Yay Wins His First Valorant Match In 430 Days

Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, one of the most feared Duelists in the past, is only a shadow of his former self. After going winless for over a year, the 25-year-old has picked up his first professional match victory. 

How Is BLEED and Yay Looking

“El Diablo” was considered the greatest player in Valorant during his prime, but it looks like he can no longer replicate his success. After playing for Cloud9, Disguised, and BLEED, yay has finally won his first series in over a year.

BLEED started its run in the VCT Pacific Stage 1 with three consecutive losses against Talon Esports, Rex Regum Qeon, and ZETA Division. The matches against Talon and ZETA were relatively close, but the loss against RRQ was unacceptable, considering their opponent, fl1pzjder, dropped zero kills on one of the maps. 

Despite all the failures BLEED has faced, the team was due for a win, which finally happened. Arguably, the two weakest teams in the event faced off. BLEED played a series against Japanese DetonatioN FocusMe and defeated them 2-1. 

Finally, Getting A Taste Of Victory

The Best-of-3 series started with BLEED’s pick of Lotus. The Singaporean-based squad started the map with a commanding lead, ending the first half 7-5 and winning the second pistol round to extend the score to 9-5. 

However, BLEED completely lost their footing, losing eight consecutive rounds to lose the first map. The main character of the story, yay, finished the map as the lowest-rated player on the server, 10/15/2 on Raze. 

Fortunately, BLEED fans were not forced to watch their favorite team lose 0-2. The team woke up for the second map, Split, and demolished the first half 10-2. This time, yay played a crucial part in forming this advantage, with four first-bloods to create space for the team. The lead proved too much for the Japanese, and BLEED would take the second map 13-7.

The third map was the most one-sided of the series, as Zest and yay carried the team to a quick 13-4 victory to end the series 2-1. 

After 430 days of struggle, yay has finally bagged a series victory, and his fans finally have a reason to smile. 

Though this win can be celebrated, it still doesn’t change the fact that BLEED is sitting at the bottom of their group with a 1-3 record. Though they are tied with T1, yay and company have a horrendous round difference record, so they must try to win their matches to have a shot at the Playoffs. 

Why Are BLEED Struggling? 

It is undisputable that BLEED is currently one of the weakest teams in the Pacific region. The squad failed to win a single series in its debut event, the VCT Pacific Kickoff, where it finished last. 

The organization thought the best way to solve such a disappointment was to completely overhaul the roster. Egoist and in-game leader crazyguy was benched from the roster, while Retla and DRX veteran Zest were brought in to replace them. 

Zest, being the world-class player that he is, immediately showed why he deserved such a title. He was easily the best-performing player on the team and, sometimes, on the server, even though BLEED had been losing every match they’dthey’ve played. 

After the devastating 0-2 loss to RRQ, Deryeon and coach LEGIJA agreed that the team played poorly and mentioned they don’t play officials the way they play in scrims, which was very disappointing to them. 

The head coach commented that the team did not follow the game plan prepared before the matches and made many mistakes in their setups. LEGIJA would also have to force timeouts because the team was forgetting to stick to the plan. He continues to say that the team hasn’t clicked yet, but the team is working hard, and their scrim results are way better than their match results.

Deryeon also expressed difficulty in communication, as the team has players from different cultures and varying levels of fluency in English. The likeliest candidate is Zest, who is Korean and has never played in an English-speaking team before. However, Zest is making up for it by being the top-fragger for the team in almost every game. 

Valorant personality Sliggy claimed that the BLEED team had many issues. However, he pointed out that their biggest issue was already looking defeated just by walking out to the stage. 

The streamer sees no vibes in the team, and even “anti-vibes,” emphasizing a negative environment within the roster. It doesn’t seem like the team enjoys playing the game together in the current state. 

What Happened To Yay? From The Best To (Below?) Average

Though BLEED as a unit has been struggling, all fingers were mostly pointed at the team’s “star-studded” Duelist player, yay. 

The North American earned the title of “El Diablo” when he used to dominate everyone on the server during his peak. He was given this nickname while playing in North America, as all professional players began calling him that because he always had outstanding performances in scrims and was really hard to play against. 

While he was lifting trophies with the EnVyUs roster led by renowned in-game leader FNS, yay was considered the best player in the world. He is known for his precise crosshair placement, allowing him to land clean headshots. Yay would be feared for his one-taps using Chamber’s Headhunter and Jett’s Blade Storm. 

However, his two favorite agents received considerable nerfs, especially Chamber. Chamber used to be the strongest character in the game, and yay would demolish his opponents playing him. However, the agent was nerfed to the ground and is no longer viable in the current meta. 

Health-Related Problems? 

In February 2024, after being eliminated from the VCT Kickoff tournament, yay took to Twitter to mention problems with his eyesight.

He stated his vision started becoming blurry during the game. He would see players on his screen but sometimes wouldn’t be able to react. He has no idea what caused it. 

Yay stepped up to defend his teammates and coach, mentioning if fans wanted someone to blame, it should be him. 

430 Days Of Despair

Yay began to underperform and was dropped from the OpTic Gaming roster and Cloud9. Though he was still decent after his benching from Cloud9 in 2023, he couldn’t land a spot in a Tier 1 team since almost all rosters were already locked.

The teamless yay decided to seek a new challenge, joining popular streamer DisguisedToast’s Valorant team, Disguised. He would play with less-reputable players, and the team did not win a single match, having a record of 0-8. 

After a hiatus, yay joined BLEED in September 2023, relocating regions and trying something new. Fans thought yay could dominate the Pacific region, as most teams there are still underdeveloped, and that a veteran such as himself would easily outclass his opponents.

However, on paper, BLEED lost to significantly weaker teams and failed to secure a win until today. Yay used to have one of the biggest fanbases next to TenZ, but the number has drastically decreased over the years. 

The community is slowly losing faith in yay, and people are not believing in him anymore. When yay started underperforming, he accumulated many haters, saying he only found success because Chamber and Jett were broken. Community members are saying that, even if yay wanted to switch teams, nobody would want him as the team’s Duelist after the decline of his performance and stats. 

However, the hate from fans is now beginning to turn into sympathy. Yay has gone an entire year without a win, and we all just want to see him smile at least once. 

Header: BLEED Esports