BLEED announces 'temporary break for health reasons' for star player yay

VALORANT star player Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker will be taking a break for "health reasons," as his organisation BLEED Esports announced. While the organisation has not announced a return date, it has signalled that they are awaiting his return to the roster.

Yay takes a break

"After concluding the first split, yay has decided to take a temporary break for health reasons before coming back to competing," BLEED Esports announced to its fans on social media platform X. It clarified that the organisation was on board with the decision and wished for a quick recovery.

Respecting his privacy, the organisation did not disclose the specific reason for yay's break. After a disappointing performance in VCT Pacific for Stage 1, during which the team finished in last place of their group and failed to qualify for the playoffs, the North American player shared his experience with blurred vision issues arising during the match in February.

Already then, yay opened up about the harsh criticism he had received after their performance during the event.

El Diabolo

During his time at OpTic Gaming in 2022, yay became widely considered the best player on the planet, winning Masters Reykjavík with the team and earning him the nickname "El Diabolo." However, OpTic Gaming was not chosen as one of the founding teams for VCT Americas, so the team split apart, and yay joined the North American organisation Cloud9.

This was short-lived, and after only four and a half months, he entered free agency. He later joined Disguised and finally BLEED Esports but did not find the same success he enjoyed during his time on OpTic.

Due to his perceived fall from grace, yay was often on the receiving end of social media Schadenfreude which he acknowledged in his statement from February, stating "Man you guys are brutal." Most recently, his inactive teammate Ngô "crazyguy" Anh took a shot at yay, claiming that the player had not kept up with his practice during a break period, an allegation yay himself later denied.

Yay hasn't given an official statement regarding his break. VCT Pacific is currently on a break and Stage 2 is only set to resume on June 15, giving yay and BLEED some time to recuperate.

The team is fighting an uphill battle as the next stage's Playoff participation will be determined by the team's performance over the entire year, requiring them to go on a stream to have a chance to qualify. The squad is set to play Team Secret on the opening day of Stage 2.