Disguised Toast is fighting an uphill battle to right the wrongs of the esports industry

Dexerto spoke with Disguised Toast after DSG took the LCS Challengers title to ask about his esports goals. The popular content creator has been outspoken about just how much money he’s losing, but he remains undeterred and is invested in changing the industry.

It’s no secret that esports has been on a downward trend in many areas. Though there are still parts of the industry that are growing and attracting new investors, the pursuit of profitability hasn’t borne much fruit.

Other than staple names, like Team Liquid and Cloud9, you’ll be hard-pressed to find an organization that’s turning a profit, or, at the very least, breaking even. However, there are many orgs within big franchise leagues, like the LCS, that may not be making the most of their standing.

Enter Disguised Toast, a content creator whose clear passion for the industry is matched only by the amount of money he’s losing to stay in it. We spoke with Toast about what success for DSG looks like, the path to breaking even, and his ultimate goals within esports.

Disguised Toast is trying to rebuild trust in the industry

When League of Legends was in its infancy, the scene got hyped up as the “next big thing” in many ways. Franchising added perceived value to the LCS with how exclusive it was, and requiring teams to pay an entry fee added a sense of investing in something bigger, with the ability to sell that slot in the future at (hopefully) a profit.

However, it also added a high barrier of entry that has made it difficult for new teams to enter the LCS without some serious capital behind them. That, combined with Riot removing the requirement for LCS orgs to keep a tier 2 team, has opened a very risky (and expensive) door for Disguised Toast to make his way into League esports.

Still, Disguised Toast jumped at the opportunity without thinking twice. In his video discussing how he lost a million dollars investing in esports, the OfflineTV creator put it like this: “When I see something on fire, when I see a stock that’s all the way on the most downward trajectory possible, I think to myself: Hey, what a great opportunity!”

Though he’s been open about losing money, Disguised Toast does have a goal: Sustainability. He spoke about this subject and much more as he sat down for an extended interview with Dexerto.

“If we operate at zero – like, the staff are being paid, I don’t need to be paid, the players are being paid, and the company has made $0 and lost $0 after all expenses and revenue – I would consider that a monumental success in esports.”

Toast went over how he plans to get to the point of breaking even with merch drops, crowdfunding via Patreon, and (hopefully) an upcoming sponsor. Disguised Toast himself has been transparent about not wanting to over-charge for merch in the past, claiming he made only $1 for every Toast plushie he sold in a past promotion. He has been outspoken about wanting to create a good value proposition for fans, something that makes profiting in the space more inherently more difficult for him.

The path to getting a sponsor has been an arduous one. But it isn’t because he’s not getting results: Potential sponsors are being spooked after some negative experiences in the industry, according to Toast.

“We have our merch drop coming towards the end of the year; it’s been something that a lot of fans have been asking for. And we do plan to stick with the titles we are in, so having something that people can buy would help. Obviously, we have our Patreon, where fans can just donate five bucks a month and get a couple of videos every week. It’s nothing, like, too cool or extensive. It’s more to show your support.”

“We’re still trying to nail our first sponsor down, it has been in the works for a while. But a lot of these sponsors have been spooked away. The battle is just trying to convince them. Like, ‘Yeah, but you know, maybe if you give us a little money, we can go on a trial period?’ But it’s been tough. Just small, small steps like that. Just getting people to have faith in the esports industry again after the last several years.”

On top of the broken promises within the industry itself, the landscape of tier 2 esports within Riot Games’ esports titles certainly doesn’t make it an attractive proposition for sponsors. Riot Games itself has made it clear that tier 2 Valorant is meant to develop the game’s next stars, rather than create a stage where players can shine within the league.

DSG is held back by the system

The actions and words of Riot Games have indicated what they intend their tier 2 scene to be: developmental. In their eyes, it seems to be less about the viewer experience and more about giving players an avenue into the franchise leagues.

Disguised Toast felt frustrated by the idea that, no matter how strong a team he manages to build, he will never be able to make it into the LCS without putting forth an amount of money he’ll likely never be able to afford. Losing $1 million in a year is one thing, but investing $20 million or more in an LCS slot is a different story entirely.

Disguised Toast was standing on stage with his NA Challengers team, proud of them and their victory, when some of the players were immediately asked about LCS offers and whether they’d be fielding them.

This isn’t meant to call out Kangas, the interviewer, for asking the question. It’s an entirely fair question to pose for a player that hits the top of NACL. However, it can’t feel good for Toast to be standing there with his team knowing that the players he has cultivated are likely to get picked up by other orgs.

“This ecosystem kind of punishes any new teams trying to make it, specifically in League of Legends. There’s just no way for a team to ascend to tier 1. These five players have been so good together, but, realistically, everyone wants to play in tier 1. And I think if they had the choice, like, ‘Hey, could we all stick together and play tier 1? We already won the tier 2 scene and want to play against high-level competition.’ It’s impossible for them to do that.”

“When they asked, ‘Hey, FakeGod, would you consider an LCS team?’ And [he said] he’ll think about it? That makes a lot of sense to me. Because right now, the way it’s set up – in 100 years, he can win 100 NACL trophies, but the only way he’ll ever make it to Worlds is with an LCS team, and those are owned by LCS orgs because Riot sold it to them. Yeah… It’s not super friendly for amateur orgs to have bigger aspirations.”

Toast went on to explain how being a content creator in the space gives him an inherent advantage, even if other esports orgs have more capital to invest and more money to throw at their problems.

“I definitely have an advantage being a content creator, which means I can cover all the marketing and the brand awareness just by being involved. And it’s a huge advantage over Immortals, or even other orgs that do have good brands, like NRG or Sentinels, because they’re still paying an extremely high amount of money to retain their brand ambassadors. When you look at Sentinels, they have Tarik, aceu, Daph, TenZ. NRG, they have like Sapnap and s0m and the OpTic core from Valorant. All this costs a lot of money. Our advantage is that we don’t have to do any of that.”

Toast also spoke about the importance of storylines for both teams and players. With organizations that lack staying power and a true storyline within the LCS keeping their spots, it’s difficult for people to get invested in orgs that consistently lack the ability to contest for the title.

“People want storylines. It’s entertainment; you can’t just go into a scene – any sport – and just pick and choose what you get invested in. You want to follow a player’s journey, you want to follow a team’s journey, a dynasty, a legacy. And traditional LCS orgs don’t really understand how to create content. They’re not entertaining, and players are swapped around every year, so there’s no storyline. And what you end up with is just kind of… nothing. No investment, no storyline, and no emotional investment from fans, and it’s not fun to watch in that scenario.”

It’s worth noting that he has a certain level of sympathy for those who, like him, are just trying to make it in esports – even if their approach isn’t the right one, in his eyes.

“With TSM exiting and Immortals… Like, Immortals performed so badly that there’s a clause in the LCS that says if you’re bottom two in five out of eight splits, Riot reserves the right to kick you, and no team has ever broken that clause. Until now, with Immortals.”

Immortals haven’t exactly had a stellar history within the LCS. Though they had a strong debut in 2016 and made it to Worlds 2017, the org has been on a downward spiral in recent years. Despite their best efforts, the team has languished at the bottom of the LCS for the past two years, with two ninth-place and two tenth-place finishes to their name.

And the numbers pulled by the team’s content reflect that. Despite their production team’s best efforts, Immortals’ videos and social media content just don’t perform well.

While Toast has sympathy for these teams and doesn’t bear any ill will toward them, his argument that traditional LCS orgs don’t understand how to make content holds water in this context.

“I’m not saying, ‘Riot, kick them out!’ because, at the end of the day with these orgs… Look, they’re not great in terms of branding, and they might not be competitive, but they’re still paying the salary of players and staff that just want to make it in gaming. Maybe they’re not spending it efficiently or responsibly, or getting the best results, but they’re still feeding money into the ecosystem. But yeah, them not doing much with the slot isn’t great. If, for example, MrBeast bought their spot, I’m sure just MrBeast being involved alone would be amazing.”

MrBeast has teased the idea of buying out an LCS slot in the past, so this isn’t an entirely unrealistic concept, especially considering his standing as one of the biggest content creators in the world.

However, even in a hypothetical reality where creator-run orgs populate the LoL competitive scene, it’s hard to imagine someone building a brand quite like Toast. He has managed to create a unique name and brand presence for himself within the scene in such a short time, and that’s partially due to him putting in less money than his counterparts. Or, at the very least, knowing how to spend his money and where to focus his attention.

Breathing new life into League of Legends esports

DSG certainly has a unique brand presence. In a landscape filled with teams doing their best to create slick logos and recognizable branding that can be easily turned into merchandise, DSG has stick figures.

Aside from saving money on having a dedicated graphic design team, a complex logo, and an entire team running social media, Toast tweets out MS-painted likenesses of himself and his players, and still gets more media attention than most LCS orgs.

And, although it may seem like a very meme-y way to market your team, it’s free of the traditional sports team-esque identity many orgs have taken on; an approach that clearly resonates with his fans. Toast had some strong opinions about the ways in which esports has tried to relate to a wider audience, perhaps to the detriment of existing fans who are there for the players and their stories.

“Esports orgs struggle with the branding stuff. The only thing they can do to get more clout is by winning. Because winning makes you look cool. When you win, everyone thinks you’re cool. They also tried to be cool and do super cool collabs, and spend a lot of money on big parties. For me, it kind of got away from the beginning of esports,” Toast lamented.

With the immense support shown for both Toast and DSG’s players really coming through during the in-person question, it’s hard not to wonder how DSG can get fans to fall in love with stick figures, while high-profile organizations spend millions on celebrities they don’t seem to be getting much mileage out of.

“Over the last couple of years, there has been change where it’s really important that people think we’re cool. We need, like, B-list celebrities marketing our stuff. And I always thought that got away from the core of esports. When you look at FaZe with Snoop Dogg, and, ‘Oh, the son of LeBron James is teaming up with FaZe!’ Not to gatekeep anything – the beauty of esports and gaming is that anyone can be involved, anyone can be passionate about it. But it doesn’t have to be this front we all put on because we need the investors to be happy, we need the brands to be happy, we’ve got to impress our sponsor and make them think we are hype.”

Toast did have a solution in mind here, however. In a landscape where orgs are upping the ante and investing more into importing strong players and tier 1 is losing money, he still believes that tier 2 can become profitable, despite Riot’s perception of LCS Challengers as a development league.

While there’s no way to solve the issue of players getting poached and picked up by bigger orgs, there is a way to build storylines: More content creators.

Finding a future beyond content creation

The idea of making a living off of platforms like YouTube and Twitch is, in the grand scheme of things, a generally new concept. Content creators who have been continually growing on these platforms have had to find ways to one-up themselves, bringing new content to the table on a consistent basis while catering to algorithms and trends, and ultimately trying to predict what their viewers want before they want it.

In other words, sustaining a career as a creator is a tall order, and coming up with strategies that work is difficult. Toast spoke a bit about the experience of being a streamer and YouTuber and what it has been like trying to adapt as time has gone on.

He has come a long way since he was attending esports tournaments under the Disguised Toast moniker, taking Hearthstone players by surprise without saying a word. Though he had a strong hook with his appearance, he has really had to change with the times, while some other YouTubers just haven’t.

“I don’t know, it might sound boomer, but… things seemed simpler back then.”

“Today, it’s so saturated because everyone’s trying to become a content creator or streamer. There are some kids that are raised on streaming now and it’s their goal. But I would say there’s still a lack of great content from streamers. When you look at people’s YouTube channels, most streamers have terrible YouTube channels. The ones that do have good ones really stand out, like Ludwig being a big example, [are] content creators that use both [livestreams and edited videos].”

CDawgVA spoke with us at length about building an entire team of editors, artists, and other creative staff to help him create a sort of system that allows for his content to be spread across all his platforms, and Ludwig has a similar strategy. Turning live-streamed content into good YouTube videos seems to be the solution that savvy creators have settled on.

While it’s a widely held belief that content creation has a large luck factor involved (and that is true to some extent), those who devise a strategy to grow and maintain their audience tend to be able to do more with their success. And, though it’s hard to say now, building orgs in esports to get your brand in front of more people can be yet another component to succeeding as a creator.

The idea of planning content, working with the algorithm, and keeping an eye on trends is a far cry from the way things were when Disguised Toast got his start as a YouTuber almost 10 years ago.

“It’s definitely changed, especially if you’re at the very top because now you’re seen as more of an influencer, which is one of those terms that I hate being used when people describe me. Just because I feel like… I don’t like I’m going to influence other people. I started off playing Hearthstone, a card game, like a strategic, ‘You play a card and I play a card.’ It’s not fancy, it’s not ‘influencing’ anyone. I just had fun with it.”

“Since then, the idea of being a content creator has changed so much. And when you look at the big ones, like Ludwig and Ibai, who are just putting on these giant events… For me, being a content creator has changed what I define as a super successful [creator]. That’s kind of what I’m pursuing with this team: I can’t be in front of the camera forever. I’m very limited by what I am and who I am. And now there’s this new generation of players/streamers that can go way further than me. If I can just help one or two of them on their way, I view that as a success.”

With Toast being one of the pioneers of creator-led esports orgs, alongside the likes of Ludwig/MoistCr1TiKaL with Moist Esports, he believes that this new wave of projects can bring esports to a more profitable and sustainable business model even if an org like DSG never gets a shot at joining the LCS.

“The way I could see tier 2 being hype – we saw it with Valorant a little bit – is if creator orgs are all in it. Ludwig and Moist were in Valorant with me, but this time it’s just me. Can you imagine a league with me, Charlie, Ludwig, Tyler1, xQc, MrBeast, and we’re all in the tier two scene? Even if we’re not playing Worlds or anything, I think the viewership for that would be massive. But that is very reliant on content creators being involved. I don’t know too much about the development of players in tier 2, to be quite honest with you, but it’s a good place for me to be because I’m just starting out new. Tier 2 is a place for players who really are hungry for success and really want to make it, and who won’t mind grinding and trying to make it for themselves.”

Though Disguised Toast made it abundantly clear that he wants a path to the LCS to be available for him – whether that be via promotion through a relegation match or doing a merger with a current org, as Ibai did with KOI – he’s also happy with using his influence to make the tier 2 scene something special in the aftermath of the exodus that rocked the LCS Challengers scene earlier in 2023.

The future of esports in this turbulent and uncertain landscape may be to go back to its roots rather than trying to go big and emulate traditional sports. Between tarik consistently beating the viewership of the official Valorant broadcast with his co-streams and creator-led orgs giving tier 2 broadcasts record-breaking figures, Toast’s vision for the future of League and Valorant’s development scenes is a convincing one.

The fight for sustainability has been an ongoing battle for the entirety of esports’ history, but people like Toast, who are willing to invest at a loss with the hopes of creating a space where passionate competitors can succeed, could just be the sort that survive the so-called “esports winter.”