“Chamber is dead” - Interview with Cloud9 yay

For the first time this off-season, Cloud9 will perform with their new roster at Red Bull Home Ground. One day before the tournament, we had a chat with Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker, the new superstar signing of the team. yay shared his opinions on the new chapter ahead of him as well as the Chamber nerfs.

THESPIKEGG: After the OpTic roster got disbanded, you probably had multiple offers and finally chose to sign with Cloud9. What was the main reason for your decision and are you excited for next season as the majority of the rosters have changed?

yay: Obviously I probably got multiple offers and the main reason I decided to go with C9 was because of the players and also kind of like the organization. It was kind of like a combination of both. I would say out of all the rosters, I probably had the most faith in the Cloud9 one. Obviously, you know with the OpTic situation, we were going to split regardless. Unfortunately, it was unrealistic to stay together but with the Cloud9 roster, I felt very confident in the players because I knew what they are capable of. Multiple times when we faced them on OpTic it was always like a super close series. I felt like they are the only other really strong NA team, like a contender. They had Vanity as well, which I consider to be the only other really good IGL probably I would say in North America right now. Right now there are few others but it is kind of like mixed basically, like a lot of them are forced into the role. That was the main reason for my choice.

THESPIKEGG: Now that you are with a different team, could you tell us the differences in terms of team dynamics compared to the rosters that you have been with previously?

yay: It is kind of early for me to say because I just joined Cloud9 and we haven’t really played an official match yet. I think I need a little bit more time to answer that, to be honest with you.

THESPIKEGG: Last year, you drew a very outstanding graphic both as a team and individually. As you enter the new season, do you feel pressure to keep this line? If you're feeling it how do you deal with it?

yay: I think anyone would feel pressure because there are a lot of expectations on you. I approach with the same way that I always do, it is just like I don’t really try to think about others’ expectations of me. What I care about is how I feel about myself and where I want to be and my own personal goals. So I really try to just focus on those in general just because I think ultimately that’s what matters. I feel like when you base your self-opinion around what other people are expecting from you, I feel like that’s the recipe for disaster. What you should focus on is just simply yourself and what you want and not what others want for you.

THESPIKEGG: We haven’t had a chance to see you guys perform as a team and Red Bull Home Ground will be the first official off-season tournament for you. You will come up against some of the best teams of the Americas League and EMEA. Especially, KRÜ and 100T are your regional opponents. How do you feel about the upcoming matches against them?

yay: I think it's going to be interesting because as you said, there are a bunch of new teams and even teams from our own region so I am really interested to see how everyone does in matches because obviously there are scrimmages and things of that nature but I want to see how everyone plays in official matches with all these new lineups and new teams. I think it is going to be pretty exciting.

THESPIKEGG: Many people consider you the best Chamber player in the world, but with the recent nerfs, we might see the agent picked less than before. How will the recent nerfs affect the agent in the pro stage? How will this affect your game in general?

yay: In terms of how the Chamber nerfs will affect the pro scene, I think he is just dead. He might be picked a map or two but for the most part, he is just dead. In terms of how that is going to affect my play, to be honest with you, I am kind of happy that he is nerfed. I was kind of in a situation where I was just stuck playing him nonstop for a year. I was getting sick of it. There will probably be some direct correlation on my play just because when you are playing something for so long and then suddenly it is completely out of meta and you are forced to shift back. There probably be a little bit adjustment period but I am not too worried just because at least with the past and other agents and other changes and nerfs, I have generally done pretty well. So for me, I am not really worried too much about my personal performance. Like I said, it is just kind of a situation of like, if I do end up struggling, how can I fix that or how can I get better as a player and what can I do to work on these other things? If it will take some time, then so be it. For me, it is just like, I am not really worried about it I guess. I am just going to focus on myself and whether I perform good or bad doesn’t really matter as long as I continue growing.

THESPIKEGG: Another change coming to VALORANT is that a new map and Split will replace Bind and Breeze. What are your thoughts on it?

yay: I think Breeze was needed to be out, to be honest with you. Especially in regards to Breeze there wasn’t an agent variety. There was a very set comp and a very set way of playing it. There wasn’t a ton of variety, I don’t know, the map kind of felt really random in a lot of sense because whenever we look at even the best teams on Breeze, even they weren’t super consistent. The best team I can think of off the top of my head is DRX. It was funny because when we were on OpTic our Breeze was all over the place, we were one of the worst teams at Breeze and that was our perma-ban for a long time. Then we played supposedly the best team and then we rushed A every round and won laughs. So that map inherently felt super random. I am kind of glad that is out. In terms of Bind, I am a little sad about Bind just because Icebox would be a map that I felt like, again pretty random, and there is not a lot of diversity again. Just a map with one set way of playing it really. For me, the map feels like an aim duel simulator. I would like to see Icebox worked on a little bit. I am happy about Breeze, and a little sad about Bind. Either way, the new map is going to be exciting.

THESPIKEGG: Lastly, what do you think about the new league system? Could you compare it to the recent one and evaluate the changes stating the pros and cons?

yay: I think it is pretty cool that there are no more online matches. One of the benefits of the franchise system is that everyone is going to be in the same location, and all the teams are kind of like condensed more so instead of all the talent being spread around, all the top talents have been kind of like pushed upwards, which I think is pretty good. Probably beneficial for the team. I think I said this but all the matches are going to be played on LAN, so that is going to be a big benefit because I felt like the online qualifiers were sometimes a little random at points, it felt very weird. Not to mention Riot is partnering with the teams now so you start the see the in-game items and all that fun stuff so that is going to be really sick. I do think it negatively impacts some tier-two and tier-three regions a little bit because there used to be a system in which, doesn’t matter where you came from as long as you have five good players, you could technically go to a LAN. Now it is not so much that system. At the same time, I understand from a monetary standpoint you kind of have to go to more of a franchised system otherwise you are kind of bleeding money so it is a trade-off. I think Riot is doing a good job with the tier-two scene because it seems like they really thought of it and they have a model for that, so we are about to see.

You can find more information about Red Bull Home Ground on the events page, and don’t forget to have a look at our VCT 2023 Hub!

This interview has been edited for clarity.