đź“ť Crazy Raccoon: Don't count them out
There were many questions about Crazy Raccoon going into OWCS Korea Stage 1. Can they win without Kin “shu” Jin-seo? How big of a difference-maker is Jeong “Stalk3r” Hak-yong on this roster? Will the meta favour them, or will they repeat their disappointing performance in another off-tank favoured stage?
With all of that taken into account, it ended up being a fairly strong showing from Crazy Raccoon.
They would lose their season opener against a ZETA DIVISION team that would go on to be unbeaten all stage. Following this, their only loss for the rest of the Regular Season came in Week 3, in the all-too-familiar 5-map banger against T1. CR would be the victims of a reverse sweep, thanks to an inspiring performance from Kim “D0NGHAK” Min-sung in his first series of the stage.
From this point on, though, Crazy Raccoon really came into their own. In Week 4, they unveiled the Cat/Bastion to the world and rode it all the way till the end of the stage.
Crazy Raccoon stumbled in the playoffs as they faltered against Team Falcons in a 4-1 loss, despite having beaten them twice already in 2026.
However, they redeemed themselves in OWCS 2026 Asia Stage 1. They got their revenge over Team Falcons in the group stage, which ultimately led to the Falcons’ elimination from the tournament. They also overcame their early-season loss to T1 by defeating them twice in the Asia Playoffs and punched their ticket to the Champions Clash.
Crazy Raccoon ultimately lost to ZETA DIVISION in the Grand Finals, but not before putting on an absolute stellar performance that pushed ZETA to the very edge in the seven-map thriller. By the end of the matchup, it was evident that Crazy Raccoon were fully back to their past strengths and would be one of the main title contenders at the first LAN of the year.
Crazy Raccoon will face the #1 seed of North America, Dallas Fuel, in their first match at Champions’ Clash, and will have a chance to prove that their dominant self is far from gone from the international stage.
Crazy Raccoon kickstarted the Cat/Bastion craze that has been running rampant in Asia, and are one of the strongest teams running it.
Sung “CH0R0NG” Yoo-min is one of the best cats in the business. Stalk3r has immediately hit the ground running and his synergy with the team has done nothing but go up, week after week. Bastion aside, Stalk3r has also been his dominant self on hitscan, and has provided Crazy Raccoon a terrifying double-flex DPS option alongside Chae “HeeSang” Hee-sang should they choose to use it.
Park “Junbin” Jun-bin has also been deep in his 2024 bag on the Mauga, squaring up to Korea’s best in the mirror and winning a lot of the time. Wrecking Ball has also been experimented with as a tank to pair with the flying feline, and Junbin’s Ball needs no introduction. Choi “MAX” Su-min has been a perfect complement, stepping up in the off-tank matchups and looking stronger than ever on the extremely meta-relevant D.Va. Although we have yet to see how effective D.Va will be in the Champions Clash after the most recent balance patch.
HeeSang has maintained his incredible consistency as one of the top flex DPS players in Korea, especially on the non-tracer heroes. His Pharah is up there with the best, and in the Asia Grand Finals, his Reaper almost singlehandedly gave ZETA DIVISION an incredibly tough run for their money.
Kim “Vigilante” Joon had enormous Shus to fill (pardon the pun), and while he doesn’t provide the unparalleled x-factor that Shu does, he has been a reliable piece of Crazy Raccoon’s (almost) winning formula. He has risen to the occasion and has plenty of LAN experience to fall back on as he heads into Champions Clash.
As always, Crazy Raccoon will be one of the best teams to watch in Japan. Whether they stick to the Cat/Bastion or not, it will be interesting to see how their power level matches up against NA and EMEA since the 2025 World Finals.
This team is still filled to the brim with star players who can take over games if they’re in the right mood, and they only got better as the season went on. It’s hard to call them a contender with the ZETA DIVISION-shaped elephant very much in the room, but you would also be a fool to count them out completely.
No doubt the Japanese fans will be out in numbers to show their support, and that may be the boost they need to reach the heights that they did this time last year.