkOut & Mayneak. Although the ROTY title wasnt present during these years, Real Talk in '06 and UNKNOWN ARTIST in '07 would be good guesses and were the title awarded in lieu they would be no-doubt be the frontrunners.

[Revan]

The Rookie Of The Year 2008

Unfortunately not a lot of threads about this subject remain anymore, but it is commonly accepted that the result of the ROTY discussions for this year ended up with Akrid Artz being considered the victor and champion.

[RULE]

The Rookie Of The Year 2009

The Nominations

In the late half of 2009 the topic of a 'Rookie Of The Year' award was mentioned with some persistence. The resulting discussion led to multiple forums polls which resulted in four names being mentioned, and two of those names strongly stood out from the rest. The four names mentioned were STOY & IAmFlow (These were the two lesser touted members) and then the stand-out two rookies = RULE & Krhyme Killz. STOY was ruled out after defeats to the other three, and due to his penchant at the time for 'sniping' rather than battling established members. Whilst IAmFlow was ruled out for also sustaining defeats to Krhyme Killz and RULE, but for also being suspected of not being a geninue rookie (Which was later confirmed.) The discussions and debates fairly quickly led to the consensus on how the Rookie Of The Year should be crowned - A 16 line battle between RULE & Krhyme Killz, winner takes all.

RULE Vs Krhyme Killz

In march of 2009, Krhyme Killz first burst onto the Letsbeef battle scene, turning out a high amount of battles in his first year and quickly becoming a stand-out personality on the sites forums. He spent the majority of his first year crewless, although he eventually aligned with the formidable - Spectacular Vernacular. RULE started out life on Letsbeef in August of 2009 as Deville Rule, and soon joined forces with HVK's LB School crew that the two eventually turned into the first incarnation of 'Classick At Rhymin'. RULE & Krhyme had a short lived 'beef' during 2009 that led to there first encounter - a 16 line battle that Krhyme won by a flawless 100% margin. Fast-forward to December and the two were thrown into battle once again. The final of the Rookie Of The Year award for 2009 came down to a 16 line battle between RULE & Krhyme, at the time RULE was a member of Hoodrich All Stars with Krhyme being a member of Spectacular Vernacular. The final took place quite fittingly on December 30th of 2009, the two finalists doing a 'blind drop' battle, writing there verses and posting at the same time. The battle is linked below.

Krhyme Killz Vs RULE (http://www.letsbeef.com/battle_details.php?section=tb&id=333423)

The Result

The battled ended in a victory for RULE, who was then crowned as the Rookie Of The Year for 2009.

[Revan]

The Rookie Of The Year 2010

The Nominations

2010 was a hectic year as far as the ROTY title went. The topic was commonplace throughout the year, and as the winter dawned the subject blanketed the entire text forums. As the latter part of the year came around, multiple threads and polls popped up to discuss the contenders. Once all the nominations and discussions had died down, we were left with five names that appeared to have the most valid claims. Ambitious Flow, Vandahl, Spooky Deep, Los Briggs & GRizzEAT. Ambitious Flow and GRizzEAT were the prolific battlers, both racking up over 100 battles each during the year and toppling some solid opposition. Vandah, Spooky Deep & Los Briggs battles much less frequently, Spooky in particular, but impressed with the quality of there writing. At the time as the discussions raged on regarding who was the best rookie of the year, two names fell beside the wayside. Los Briggs due to his lack of victories and GRizzEAT due to his tendancy to snipe more often than not. This left three textcees to battle it out for the crown.

AmBitious Flow Vs Vandahl Vs Spooky Deep

Multiple forum polls were initiated to try and show a clear winner, and all resulted in near-draws. It was the hope of many that a mini-tournament or battle league could be agreed to allow a title to be earnt by one of the three but the trio was never able or willing to commit to any definitive contest. Taking the three textcees individually, they all had good resumes to go with their claims. Ambitious Flow had defeated Mayneak, Spooky Deep had bested Revan, & Vandahl had beaten reEFer. All three are (or will be) Hall Of Famers and show that the rookies had a strong caliber of writing skill to be able to snatch victories from them. Unfortunately the only occasion of the three matching wits with each other came in the form of Spooky Deep Vs Ambitious Flow, which Spooky won by 1%. which again was not strong enough of a victory to completely knock Ambitious Flow from the running. As many members of the site sought to find a means to decide the actual ROTY, the chances of a solution happening disppeared when Spooky requested that he was taken out of the running, due to him having no desire to be considered a Rookie Champion. Ambitious Flow also declined to battle Vandahl due to personal issues with him and eventually all chances for a champion to be crowned evaporated. The answer of the question: 'Who was the 2010 Rookie Of The Year' is simply one of opinion. The element of hindsight fails to help find a solution too, as of this writing (Oct 2012) of the five names orginally considered for the title, GRizzEAT is probably the most accomlished of the group in terms of tournament performance and big name scalps. Spooky still battles rarely but impresses with the quality of his writing. Ambitious Flow has all but ghosted the site, ironically not battling much after 2010. Los Briggs found himself banned on occasions for offences including plagiarism, which has dropped his repuation below the levels it reached in '10. Vandahl also departed the site for a while before making a comeback in the second half of '12. He has continued to show his potential but appears to not have the desire to try and really leave a mark on the site. In a year consumed by debate over the subject, 2010 eventually failed to produce a definitive Rookie Of The Year.

Crowning A Champion

After much debate, it was decided that the ROTY Championship for this year would be awarded to the person who won the public vote for the title during that year. As a result the belt was eventually handed to AmbitiousFlow.

[RULE]

The Rookie Of The Year 2011

The Nominations

With the mess that was the 2010 ROTY still fresh in the sites memory, moderator Just C took the reins of the championship fully for 2011. Due to the documented issues that appeared in the previous year, Just C decided to host the ROTY for '11 in seasonal format, allowing those who registered in the late of 2010 to be eligible for consideration. Just C had opted for an official tournament, made up of sixteen rookies, with the winner being awarded the title. A series of threads and polls where created to decide which sixteen rookies would participate. The list was undisputed and the sixteen were randomly drawn to enter the elimination tournament which would crown the winner.

The Tournament

The tournament was contested under offical tournament rules, with single eliminations until the winner was crowned. This tournament in its entirety can be found here:

The Rookie Of The Year 2011 Tournament (http://www.letsbeef.com/tournament.php?tid=18&section=tb)

The Result

The main favorites going into the tournament all landed on the bottom half of the brackets, leading to exZACHly upsetting many other favorites to make the final alongside Mr SPLAT. The final itself was somewhat one sided, with Mr SPLAT winning in convincing style to become the first Rookie Of The Year to be crowned in a elimination tournament.

[Revan]

The Rookie Of The Year 2012

The Nominations

Following the success of the previous year's bracketed tournament, this format was continued in 2012. Initially there was scepticism over whether it would be viable to host a tournament, as many believed that all of 2012's talented rookies were on the audio side of the site. However, eventually a field was put together by moderator AfterThought, including accounts that had joined in December 2011. There was much debate over which accounts should be eligible, as some battlers had been battling on other websites for many years but had only recently joined Letsbeef; however it was decided these accounts should be included, and eventually a field of 7 of the year's strongest rookies was assembled.

The Tournament

The ROTY tournament was again contested under standard tournament rules, with single eliminations over three rounds until the winner was crowned. The tournament in its entirety can be found here:

The Rookie Of The Year 2012 Tournament (https://www.letsbeef.com/tournament.php?tid=35&section=tb)

The Result

Phroxen was considered a strong favourite going into the tournament because he had been battling on other websites for up to a decade before first registering an account on letsbeef.com in December 2011. However, Jimmy Dean was able to power through future LBT Legend and Text Battle Hall of Famer ILLoKWENT on his way to the final, where he would beat Phroxen in a closely fought match, earning him his well-deserved Rookie Champion title for 2012.

[RULE]

The Rookie Of The Year 2013

The Nominations

Continuing the trend of running ROTY events as a bracketed tournament, 2013 saw 8 of the site's most promising newcomers selected to face off for the title, with the tournament being organised by 2009 ROTY RULE. All accounts having joined since the beginning of October 2012 could be considered; notably this excluded Lockhart, who had joined the site in September 2012 and had been considered an exciting new prospect since making it to the final of the Grand Championship in 2013. There were nonetheless several respected names in the mix, many of whom were noted as coming through Murda Muzik, a crew which had been involved in helping many newer battlers elevate.

The Tournament
For the third year running the title was decided through standard tournament rules, with single eliminations over three rounds. The tournament ran during late December, with the title match opening on January 1st 2014. The full tournament can be found here:

The Rookie Of The Year 2013 Tournament (https://www.letsbeef.com/tournament.php?tid=42&section=tb)

The Result

There were several strong contenders for the title, including future live battlers Dysfunctional and ELOH STACKz, Murda Muzik's Fidel Z and Turnbull AC's member Obey. Of these Obey entered as perhaps the strongest contender, and after defeating Fidel in the final he was able to emerge as the Rookie of the Year for 2013.

[Revan]

The Rookie Of The Year 2014-2017

Unfortunately no Rookie Champion was crowned in the years between 2013 and 2018 due to a couple of factors. Firstly, site activity greatly struggled throughout this time, and few genuinely new battlers joined the site and became successful. Secondly, whenever the subject of a Rookie Tournament was raised, the thread devolved into a quagmire of disputes over who should be eligible to enter. Although there were no winners officially crowned, looking back there are a few names that stand out. Shodan was often suggested as a possible candidate, as other than a couple of battles in 2010 he hadn't really began participating on the site until late 2013. Esso was considered a strong contender in 2014, as was Homeskool in 2015. 2016 was an all-time low for the site in terms of activity, and no real discussion of rookie of the year contenders took place. The tournament was scrapped for 2017 due to a lack of demand, although looking back Bape perhaps may have been the best contender from that year.

[RULE]

The Rookie Of The Year 2018

The Nominations

For the first time since 2013 there was sufficient interest and activity to run a Rookie Of The Year tournament in 2018, and the tournament came back with a vengeance. Since the tournament hadn't been run for so long, moderator Seul was permitted to invite the best rookies from as far back as 2016, and eventually a field of 16 contenders was put together for a bracketed tournament. Contenders were selected based on their battle prowess and on their activity, and the tournament was the largest ROTY event since the 2011.

The Tournament

The competition was again run as an official tournament, with single eliminations over 4 rounds to decide the champion. The full tournament can be found here:

The Rookie Of The Year Tournament 2018 (https://www.letsbeef.com/tournament.php?tid=96&section=tb)

The Result

The tournament included accounts created over several years, with a number of strong contenders. However, 2018 rookie Edgeworth was able to blitz his way through the field (picking up 95% or more of the vote in every battle) to defeat his crew mate in The Fire Nation, Brayne Ded, and become Rookie Of The Year 2018. The tournament was considered a resounding success, and was voted tournament of the year in the 2018 LestsBeef Awards.

[Kiwi Peewee]

The Rookie Of The Year 2019

The Nominations

Through most of 2019 there were considered an insufficient number of promising new battlers to hold another Rookie tournament. However, in the early months of 2020 interest in the topic picked up, and about 8 names were brought up, with half of these falling out of contention for various reasons. Eventually four names were left – DiZzReSpEkT, Kiwi Peewee, The Saaxxx Baba and Zezmeril. DiZzReSpEkT had been inactive for long periods, but had shown very promising creativity behind his punches. Kiwi Peewee had only risen to become noticed with a victory over Rican in late December of 2019, although by the time the tournament began in March he had risen to be LBT Champion and a moderator and was considered by some a full-blown heavyweight. The Saaxxx Baba was best known for his sexually-minded presence in the forums, but this belied his tremendous elevation as a battler, which had seen him to a battle-of-the-card bout against REZN in the THC in December among several other impressive performances. Zezmeril had previously had an LB account many years earlier but had stopped using it after a few battles and so was determined to be allowed to enter. Kiwi was considered by most to be a sure favourite to win, and there was some talk of directly awarding him the title, but most users (including Kiwi) believed the 4 should be able to fight it out in a tournament.

The Tournament

Previous Rookie Champion Edgeworth was selected to host a four man tournament to find 2019's Rookie of the Year; unfortunately this could not be held in the official tourney brackets due to the concurrent One Bar Tournament #8. All battles were to be 16 lines as in 2018. The tournament was co-ordinated through this forum thread:

The Rookie Of The Year 2019 Tournament (https://www.letsbeef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170096)

The Result

After Zezmeril no-showed his semi-final with Kiwi Peewee due to a family crisis and DiZzReSpEkT lost a close bout with The Saaxxx Baba, the tournament was set for a Saaxxx vs Kiwi final. Both sides really delivered; Saaxxx's verse was hailed as perhaps his best yet with some terrific highlights, but Kiwi proved too strong for him and was scored as being narrowly in the lead by every voter. The bout ended in a flattering 100%-0% scoreline to Kiwi, and he was crowned Rookie of the Year for 2019, despite the fact that the battle finished during April of 2020.