Team Envy has bolstered its VALORANT roster with a new signing ahead of the team’s upcoming opening match against TSM at the NA VCT Stage Three Challengers Playoffs. Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, formerly of Andbox, has joined Envy, the organization announced today.
Several different organizations were in the running to sign yay, according to Upcomer’s George Geddes, after reports surfaced that Andbox were trialing new players and playing without him, Noah “JcStani” Smith and Zander “thwifo” Kim. Envy also confirmed on Twitter that Anthony “mummAy” DiPaolo will be moved to the inactive roster and that yay will start in the upcoming Challengers Playoffs.
Yay has provided a tremendous amount of firepower to the Andbox team over most of the past year, primarily filling the duelist role on Jett. The Andbox lineup has gone through multiple different roster changes and various trials already. But despite the lack of stability, Andbox and yay still qualified for several Challengers events during VCT, including a spot in the Stage Two Challengers Finals. In his final match with Andbox, yay had a statistical standout game against TSM but in a losing effort in the open qualifiers of the final Challengers event of Stage Three.
He now joins an Envy roster that’s consistently placed near the top of the NA standings for the majority of the VCT. Envy finished fourth at both Masters One and the Stage Two Challengers Finals and at the very least have secured a spot in the NA Last Chance Qualifier.
Yay will debut against the team he most recently played, TSM, in the first round of the Stage Three Challengers Playoffs, with three NA spots at Masters Three: Berlin on the line. That showdown between Envy and TSM will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 11.
