We organized an announcement, and this is a complete break in the patterns for the entire Apex Legends scene. The North American Grand 100 Thieves, apparently, decided to join forces with the Japanese legends from Crazy Raccoon for one goal — total leadership at the upcoming ALGS Year 5 championship. The team, which we will now know under the bold tag Crazy Thieves, is preparing to storm Sapporo on January 29, 2026.
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What can we expect from the Crazy Thieves line-up at ALGS?
In fact, the roaster looks like a real “dream team” capable of burying any competitor in its path. The squad includes top players: Noyan “Genburten” Ozkose, Josue “Phony” Ruiz and, of course, Evan “Verhulst” Verhulst, a man who has already won the world champion crown in 2023.
By the way, 100 Thieves earned their place at this celebration of life with sweat and blood, consistently showing class in both splits of the Americas Pro League. The situation at Crazy Raccoon, to be honest, looked much sadder. After Hana “SangJoon” Sangjoon decided to retire in August 2025, the Japanese organization was actually left with a broken trough, showing extremely weak results — the 32nd place in the playoffs among 40 teams is a fatal failure.
The forecast and format of the Apex Legends Championship in Sapporo
The tournament in Sapporo, which will take place from January 15 to 18, 2026, will be the final point of the fifth year of competition. In fact, we are in for a real massacre for the $2,000,000 prize pool — an impressive amount, I must say, considering all the format changes this season.
The logic of the championship has remained rigid:
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First, the group stage, where 40 teams will be divided into four “tens”.
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Then – seeding in the playoffs, from where only the top 20 teams will make it to the grand finals.
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And as a result — a decisive series of matches with a threshold of 50 points.
Victory will go only to those who can take the “royal battle” after gaining the required score limit — it’s harsh, isn’t it? Crazy Thieves, by the way, will have to fight against former champions and winners of regional games from all over the world. The entire pool of 40 participants has already been determined, groups have been formed, and the stakes have been inflated to the limit. It seems that KRAFTON and the organizers of ALGS are preparing something big for us, and this Japanese-American alliance is clearly their main ace up their sleeve. Let’s see if they take the gold or if it’s just a big name to attract fans.
The impact of the affiliate program on esports and ALGS
We have created a new strategy, and this is a real shift for the entire cyber arena in Apex Legends. EA, along with the guys from Respawn, apparently decided to finally bury the old business model of esports, choosing the path of total stability through partnership with 12 top organizations. This is, in fact, not just a one-time support campaign, but a global plan to capture the market, where teams are given everything from direct cash scholarships to media coverage and rights to merch. It makes sense, doesn’t it?
Development strategy and partnership in Apex Legends Year 5
In fact, the roots of this story go back to ALGS Year 4, when, after open selections, giants such as TSM, FaZe Clan, Fnatic and FURIA booked eternal places in the Pro League. You could say, in 2025, the flywheel spun up even more — large-scale events such as ALGS Open appeared, where 160 teams were cut at once, and a strict system of legend bans, which, admittedly, significantly shook up the stagnant meta.
The interesting thing is that the risks for team bosses are now minimized. Instead of trembling over annual contracts, organizations enter into multi—year partnerships – powerful, isn’t it? Championship points, by the way, are now tightly linked to specific players, rather than to the team’s nameplate, which completely changes the rules of the transfer market. Plus, the consolidation of the regions in the Americas was, in truth, an expected, but no less audacious move.
