Yay, one of the best VALORANT players in the world, is set to mutually part ways with Cloud9 after their underwhelming showing at VCT LOCK//IN São Paulo, according to Dot Esports.
The North American powerhouse beat Paper Rex on Feb. 14 and were eliminated from VCT LOCK//IN at the hands of DRX following a 2-1 loss on Feb. 18. Journalist Max Katz was the first to report that yay was out of the team on Feb. 23, which Dot Esports confirmed on Feb. 26. Should the removal of yay be officially confirmed by C9 in the coming weeks, El Diablo would leave the org just five months after he joined from OpTic Gaming.
While it’s unclear where yay will land next, C9 will begin trialing players next week to have a new fifth in time for the Americas League, which will kick off on March 26. Here are some players who C9 could go after to replace yay.
Potential replacements for yay on C9 VALORANT
Marved
Jimmy “Marved” Nguyen has been inactive from VALORANT’s professional scene since he was placed on OpTic’s bench in September 2022, when the organization failed to secure a spot in the franchised league. He became a free agent in December and is expected to be one of the players trialing for C9, according to our report.
Marved is widely regarded as one of the best controller players in VALORANT after his stint with OpTic, but that means C9’s in-game leader Anthony “vanity” Malaspina would have to switch roles to accommodate Marved on the squad if the organization wants to sign the former OpTic star.
BabyJ
Hunter “BabyJ” Schline has been a free agent since 100 Thieves dropped him in February 2022, and unlike most players, he didn’t sign with either a franchised or Challengers team heading to 2023. If C9 is looking to not spend money on a buyout and trial a player who has proved his skills against the best teams in the region in the past, it might just go for BabyJ, despite his time away from the competition.
Hazed
Veteran in-game leader James “hazed” Cobb is about to be replaced by Eric “Kanpeki” Xu on TSM, according to a report by journalist Max Katz yesterday. He could be a solid addition to C9 if the organization and vanity are willing to try someone new leading the team.
The timing of hazed’s removal, should it be confirmed, also plays in favor of C9 since hazed will be looking to join another team as soon as possible and definitely would prefer trialing with C9 instead of joining another Challengers team like TSM.
Valyn
The Guard’s captain Jacob “valyn” Batio could be a good addition to C9 if the team wants a change in leadership. This is similar to the thought process of getting hazed, but valyn, perhaps, is an even better option if the organization wants to follow this route.
The 20-year-old most notably led The Guard to defeat OpTic in the VCT North America Challengers One grand finals in March 2022. Valyn is also an old acquaintance of C9’s current head coach Matthew “mCe” Elmore since they worked together for almost a year on The Guard before mCe left to join C9 in October 2022.
The Guard is currently going through financial problems and laid off several employees last week. Dot Esports reported that the organization is retaining its VALORANT players for now, but it’s likely that The Guard will look to sell the players in the future if the financial burden remains.
WARDELL
If C9 wants to sign a popular name in VALORANT’s North American scene to round out the roster, WARDELL is a good shout. He mains Jett and sometimes picks up Sage as well, which were two of the three agents that yay used at VCT LOCK//IN. This means that C9 would be able to keep running the same structure if it signs WARDELL.
The issue is that WARDELL has been quite dedicated to full-time content creation since he left TSM in March 2022 after refusing to move to Texas along with the rest of the team and hasn’t been playing lots of competitive VALORANT ever since. He played for Stewie2K’s team The Nation earlier this year, but they failed to qualify for North America Challengers Split one.
