Welcome To The Official Grand Championship Magazine!
On March 4th, the 17th Text Grand Championship will go live! 64 Textcees will compete for the sites most coveted prize. So this magazine will look at the history of the Grand Championship, and then we show the thoughts of some of the entrants.
The text Grand Championship is the most sought after title in the sites history, the list of previous winners reads like a who's-who of Letsbeef legends. so lets take a look at the history of the title.
The first GC took place in the summer of 2006. Since then, 16 further tournaments have crowned Grand Champions. A small number of people have managed to win multiple GC's: Jason the first to achieve this feat, UNKNOWN ARTIST becoming the second and RULE/Revan being the third ever two-times text Grand Champion.
In this upcoming Grand Championship, only one entrant will have the chance to duplicate the feat of these three, as in a rare occurance, only one previous Grand champion will be entering. That man is Askari, of The Originals. That is probably the major talking point of this tournament, as there is only a one-in-sixty four chance of a brand new champion not being crowned.
A text Grand Champion comes in many forms. many years have seen the pre-tournament favorites go on to win: Real Talk in 2006, iLLimit in 2008, Jason in 2009, UNKNOWN ARTIST in 2010, DaDDiO in 2011 & Revan in 2013 all entered the GC's they won as favorites to pick up the title.
Some years have seen unexpected winners, guys who weren't considered at all in the tournaments build up like: SpleNDiD in 2006, RULE in 2010 and TalkSick in 2012. these textcee were all surprise winners at the time, and stand as examples for those who are currently not being lauded as possible winners.
On a few occasions, old veterans with a point to prove have returned for one last run at the title, seeking either validation for their Letsbeef tenure, or just wanting to prove to themselves that they "still have it". such examples include: reEFer In 2011, DaDDiO in 2011, Askari in 2012, TalkSick in 2012, Al Swishha/Mikey DeNiro in 2013, & Revan in 2013. These winners had all been in the site for many years before picking up this title, reEFer & DaDDiO proving that one focused run is all it takes to become a champion, Askari & Revan proving that even time away does not stop you reaching the top, and TalkSick & Mikey DeNiro proving that you can go 6+ years before your time to shine comes.
So whether you enter as a favorite, an under-dog, a rookie or an old veteran, you ALWAYS have a chance to leave with the royal-blue title.
The ultimate objective when entering a Grand Championship is of course winning the entire thing, but you can fail in this goal and yet still leave as a winner. Many people use the Grand Championship tournament as a springboard to improve there reputation and standing on the site. A strong showing in the tournament can elevate someone almost as much as winning the entire thing.
In 2012 TalkSick won his first ever Grand Championship, however it was his strong showing in 2007, reaching the semi-finals that made his name known on the site. In 2009 SwiftKeys made it all the way to the final, which established him during an era when he would otherwise go unnoticed amongst the sea of active heavyweights. The most recent textcee to pull off such a feat was Lockhart, at the GC tournament last october. Lockhart's unexpected run to the final has helped elevate his profile in a massive way. The moral being that you dont need to when the title, to leave a winner.