In the midst of a critical spot that demands a full concentration to secure maximum points and stay in the VCT Pacific Stage 1 competition, Bleed Esports faces potential drama that could disrupt the focus of one of their star players, Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker.
Numerous Valorant fans, closely following Bleed’s journey this season, have unanimously opined that yay has failed to match the lofty expectations set for him. Critiques highlighted his underperformance within the team, especially during his debut at the VCT Pacific Kickoff two months prior.
Yay then argued that his performance was hindered by a health problem that troubled him at that time. However, fans were left unsatisfied with his explanation and eventually found evidence suggesting that yay might have difficulty maintaining his professional play duties due to a bad habit of his.
A user on X platform shared an insight from yay’s teammate, Ngo “crazyguy” Anh, who made a comment during a watch party session of Riot Games One last December. He explained that yay had not been participating in any ranked matches during the off-season, which was necessary to get in shape for the Kickoff 2024. He reinforced his claim by noting that Bleed’s analyst did not receive any match reports from yay during that time.
In response, yay defended himself, citing personal reasons for a month-long break and technical difficulties preventing him from grinding properly. He clarified that transferring his account to the APAC region resulted in unplayable ping rates upon returning to NA, rendering practice impossible.
“Normally I don’t like getting involved in drama, but this is just a flat-out lie. For context, accounts are region-locked, and the only way to change regions in Valorant is to have Riot do it manually,” wrote yay on Reddit. “My main account I transferred to APAC. If I fly back to NA, I’m still forced onto APAC servers (200+ ping), which is unplayable.”
At the time of the writing, crazyguy has yet to respond to yay’s statement, and unless a resolution is reached, his return seems improbable while yay remains a fixture in the team.
