Crazy Raccoon has been one of APAC-N’s most unfortunate teams in the 2023 Apex Legends Competitive Series, bombing out early at both international events in the past year and disappointing longtime fans of the organization. Despite qualifying for the Championship through the LCQ, another misfortune has struck the organization which has decisively ended the team’s competitive year.
In an Aug. 19 statement on their official website, Crazy Raccoon confirmed their decision to withdraw from the ALGS Championship, despite attending both Split Playoffs and qualifying for the Championship via the APAC-N Last Chance Qualifier. Song “Ras” Hong-gyun, IGL for the team since 2020, has been called up for mandatory military service and after discussions with his teammates, coaches, and management, the organization collectively decided to drop out of the ALGS Championship.
Ras has been called up for military service for some time, according to a machine translation of the statement, making it difficult for him to continue playing professional Apex. It also mentioned Ras suffered noticeable stress in practice leading up to the Championship, feeling he would continue to cause trouble for the team due to his service and discussed the situation with his teammates, who respected Ras’ intentions and decided that he was not in a healthy condition to participate in the Championship.
Ras has been one of Korea and APAC-N’s most famous players since the initial release of Apex, finding his first home on Team MVP on April 8, 2019, just two months after the game’s global release. Ras led the squad to early success, including a ninth-place finish in the first-ever international event at the EA’s Preseason Invitational.
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One year later, Ras would be selected as one of the founding members for Crazy Raccoon’s debut into competitive Apex, ultimately leading as team captain for his next three years. Together, he and Crazy Raccoon domestically dominated the Korean ALGS and secured second place in the 2021 APAC-N ALGS Championship.
However, despite continued high placements in the Pro League, Crazy Raccoon would fail to show up on the international stage in 2023, exiting both the split one and split two playoffs in 36th place after being eliminated early at each event. These low placements would not earn CR enough circuit points to automatically qualify for the ALGS Championship, and the team would have to fight through the last chance qualifier to compete in the final LAN event of the year.
After a grueling eight rounds in the finals of the LCQ, Crazy Raccoon would lock themselves in as one of the last two APAC-N teams heading into the playoffs by winning game eight. However, with the recent withdrawal, APAC-N may only have eight teams representing them at 2023’s biggest LAN tournament.
Related: All teams qualified for the 2023 ALGS Championship
According to the ALGS rulebook, rule 2.2.1 states that each team’s roster for the Championship is locked before the start of the region’s LCQ, and that any teams who qualify via the LCQ are required to maintain all of their competitors for the Championship.
Crazy Raccoon does not have any substitute players on their roster, and would still be able to enter the tournament as a two-man team, just like PULVEREX and DetonatioN Gaming did in the past 2022 Championship due to circumstances involving COVID-19 and international visa troubles. Instead, out of respect to their mighty captain, the team decided to drop out of the event in respect of Ras’ wishes.
As of Crazy Raccoon’s statement, there has been no response from Respawn or Electronic Arts concerning the loss of one of its Championship teams, or if there will be a replacement APAC-N team from the LCQ to fill in for CR’s absence.
