Cloud9 announces the departure of Yay

Recently, the organisation Cloud9 confirmed the departure of Jaccob Whiteaker aka yay. According to Jack Etienne, the CEO of the American firm, and Matthew Elmore, the team's coach, this was a joint decision due to role issues. The withdrawal comes ahead of the mid-season transfer window, which begins on 6th March.

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Yay is considered one of the best players in the world. In 2022, he defended the colours of OpTic Gaming. At the end of September, Riot Games unveiled the franchise leagues for the new VCT season. Like several other major structures, OpTic Gaming was not selected. As a result, players were released from their contracts and a few weeks later, we learned that yay would join Cloud9 for 2023.

Like all franchise teams, Cloud9 recently participated in in the LOCK//IN Sao Paulo. After a win against Paper Rex, the adventure ended prematurely for the organisation, which suffered a loss against DRX. With a view to building the strongest team, in every respect, for the rest of the 2023 VCT, Jack Etienne and Matthew Elmore said various changes were envisaged, started with yay's departure. This mutual decision should enable him to "To find the best team for him to play in.".

They also specified that this decision is in no way linked to personality problems on the part of Yay. According to them, it is essentially concerns about roles within the team, because several players are still too similar in their positions at the moment.

The organisation is aware that this choice could have a strong impact on the team's performance in the short term, but remains confident of its long-term success. In order to put all the chances on its side, Cloud9 is already carrying out trials to replace yay.

While the decision appears to be the result of an agreement between the two parties, doubts remain as to the real motives. It appears that it is hard to understand why a structure would completely release a player of yay's stature for simple role reasons.

Under a Tweet from yay, now deleted, crashies, one of his former OpTic Gaming comrades, expressed his indignation at the situation in a comment: "They did you dirty, head up brother". The star player simply responded with a GIF that states "if he talks, he will be in very big trouble." It is therefore possible that more information on this case will emerge in the future.

Thanks to his talent, yay should not have too much trouble finding a new team by the end of the transfer window, scheduled for 25th March.