After signing Jaccob "yay"
Whiteaker nearly eight months ago,
BLEED
BLEED
Asia-Pacific
Rank #24
sScary
Nutchapon Matarat
Zest
Kim Ki-seok (김기석)
Retla
Jorell Teo
Deryeon
Derrick Yee
crazyguy
Ngô Công Anh
have announced that the North American import has decided to take a temporary break for health reasons.
The American superstar's rise to fame began back in 2021, when he joined the former
Envy
Envy
Inactive
Marved
Jimmy Nguyen
Victor
Victor Wong
crashies
Austin Roberts
FiNESSE
Pujan Mehta
yay
Jaccob Whiteaker
core on their journey to the top, which began with a runner-up finish at Masters: Berlin. From there, yay and the rebranded
OpTic Gaming
OpTic Gaming
Inactive
roster took home the trophy at 2022's Masters: Reykjavik while finishing third and second at Masters: Copenhagen and Champions.
2022 was the year of El Diablo. (Photo: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)
After a brief stint with
Cloud9
Cloud9
North America
Rank #12
Xeppaa
Erick Bach
runi
Dylan Cade
moose
Kaleb Jayne
vanity
Anthony Malaspina
OXY
Francis Hoang
during their stay at LOCK//IN, yay would spend the rest of 2023 competing in NA Challengers with
Disguised
Disguised
Inactive
steel
Joshua Nissan
Genghsta
Amgalan Nemekhbayar
clear
Joseph Allen
Exalt
Drake Branly
nerve
Michael Yerrow
yay
Jaccob Whiteaker
before signing with BLEED last September.
BLEED fought tooth and nail through Tier 2 to claim Pacific's 2023 Ascension slot. A flurry of roster changes primed the new team for Pacific Kickoff, where their franchising debut ended in disaster following losses to
T1
T1
Korea
Rank #3
stax
Kim Gu-taek (김구택)
Carpe
Lee Jae-hyeok (이재혁)
iZu
Ham Woo-ju (함우주)
xccurate
Kevin Susanto
and
Global Esports
Global Esports
Asia-Pacific
Rank #38
blaZek1ng
Gary Dastin
Lightningfast
Abhirup Choudhury
Polvi
Niko Polvinen
Benkai
Benedict Tan
Russ
Russel Mendes
.
Forced to wait for Split 1 before returning, the organization opted to make roster changes in hopes of making a deep run and securing a spot at Masters: Shanghai. Unfortunately, the new team only picked up a single win against
DetonatioN FocusMe
DetonatioN FocusMe
Japan
Rank #6
Medusa
An Min-cheol (안민철)
neth
Yusuke Matsuda
Meiy
Ibuki Seki
SSeeS
Tomonori Okimura
Anthem
Yoshitaka Enomoto
and were ultimately barred from playoffs.
yay played a total of eight official matches with BLEED before stepping back. It is currently unknown if the world champion will return in time for Split 2. BLEED have yet to announce his replacement in the meantime.