X Games 12 goes off in LA August 3-6. A whopping 52 Dew Tour riders will be kickin' it in Cali vying to head home with a medal in hand. To make it into the Dew Tour, athletes have to qualify based on a point system, as opposed to X Games where the X Games and industry experts invite the cream of the crop to attend their event and the spots are limited.

Of the 95 skate, BMX and Moto spots up for invite at the X Games, this year 77 of them are occupied by Dew Tour BMX riders, FMX riders and skaters.

The start lists are stacked with Dew Tour athletes and the caliber of riding at X is going to be out of control, as these riders are fresh from Denver and preppin for Portland.

It will be interesting to see how some of the seasoned X Games riders will do; Dave Mirra for example, has won more medals at X Games than any other competitor ever, but he has yet to seal the deal on a Dew Tour BMX Vert or Park win this year. Mirra is competing in four of the five BMX categories at X and seeing as how it's his claimed turf, no doubt he'll roll away with medals in hand.

Then on the other end of the spectrum, there are a few fresh faces on the circuit to keep tabs on; like Nyjah Huston, the eleven year-old who has proven to blow us away at Dew Tour, finishing second in Skate Park at both stops.

Nyjah will step onto the Street Course at X Games and go up against some familiar faces, like the two first place finishers in Skate Park on Dew Tour this year, Jereme Rogers and Ryan Sheckler.

Like Nyjah, newcomer Daniel Dhers, of Venezuela took first place in BMX Park at the Right Guard Open in Denver and likewise, rookie Anthony Napolitan swept the dirt course clean and took with him first place in BMX Dirt at the Panasonic Open in Louisville - both securing their spots on tour, all while turning industry heads.

The X Games is an intense few days, with multiple categories in not only Skate, BMX and FMX, but also on the roster are Surfing, Supermoto, Women's Skate and the inaugural introduction of Rally Racing to the X Games.

After X wraps up, those 52 Dew Tour riders will have just shy of two weeks to regroup and fine-tune their skills; X will give everyone a taste of what's to come at the Vans Invitational, happening Aug 17-20 in Portland, OR.