Twitch streamer Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Wang is among a number of content creators who have launched their own esports teams in recent months. E-sport is in a serious crisis in 2023, there is a lack of money everywhere. One speaks of the “e-sports winter”. For the shooter Valorant, Disguised Toast put together a women’s team consisting of 4 streamers, which caused a lot of resentment. An e-sportswoman complains that he should rather give women with e-sports ambitions a chance.
What is this team? In early January, Disguised Toast introduced its Valorant team “Disguised” (DSG). With his team, the streamer was already able to celebrate the first minor successes, but the question quickly arose as to how the whole thing should actually pay off:
Twitch streamer founds e-sports team in Valorant and buys expensive stars: “And how do you make money with it now?”
On March 28, the streamer introduced a second team that seems to have been put together specifically for the VCT Game Changers: The Game Changers are about tournaments for women and other marginalized gender identities in Valorant.
The team consists of Riots Shooter streamers who have between tens of thousands and over 2.3 million followers on Twitch:
Of the players, only Tupperware already has “Game Changers” experience. Former CS:GO pro Corey “ruin” Hartog joins as a coach.
Esportswoman says: “Like a slap in the face”
How were the reactions? There is a lot of enthusiasm in the comments below the announcement tweet. After all, DisguisedToast and the streamers combined have millions of fans. But criticism quickly arose.
E-sportswoman finds behavior “disrespectful”
Where is the problem? In a thread that has since been deleted, a “Game Changers” player vented her anger. She was particularly bothered by the fact that well-known streamers were hired instead of established professionals.
As someone who primarily attends Game Changers and cares about the growth of the scene and its players, I find it disrespectful. […] The argument that this team will bring attention to the scene that we could actually benefit from doesn’t make sense to me. The talented competitors are not highlighted. […] So it feels a bit like a slap in the face.
The problem, according to the player, is that the organization initially asked for professional players for a “Game Changers” team, but then instead hired streamers for whom participation is a one-time thing.
If the team had been declared a “fun team” from the start, it would have been different. The player has the feeling that “real” players have had a huge chance “taken away” in favor of streamers who don’t really want to get involved in the professional scene.
She fears that the women’s scene could be taken even less seriously than it already is (Twitter via WaybackMachine).
Streamer defends his selection
What does Disguised Toast say about the criticism? Taking to Twitter, content creator Disguised Toast explained what was behind the decision to hire female streamers. A month ago, he asked about the best “Game Changers” players who were not yet committed to anything else.
In response to his question, he received many good recommendations, but in the end he had the feeling that there was not enough time to put together a team responsibly. Because the qualification starts on April 4th.
Between the lines you can read that Disguised Toast has changed its plan:
There was probably also a financial aspect to this, as Disguised Toast states that putting together a “real” team would cost around 300,000 US dollars. He does not want to invest this sum in a scene that is still quite undersupplied by Riot, says the streamer.
I assure you that all of the women on the team take the event very seriously and meet all of Riot’s eligibility criteria. You have no right to exclude them from participation just because they are streamers.
With all due respect: In the competitive arena, you don’t owe anyone anything. Everyone is struggling. Everyone sacrifices their own time to get somewhere. You don’t deserve an organization more than the next person.
Disguised Toast hopes the exposure from the well-known streamers will help show the world that there is a demand for Valorant content.
The first Valorant Game Changers Championship took place in Berlin from November 15th to 20th. You can read about who won the race here:
3 former pros in CS:GO write history in Valorant – These are juliano, Petra and mimi