The Twitch streamer Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Wang is part of a number of content creators who have formed their own teams in esports in recent months. However, esports is currently facing a significant crisis in 2023, with a lack of funding evident everywhere. It is referred to as the “esports winter.” For the shooter Valorant, Disguised Toast assembled a women’s team consisting of 4 female streamers, which caused a lot of dissatisfaction. One esports female player complained that he should give women with esports ambitions a chance.
What kind of team is this? At the beginning of January, Disguised Toast introduced his Valorant team “Disguised” (DSG). With his team, the streamer was able to celebrate some initial smaller successes, but soon the question arose as to how this whole thing would actually be profitable:
On March 28, the streamer presented a second team, which seems to have been specifically assembled for the VCT Game Changers: The Game Changers are about tournaments for women and other marginalized gender identities in Valorant.
The team consists of female streamers for the Riot shooter, who have between several tens of thousands and over 2.3 million followers on Twitch:
- Lydia “Tupperware” Wilson
- Alicia “Kyedae” Shymko
- Tenzin “TrulyTenzin” Dolkar
- Jodi “QuaterJade” Lee
- Sydney “Sydeon” Parker
Of the players, only Tupperware has “Game Changers” experience. Former CS:GO pro Corey “ruin” Hartog joins as a coach.
Female esports player says: “Like a slap in the face”
What were the reactions? In the comments under the announcement tweet, there is a lot of enthusiasm. After all, DisguisedToast and the streamers combined have millions of fans. But soon criticism arose as well.
Female esports player finds behavior “disrespectful”
What’s the problem? In a now-deleted thread, a “Game Changers” player expressed her frustration. She was particularly bothered that well-known female streamers were signed instead of established professionals.
As someone who mainly participates in the Game Changers and cares about the growth of the scene and its players, I find it disrespectful. […] The argument that this team will draw attention to the scene from which we could actually benefit makes no sense to me. The talented competitors are not being highlighted. […] It feels a bit like a slap in the face.
The problem, according to the player, is that the organization initially asked for professional female players for a “Game Changers” team but then signed streamers instead, for whom participation is a one-time thing.
If the team had been declared as a “fun team” from the outset, it would have been different. The player feels that “real” players had a huge opportunity “taken away” in favor of streamers who do not want to genuinely compete in the professional scene.
She fears that the women’s scene may be taken even less seriously than it already is (Twitter via WaybackMachine).
Streamer defends his selection
What does Disguised Toast say about the criticism? On Twitter, content creator Disguised Toast explained what motivated the decision to sign female streamers. He stated that he had asked for the best “Game Changers” players who were not signed elsewhere a month ago.
He received many good recommendations for his inquiry, but ultimately felt that time was too short to responsibly put a team together. The qualifiers start on April 4.
Between the lines, one can read that Disguised Toast changed his plan:
- the new team is not supposed to play really “competitively” and thus not necessarily win matches and tournaments
- instead, the team is meant to produce content and memes
There was probably also a financial aspect involved, as Disguised Toast stated that assembling a “real” team would cost around 300,000 US dollars. He doesn’t want to invest that amount into a scene that is still quite underfunded by Riot, said the streamer.
I assure you that all the women in the team take the event very seriously and meet all participation criteria set by Riot. You have no right to exclude them from participation just because they are streamers.
With all due respect: In the competitive field, you owe nothing to anyone. Everyone is working hard. Everyone sacrifices their own time to make it somewhere. You don’t deserve an organization more than the next person.
Disguised Toast hopes that the attention from the well-known female streamers will help to show the world that there is a demand for Valorant content.
The first Valorant Game Changers Championship took place from November 15 to 20 in Berlin. Who took the race can be read here:
3 former pros in CS:GO make history in Valorant – These are juliano, Petra, and mimi
