Envy star Jaccob ‘yay’ Whiteaker has shared more details about the team’s nightmare experience during their month in Europe for Valorant Champions.
Envy cut a frustrated figure at Valorant Champions, where they were unable to go beyond the group stage following defeats to Acend, the tournament’s eventual winners, and X10.
But when discussing those results, it’s important to mention the difficult circumstances under which Envy competed. They had to play all of their matches from their hotel rather than on stage after Victor ‘Victor’ Wong returned a positive PCR test ahead of the event.
During a stream session on December 14, yay told viewers how hard it was for Victor to perform at the event. Isolated from the rest of the team, the 25-year-old was put in a room in freezing conditions.
“He has a massive fever and chills, and then you’re throwing him into [a room where] the window has been open for the entirety of the night,” yay said. “It’s a completely cold-a** room. And it was for one of our really important matches. I was like, ‘What the f**k?’
“They were sabotaging us. No, I’m joking. But it was the most important tournament of the year and you have a guy who is sick in a hotel room that is freezing. December-temperature freezing. And he can’t have a hoodie on, he has to wear his short-sleeve jersey.”
Cursed in Europe
But that wasn’t the only thing to go wrong during Envy’s time in Europe. Yay also revealed that the players found themselves in all sorts of predicaments even before the actual tournament began.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
“That month in Europe, the amount of bad luck we got hit with was absurd,” he said. “We were cursed at that event. I’m not even trolling you. We were actually cursed.
“It started from the very beginning. We went there to bootcamp early, and our flight got delayed 24 hours, we got hit with a 24-hour layover at the airport. The hotel where we were staying and the bootcamp facility were in a really bad area, and people were approaching us, trying to sell drugs and stuff like that.
“Food-wise, there was no food nearby, no one spoke English in the area. We got some food, and then Austin [crashies] and I got food poisoning. When we get to the hotel where the tournament is taking place, we have to quarantine for five days and the Wi-Fi doesn’t work. We were stuck in a hotel for five days, no Wi-Fi. We don’t have books or anything, we’re just staring at the ceiling.
“And then midway through, Victor gets Covid somehow. He starts feeling really bad. The hotel loses my clothes, Austin got a bracelet or something like clothes and jewelry stolen. It was absurd.”
Despite all the jokes made at the North American scene’s expense at Valorant Champions, with two of the three teams in attendance being eliminated in the groups, some have been sympathetic towards Envy.
Liquid star Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom spoke out in defense of Envy, saying that it was “impossible” to judge their performance at Valorant Champions because of Victor’s situation.
