The Once King: Yay finds a new home on Bleed Esports for VCT 2024
Bleed Esports has announced that Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker will be their newest inductee to their ranks. The roster made the announcement on the 29th of September on their Twitter. After earlier announcements this week that two of their players, Tyler “Juicy” James and Marcus “nephh” Tan would be departing from their roster for military service, they have quickly followed up with the two names that would be replacing them.
Earlier reports in the off-season had indicated that Bleed was looking to either Erick “aspas” Santos (former LOUD star) or “yay” (former OpTic and Cloud9 star) to replenish their ranks. Reportedly, Bleed offered them the most amount of money possible, higher than any other organization in the Americas or EMEA leagues.
The addition of “yay” to their roster would finalize their 2024 roster as it stands, with the Singaporean organization having signed Javier “Egoist” Chua just days ago.
Read More: Bleed Esports announce the addition of Egoist.
The One Who Once Ruled
“yay” once upon a time was a household name in Valorant that struck fear on the servers. Nicknamed El Diablo by his compatriots, he was most well-known for his first bullet accuracy and his complete mastery of Chamber. During his time on OpTic, the roster was feared as a whole and respected for their incredible performances, indisputably the best North American roster during their time at the peak.
After much ado with the news that OpTic had not been accepted into the Riot Partner Program in late 2022, “yay” was announced to have joined Cloud9’s star-studded roster which also included the likes of Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro, Nathan “leaf” Orf, and Erick “Xeppaa” Bach.
This period of adulation would not last long however, as Cloud9 bombed out of VCT LOCK//IN. In a shocking follow-up development, Cloud9 announced that “yay” had been benched. This was seen as a knee-jerk response to a roster that had cost far too much to not immediately show success. Moreover, the crash of the cryptocurrency market, which had flooded the Valorant esports space with promised capital, evaporated overnight, leaving Cloud9 scrambling for capital. This, combined with incredible expenses from the organization in quick succession, led to a guaranteed recipe for failure.
Bleed Esports – Soaring High
Established in 2021, Bleed Esports is a relatively young organization. In 2022, they were considered a top organization, contenders alongside fellow Malaysian/Singaporean roster Paper Rex. Unfortunately, Bleed was playing for 2nd place for the majority of their time domestically, without much international exposure.
During the Partner Program application, Bleed was undergoing internal issues and chose not to purse application. Instead, in 2023, they competed in the Challengers League, with the aim to make Ascension and gain access to the top leagues that way.
The acquisition of Nutchapon “sScary” Matarat was perhaps the biggest linchpin for the roster, going from a decent contender to a strong favorite. The preexisting core on Bleed only served to amplify the synergy within the roster, and Bleed went on the fast track to success quickly after.
Having only lost one Bo3 in the VCT Pacific Ascension, Bleed secured a two-year spot with the VCT Pacific League.
Read More: Bleed Esports secures VCT Pacific Promotion.
The VCT 2024 Bleed Esports roster will be as follows:
- Ngô “crazyguy” Công Anh
- Nutchapon “sScary” Matarat
- Derrick “Deryeon” Yee
- Javier “Egoist” Chua
- Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker
- Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninić (Head coach)
Follow BLEED X/Twitter for all updates on the organization. You can also for Strafe for Valorant news, tournament and more.
Read More: VCT 2024 Rostermania tracker.
Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games