After signing Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker nearly eight months ago, BLEED BLEED Asia-Pacific Rank #21 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.

yay trophy image 2022 was the year of El Diablo. (Photo: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

After a brief stint with Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #11 Xeppaa Erick Bach Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo v1c Victor Truong moose Kaleb Jayne 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) Meteor Kim Tae-O (김태오) Sylvan Ko Young-sub (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) and Global Esports Global Esports Asia-Pacific Rank #38 patrickWHO Mark Musni UdoTan Go Kyung-won (고경원) Kr1stal Savva Fedorov kellyS Kelly Sedillo Papi Federico Evangelista .

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 #7 Meiy Ibuki Seki Art Jinboong Kim Jin-won (김진원) Akame Yu Gwang-hui (유광희) gyen 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.