VALORANT superstar Yay joins C9, while SicK stays with Sentinels for 2023

Cloud9 signs one of the best players in the world

As we enter the VALORANT off-season ahead of the 2023 VCT season, the inaugural season of the association’s era defined by three top-tier international leagues, all eyes were watching to see where arguably the best player in the game, Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, would end up. Since OpTic did not partner, the services of the most prolific operator and leading camera/duelist were suddenly up for sale. Eventually, yay made his decision, choosing to sign with Cloud9, but the man himself has said that his choice really wasn’t that difficult.

“To be honest, I didn’t trust a lot of the other North American VALORANT teams,” yay said in an interview with his new in-game leader, Anthony “vanity” Malaspina. “I mean some of them look decent, but for the most part and player to player, [Cloud9] was the best by far. And I always wanted to represent Cloud9 as well.”

Yay also noted that the C9 team that he and OpTic faced in NA VCT competition last year was “the only team [in NA] that challenged us” and felt that he would mesh well with them personality-wise. Last year, C9 and OpTic faced each other twice during the NA VCT series, and in both series, while C9 took the opening map, OpTic rallied and won the next two to take the series.

The addition of yay isn’t the only change C9 made over this offseason period. The team also added former Version1 and Sentinels flex star Jordan “Zellsis” Montemurro to the team and brought on the former coach of The Guard, Matthew “mCe” Elmore. As for yay’s former OpTic teammates, the core of FNS, Victor, and crashies is reportedly heading to NRG to team up with s0m and ardiis under the coaching direction of coach Chet Singh.

SicK extends contract with Sentinels for upcoming VCT season

The revamped Sentinels VALORANT roster for 2023 is now completely finalized with the team announcing today that Hunter “SicK” Mims will be returning to the team and filling in as the sixth man for the new starting roster. After teasing earlier in the day on Twitter with an “official” looking update that said the team would not field a sixth man for the roster, Sentinels revealed later on that it is instead fielding a “SicKth” man.

SicK, who’s now the only remaining player from the original Sentinels roster that signed before the summer of 2020, will take on the primary substitute role. After a disappointing end to their 2022 season, which featured surprise stand-in performances from shroud and Zellsis at the LCQ, Sentinels went for a full rebuild around superstar TenZ heading into next year.

New coach Don “Syyko” Muir brought in two former members of his successful XSET project in zekken and dephh and also loaded up the rest of the roster with world championship experience via Sacy and pANcada from Brazil’s LOUD.

While SicK has been a part of the VALORANT roster since Sentinels entered the scene, he spent much of the 2022 season on the sidelines. In May of this past year, SicK was subbed out of a VCT match due to a family emergency, and a month later, he said he would be taking extended time off to deal with his struggling mental health.The entire new Sentinels roster, SicK included, should be expected to compete at the VCT 2023 Kickoff event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this upcoming February. Make sure to check out our VALORANT betting page where you can find the best offers available!