After just one season with the organization, Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #20 supamen Phat Le bao Bao Nguyen Okeanos Anthony Nguyen dgzin Douglas Silva C0M Corbin Lee has announced the departure of Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker.

Dating back to professional Valorant's earliest days, yay has been one of the most iconic names in the scene. He played a key role in some of the most dominant pre-partnerships squads, playing for ENVY ENVY North America Rank #5 Eggsterr Evan Grady P0PPIN Matteo Weber Demon1 Max Mazanov Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo keznit Angelo Mori / OpTic Gaming OpTic Gaming Inactive , including three grand final appearances on the international stage, a top-three finish in four of five internationals reached, one Masters trophy, and a runner-up finish at Champions 2021. However, since the beginning of the partnership era, yay has failed to reach those same heights.

He started the 2023 season with Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #4 Xeppaa Erick Bach v1c Victor Truong Zellsis Jordan Montemurro penny Erik Penny OXY Francis Hoang , but was released by the org after playing in just two VCT matches. yay saw out the rest of the year with Disguised Disguised Inactive steel Joshua Nissan Genghsta Amgalan Nemekhbayar clear Joseph Allen Exalt Drake Branly nerve Michael Yerrow yay Jaccob Whiteaker , which eventually finished short of retaining its Challengers slot for the 2024 season. At the end of the year, yay joined Pacific Ascension winners BLEED BLEED Inactive . The organization's first and, eventually, last year in VCT was largely disappointing. After being swiftly eliminated from Pacific Kickoff and managing just one win in Stage 1 with BLEED, yay stepped down from the team's starting roster for health reasons.

yay then joined EG ahead of the 2025 season, returning to VCT Americas on a squad that was tasked with a second-straight offseason rebuild after losing jawgemo , who was another key piece of its Champions Los Angeles-winning roster. After starting the year off shaky, EG found its footing with yay in Stage 1, going 3-2 in the group stage to qualify for its first playoff appearance in over a year and finish fourth. It was during Stage 1 that EG developed its double-Controller comp on Lotus, with yay on Clove and supamen on Viper. The team was 4-1 on the map throughout Stage 1, capturing wins over G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #2 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf , KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #1 saadhak Matias Delipetro mwzera Leonardo Serrati silentzz Caio Morita Less Felipe de Loyola Basso Dantedeu5 Jesús Federico Larrosa , and 2Game Esports 2Game Esports Brazil Rank #15 Brinks gobera Vitor Gobo ambitioN Gabriel Lima lz Luiz Reche frz Leandro Gomes on the map. In Stage 2, EG did not see quite the same level of success. The team barely qualified for playoffs, going 2-3 in the group stage, and was swiftly eliminated, finishing 7th-8th.

After finishing his first full year as a starter since his days with OpTic, yay will enter free agency. He flexed into the Duelist, Sentinel, and Controller roles in 2025.

Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #20 supamen Phat Le bao Bao Nguyen Okeanos Anthony Nguyen dgzin Douglas Silva C0M Corbin Lee 's full roster is now: