To support the Disguised brand and provide the most dedicated fans with extra access and content, streamer Disguised Toast is launching a Patreon for fans to directly support players and staff. According to Toast, this is a necessity to keep the brand alive amidst a brutal “esports winter.”
As of around 10am CT on June 12, the Patreon has attracted 638 paid subscribers, bringing in approximately $2,780 a month. Of the few posts that are available to unlock now, one of them is the full projected budget for the rest of 2023, which Toast remarks will be “a little less for the next few months” after the org released its men’s VALORANT roster on June 9.
In a recent video released on his YouTube channel, Toast explained that the Patreon is needed to support the players and staff of Disguised because sponsors are evidently set to leave esports en masse. According to Toast, this is due to a poor return on investment.
“Brands are scared of esports because they invested millions into it and they didn’t get any significant return,” Toast said. He cited a specific example in which Disguised reached out to a “very high-profile energy drink” that was sponsoring another big organization. Toast said that despite Disguised doing better numbers on Twitter and YouTube compared to the other organization, and despite asking for “half” the money, the sponsor said no and told Toast that it was “leaving esports” because the high-profile esports organization “didn’t deliver on what they promised.”
Having already spent over $1 million on Disguised in its first year, Toast is realistic about what opening a Patreon will accomplish. The Patreon will not completely balance the books but Toast said it will keep DSG going while buying him “more time [to] figure out how to make it all work.”
While Toast and DSG’s future in VALORANT is uncertain, the organization has just started its League of Legends season in the North American Challengers League after picking up various LCS Academy players.
