Disguised Toast explains why being in Valorant Challengers still feels “surreal”

OfflineTV streamer Jeremy ‘Disguised Toast’ Wang has explained why it’s still hard to grasp the fact that his Valorant team is already competing in NA Challengers, the region’s second tier of competition.

Disguised Toast entered Valorant esports in January, before the open qualifiers for NA Challengers, with an eye-catching roster captained by veteran in-game leader Joshua ‘steel’ Nissan and featuring the core of Knights’ 2022 team.

The team lived up to the hype generated by the announcement and booked a spot in the Challengers league without dropping a series in the open qualifier.

And for Disguised Toast, seeing his team compete against some storied organizations this early on in the project hasn’t sunk in quite yet.

“Being part of Challengers is still very surreal,” he told Knights Arena in an interview. “This is the official VCT Challenger league.

“I always thought the path to that would be like a three-year thing or a four-year thing, and the fact that we’re already here, next to FaZe, TSM and G2 is kind of crazy because we started less than half a year ago. It’s very surreal, humbling and exciting.”

Disguised are already through to the Mid-Season Face Off after placing fourth in the Challengers Group B with a 2-3 record. The team recently underwent a roster change, replacing Drake ‘Exalt’ Branly with substitute player Chris ‘riku’ Piasecki.

Ahead of his team’s final group match, against TSM, had a curious message to send to all opponents in the league.

“Please don’t beat us,” he said with a smile. “I know you ask my players which teams they’re afraid of and their answer is always, ‘We’re not afraid of anyone’.

“My answer is, ‘I’m afraid of everyone’. Anyone we meet, I’m like, ‘Please, please, don’t beat us.’”

Earlier this month, Disguised Toast teased starting an all-women’s Valorant team ahead of the North American VCT Game Changers circuit, which will return in April.