Heading into the VALORANT offseason ahead of the 2023 VCT season, the inaugural season of the partnership era defined by three top-tier international leagues, all eyes were watching to see where the game’s arguably best player Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker would end up.
With OpTic not getting into partnership, the services of the most prolific Operator-wielder and Chamber/duelist main suddenly became up for sale. Eventually, yay made his decision, choosing to sign with Cloud9, but the man himself has said that his choice really wasn’t all that difficult.
“I didn’t really have faith in a lot of the other North American VALORANT teams, to be honest with you,” yay said in a sit-down interview with his new in-game leader, Anthony “vanity” Malaspina. “I mean some of them look decent, but for the most part and on a player-to-player basis, [Cloud9] was by far the best. And I always wanted to rep Cloud9 too.”
Yay also noted that the C9 team that he and OpTic faced in NA VCT competition last year was “the only team [in NA] that challenged us” and felt that he would mesh well with them personality-wise. Last year, C9 and OpTic faced each other twice during NA VCT series, and in both series, while C9 took the opening map, OpTic rallied and won the next two to take the series.
The addition of yay isn’t the only change C9 made over this offseason period. The team also added former Version1 and Sentinels flex star Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro to the team and brought on the former coach of The Guard, Matthew “mCe” Elmore. As for yay’s former OpTic teammates, the core of FNS, Victor, and crashies is reportedly heading to NRG to team up with s0m and ardiis under the coaching direction of coach Chet Singh.
All 30 partnered teams around the world, including the new C9 roster, are expected to compete at the VCT 2023 Kickoff event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, set for this upcoming February.
