Bleed Esports Valorant head coach Nikola ‘LEGIJA’ Ninić revealed what went fallacious with the VCT Pacific staff in 2024 and what saved Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker from returning to his OpTic Gaming type.
In an interview with Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields, the previous Counter-Strike coach laid out how inside points and the strain of being a star participant precipitated yay to have a horrible 2024 VCT season.
LEGIJA, the architect behind Bleed’s ascension to VCT Pacific, stated yay had points with the staff’s in-game chief, Ngô ‘crazyguy’ Công Anh, nearly instantly. The coach defined that he couldn’t bench yay over his beef with crazyguy due to how a lot cash Bleed spent to signal the beginning participant.
“[Yay] tried to unravel the issue that he had with crazyguy. It didn’t work out, crazyguy was probably not cooperative I’d say, and I feel that was an enormous downside,” LEGIJA stated.
The German coach additionally stated yay’s “psychological” was holding him again from taking part in his finest because the participant would dominate scrims, however overthink all the pieces throughout stage matches.
“The second he will get on the stage, the strain hits him so exhausting that he loses himself fully,” LEGIJA.
Yay additionally didn’t do himself any favors outdoors of stage matches to assist alleviate the strain to carry out, because the coach claimed the North American participant would go on social media and search out posts about himself.
The previous OpTic Gaming star would additionally try to investigate upcoming opponents’ earlier matches, which might additionally trigger him to overthink what the enemy was doing in the course of the sport. This usually precipitated him to make calls and performs throughout pivotal rounds that the staff didn’t apply.
“This man is overthinking all the pieces, each f**king bullsh*t,” the coach stated.
Relating to in-game criticisms, LEGIJA stated yay was an ideal fragger however lacked the aggressive tendencies to play Duelist at a excessive stage.
The North American participant has had a tough time in skilled Valorant after an unbelievable two-year run with Envy/OpTic Gaming that noticed him make a number of main tournaments, and win a Masters trophy.
In 2023, yay solely received one match on the skilled stage throughout his time with Cloud9 and Disguised. The Masters Reykjavík 2022 winner matched that win complete in 2024 with Bleed. Yay is now a restricted free agent and could possibly be on the transfer to a brand new staff once more for the 2025 VCT season.