Luxury Watch announced via Twitter yesterday that janus, the main tank for LW Blue, had been hospitalised due to a pneumothorax and would therefore miss out on the upcoming APEX Season 2 match for third place.

Luxury Watch have not offered further details of janus’s condition. Although pneumothorax is commonly referred to as a ‘collapsed lung’ and can be serious, these often occur spontaneously in tall young males and can be treated quickly and effectively without lasting damage.

According to the Tweet, r0ar, the tank for Challengers side LW Red, will fill in for janus. The sister team relationship within Luxury Watch should allow r0ar to acclimatise more easily than other potential substitutes.

LW Red and their players are powerful additions to the org. The team is currently 8-2 in APEX Challengers Season 3, though one of those losses was a forfeit due to accumulation of warnings. They have only lost a single match against the Challengers leaders X6, and r0ar has developed a reputation within the league as an aggressive, talented Reinhardt. He has big boots to fill, but this is also a solid learning opportunity for r0ar without the pressure of a playoffs run.

After falling in an incredibly close semifinals game against RunAway’s fiery playoff form, LW Blue lost out on their chance to hoist back-to-back trophies from IEM GyeongGi and APEX Season 2. Over in the other semifinals game, Meta Athena lost to Lunatic-Hai, leading to an incredible Lunatic-Hai vs. RunAway rematch final, and a highly competitive and tactically interesting third place match.

On Friday, LW Blue will play against Meta Athena for the bronze medal and its ~$11,000 prize.

LW Blue’s roster for the APEX Season 2 third place match on Friday will be:

  • Park "Saebyeolbe" Jong-ryeol (DPS)
  • Hwang "Fl0w3r" Yeon-oh (DPS)
  • Kim "Mek0" Tae-hong (Flex)
  • Gye ”r0ar” Chang-hoon (Tank Substitute)
  • Jang "Luna" Gyeong-ho (Support)
  • Heo "Gambler" Jin-woo (Support)