E-sports looked like the future of gaming for many years, but the hype seems to be cooling off significantly, even for League of Legends. A Twitch streamer who invested a lot of money into the American e-sports scene of LoL explains the problem. Disguised Toast says he would be happy to get at least $100,000 back from his $1 million investment.
Who is speaking?
- The American Jeremy Wang (31) became known as “Disguised Toast”: He appeared with a kind of “toast with a mustache” as a mask and became a successful Twitch streamer.
- Wang made a name for himself as a strategy expert in Hearthstone. In recent years, he has also been active as an investor in e-sports, including in Valorant and League of Legends. He is known for acting cautiously and trying to spend as little money as possible on the teams while attempting to keep his teams relevant and interesting for advertisers through his reach as an influencer.
- Since he started investing in e-sports, he has repeatedly stated how much money he has already lost in e-sports and how bleak the situation is.
A German counterpart to Disguised Toast is Handofblood, who apparently has much more fun with his LoL team.
Influencer invests $1 million in LoL e-sports
This is what he says: Disguised Toast explained in a YouTube video in summer 2023 (via youtube) the bleak situation of his team in LoL. He says he invested in LoL because he has loved the game for 10 years and wanted to recruit some players during the player strike to keep their dream alive.
But by now he has invested twice as much as he wanted, about $1 million, and nothing is coming back.
He explains that his accountant sent him a message:
He sent me an Excel spreadsheet with a series of red numbers. And in the income section, some cells were without numbers. I asked him why he blacked out the numbers, and he told me he didn’t. There was simply nothing. He couldn’t add anything there.
What is the problem? Disguised Toast says all organizations in North America are broke or on their way to being so. By that, he means simply everyone.
Some clubs might say everything is okay, but trust me, everyone is losing a lot of money, and a lot of people are getting laid off.
Sponsors are no longer willing to lose money in e-sports
Why is the money missing? The influencer explains that the obvious thought is to seek sponsors, but after 10 years of being lied to by e-sports teams, companies have had enough of losing money.
He himself contacted a company that sells a popular energy drink and is invested in e-sports.
But even they only wanted to get out of e-sports. They said they would continue to sponsor the current team only because they have a contract with them, but as soon as it expires, they would withdraw from e-sports:
Brands fear e-sports because they have invested millions and millions of dollars without receiving any significant return for their investment.
He himself would be happy to get back at least $100,000 from his $1,000,000 investment.
What’s behind it: What Disguised Toast explains in the video coincides with current statements from experts: The LoL league in the USA is in deep crisis. It is expected that teams will ruthlessly cut costs and make cuts in player salaries.
Here in Germany, the regional LoL league seems to be at least in a slightly better position. The LoL Prime League has some high-profile sponsors.
But even LoL teams in Germany have gone bankrupt, with the clear statement that such an e-sports team is a black hole that consumes money.
