At the end of 2022, VALORANT’s biggest star and hottest free agent was Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker. Arguably the best player during pro VALORANT’s Chamber meta, yay converted his electric season with OpTic Gaming, which included a trophy at Masters Reykjavík, into a major deal with Cloud9 at the start of the partnership era.
What followed yay’s terrific tenure with OpTic was a two year odyssey of setbacks and losing. Yay was dropped from Cloud9 after two matches, with the organization citing “role issues.” Yay played seven matches with Disguised, a tier two NA VALORANT team owned by streamer Disguised Toast, losing all seven matches. He then went across the world to BLEED Esports in the VCT Pacific league, winning just one match in eight matches played.
Yay now finds himself on Evil Geniuses, “a place where every player ends up not by choice,” according to the team’s world champion coach Christine “potter” Chi. After EG defeated FURIA at the VCT 2025 Americas Kickoff, yay’s first win in the Americas league ever, the reborn VALORANT star spoke to Insider Gaming about his new agent pool, his “back” status, and how he’s grown during his tumultuous journey.
The following interview has been edited slightly for clarity and length.
IG: Astra isn’t really an agent that utilizes the Operator very much, but you couldn’t tell by watching your performance today. Do you feel like the best version of yourself is the one that has the Op in your hands?
I would say…yes and no? That’s tough to be honest. I would say my rifle is almost equally as good as my Op. That’s one of my strengths as a player throughout my whole career: I’m able to do both very well. I feel like I can pick up anything to be honest with you.
The Operator is really strong on Abyss in general, and [using it with Astra] is something that potter recommended. Since I’m able to place smokes from anywhere on the map, it’s good to have it in my hands so we can let Icy entry, and then I can just hold anything.
IG: This is the question that everyone has been asking: is yay back?
[Laughs] I would say not yet, but I think as we continue to progress as a team and I continue to work on certain things, I will fully regrow that confidence. This was a big step; getting another win on the board.
IG: What’s the highest level of “back” you think you can reach? Are we talking OpTic yay?
That was a very unique situation in which I was on Chamber for an extended period. I like to believe I [still] have a very high ceiling that extends well beyond Chamber and that whole meta, but I think I need to build more confidence with that. You won’t see the same yay, but you’ll hopefully see something similar [with] a new style. And hopefully some championships as well.
IG: What do you want to accomplish this year?
I would really like to make another international event, at bare minimum. And rebuild a lot of the self confidence I used to have. I think I’m pretty much there, but now it’s about proving it to myself at this point.
IG: You’ve mentioned getting your confidence back a few times now. How badly did those two years away mess with you, personally and on the server?
It was a pretty rough period. It’s a very hard feeling to describe to someone, because you go from the very peak [of VALORANT] to not being able to flat out win anything. It’s something that throughout my entire pro career, even extending back to other games, I’ve never experienced before in my life. To go from such high highs to low lows in such a short time frame, it takes a toll on you, and I’m not gonna pretend that it didn’t.
But I think I’ve done a pretty good job of figuring out and working through that, and I’m excited for the future.
IG: Is that experience something you’re trying to learn from, or one that rather just forget about entirely?
You take what you can from that situation. There’s some things I learned in terms of just being a better human being. Like not relying so much on the results of what’s going on around. For a long period, what defined me was VALORANT, and when results aren’t going well, you feel very bad about yourself.
IG: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned on this big journey?
I’ve learned how to deal with expectations. I put a lot of stock into what the community or what other people thought of me. I’ve learned to realize that what the outside world thinks of you doesn’t really reflect who you are. It’s [more] important to realize what’s important to you and what you stand for. And if I do need to fix something or change I have people I can rely on for that.
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