Year Three of the Apex Legends Global Series brought some of the most incredible moments in all of competitive Apex’s history. Fans have watched new rivalries form, unthinkable series comebacks, and one of the most exciting Championships to date.
But not every team’s year was as successful, with just as many failing to live up to the hype and meet the high expectations set for them. Some of the most influential teams can dominate domestically but fail to translate their results when appearing on stage, leading to bad tournament memories that longtime fans wish they could forget.
Here are some of the most disappointing moments from the 2023 ALGS LAN events.
Most disappointing performances from Year Three of Apex Legends Global Series
FURIA Esports at the Split Two Playoffs
FURIA left the competitive Apex world stunned with their dark horse performance at the North America Last Chance Qualifier and 2022 Championship, shocking the world with low pick rate characters such as HisWattson’s Seer, which countered the traditional defensive meta compositions such as Gibraltar’s fight-resetting Dome Shield and Valkyrie’s Skyward Dive. Although FURIA came up short in second place, their aggressive approach to Apex revolutionized how all regions thought of the meta for the year to come.
FURIA’s greatest asset wasn’t their specific legend picks, but how they could exploit the stagnant defensive meta of 2022. Heading into 2023’s Pro League, FURIA struggled heavily as everyone adopted the same aggressive playstyle and legend choices, taking away the team’s unique strength. Their inability to adapt led to an 11th-place domestic Split One finish, failing to qualify for the LAN Playoffs.
FURIA rebounded in Split Two, taking fourth place in the Pro League and reigniting fan hopes for FURIA to dominate at their first 2023 LAN, especially with their seeding into Group D, where they were projected as one of the top seeds. But the team struggled to break the top 10 in any of their group stage matches before quietly dropping out of losers bracket round one, ending their tournament in 37th place—the lowest of all North American teams attending the event. Their exit also led to HisWattson’s retirement decision and a silent end to their competitive year, failing to qualify for the Championship through the Last Chance Qualifier like in 2022.
Vexed Gaming at the Split Two Playoffs
Vexed Gaming are one of the most entertaining EMEA teams in the Pro League, keeping fans on their toes with their super aggressive edge playstyle and confidence in contesting off-drop. At their best, Vexed could easily secure first place on match day with double the amount of KP than placement points, or lose their opening fight and sit out a crucial game with zero points.
This strategy worked well domestically, allowing them to comfortably get second place in Split Two behind EMEA favorites Alliance. But their group stage draw landed them in Group C with TSM, who occupied the same POI of Lava Siphon on World’s Edge. Instead of contesting the world’s best team at LAN, IGL Matej “MaTaFe” Fekonja conceded the POI to TSM, already hurting VXD’s strategy before the tournament even started.
VXD’s decision to change POIs on World’s Edge proved to be the catalyst to their downfall as landing at a new location slowed down their pace and resulted in lower quality loot. These factors made it harder for VXD to properly contest on even ground or seek out early fights, leading to multiple zero-point games during the group stage.
VXD dropped to losers bracket round one and stuck to their aggressive strategy, hoping that the number of kills from early fights would lead to a snowball in momentum and points. But VXD never got a clean engagement and lost all six games without going over one kill per game, ending their LAN dreams in 40th place.
Fire Beavers/Aurora Gaming at the Championship
Before their signing with Aurora, Fire Beavers were EMEA’s revolutionary leading team heading into 2023, boasting some of the highest kill and damage records in the entire world, leading to their back-to-back fourth-place finishes in both Splits of the EMEA Pro League. But visa issues forced the team to drop out of the Split One Playoffs and underperform at the Split Two Playoffs. Despite these setbacks, Aurora Gaming still saw the potential in the roster and signed them for the Championship.
The visa situation, however, affected their Championship run the most, with global damage leader Lev “taskmast33r” Grigoriev denied entry to the U.K. The ALGS rules allowed them to sign two emergency substitute players for the tournament, but the team failed to find synergy with their improvised roster and they disappointed in the group stage with a 33rd-place finish, dropping to the losers bracket.
Despite the early failure, Aurora’s firepower still put them as a favorite to fight back to the finals, but internal disagreements with substitute Uxako led to a rules misunderstanding when trying to make a roster swap for their second substitute Keenan “Tax” Mackey, where ALGS officials ruled that the team would have to play with or without Uxako.
Aurora shocked the world by coming back on stage for losers bracket round one without Uxako, opting to play the rest of the tournament as a duo rather than continue teaming with their emergency substitute—raising many questions about the org’s final decision. The gamble did not pay off, and Aurora ended their competitive year in 36th place.
Crazy Raccoon’s Split Playoffs appearances
Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen is to TSM as Song “Ras” Hong-gyun is to Crazy Raccoon: two IGLs who respectively led their organizations to success ever since the ALGS’ inception. Apex’s most popular organizations are constant forces in the Pro League and LAN events and have consistantly lived up to the high expectations set for their rosters. But Year Three proved to be a completely different story for Crazy Raccoon.
CR’s domestic performance continued to hold up in APAC-N’s slower pace, but they failed to adapt to the fast and aggressive international meta featured in both Split One and Two’s Playoffs. Both tournaments’ group stages saw CR’s lowest LAN scores to date, coupled with back-to-back 35th-place eliminations in losers bracket round one.
Despite all these setbacks, CR still qualified for the Championship with a first-place finish in the Last Chance Qualifier and a complete overhaul of their playstyle to adjust for the global meta. But the organization shook the world with the decision to withdraw from the Championship as Ras’ mandatory military service notice caused incredible stress in practice sessions leading up to the tournament. CR were still able to enter the Championship as a two-man roster, but after talks with his teammates, the collective decision was made to drop out entirely, ending their competitive year early and silently.
