Valorant star yay joins Bleed Esports in VCT Pacific for 2024 season

Bleed Esports has announced the signing of Valorant star Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker to its roster for the 2024 VCT season.

yay has signed with Bleed Esports for the 2024 VCT season. The Valorant star will become the third North American to take up an import slot in the VCT Pacific league.

The former OpTic Gaming player has had a quiet off-season until recently as he was suspected of playing ranked in the Pacific region with Bleed player Derrick ‘Deryeon’ Yee under the name ‘zoomy.’ In a press release about the signing, yay said that he went to great lengths to keep his move under wraps, including scriming under a different name and not talking in ranked matches.

yay is coming off of a disappointing year professionally as the player was dropped from Cloud9 in March after a less than stellar showing at VCT LOCK//IN. The organization and its coach have claimed the player was let go due to role issues, however, many suspect it was due to financial issues with the organization.

The Duelist player then went to play for Disguised in the second split of the North American Challengers League. Disguised and yay were eventually relegated from the league after going winless in the group stage, and losing out in the Play-In Relegation tournament.

Before joining Cloud9, yay had an incredible year with OpTic Gaming. The team placed top three at every international VCT event and took home the VCT Masters Reykjavík trophy.

yay joins Bleed Esports in the VCT Pacific league

yay is joining a squad that has been known to go after splashy signings. Bleed attempted to sign Turkish Valorant star Mehmet ‘cNed’ İpek in 2022 with a $1 million offer.

“I wanted a new challenge. Watching the APAC and China games, their unique Valorant style intrigued me. I wanted to experience it to develop my game. With all the financial drama in N.A, moving to Singapore seemed right,” yay said in a press release.

Bleed was promoted into VCT Pacific through the Ascension tournament. Bleed won both splits of the Malaysia & Singapore Challengers League and only dropped five maps en route to winning the promotion tournament.

In the off-season, Bleed dropped two players and signed Javier ‘Egoist’ Chua. With yay joining the team, the organization now has a full roster.