Twitch streamer Disguised Toast responded to the backlash he received after revealing his Game Changers lineup for the 2023 season last night, which is made up of both high-tier players and streamers.
“I assure all the girls on the team are taking this event very seriously and they all meet the criteria set out by Riot to participate,” he said on Twitter. “I wasn’t ready to commit $300,000 off a whim without more time given understanding the space.”
He explained he wanted the GC circuit to get more representation and an opportunity to create more VALORANT content by forming this female roster, in addition to his newly-signed mixed competitive roster.
He also blamed doubters that tried to “gatekeep them from this event just because they are streamers,” saying it didn’t prevent them from competing at a high level.
All five players of the Disguised Toast’s GC VALORANT roster are streamers, which raised doubts about the team’s competitive level.
“It feels like a slap in the face to extend this insane opportunity to the entire scene just to rip it away and hand it to content creators who will not really gain anything long term,” one fan commented on the initial announcement.
Related: Disguised Toast is ‘thinking’ about creating another VALORANT team
The tweet’s author explained she hoped to see a performance-driven team after Disguised Toast asked for recommendations to sign the best female players but was disappointed when he ended up choosing streamers instead. Others agreed that it wouldn’t give the “right” exposure to the scene, highlighting talent instead of competitors.
Disguised Toast said he wanted a truly competitive team for GC, but it was also going to be content creation-related, adding he was upfront with his intentions when signing players. “My hope is the added attention show the world that there is a demand for Valo content such as this,” he said.
The streamer received strong support from both fans and experts after posting the thread. Many consider this as an opportunity for GC to inspire more female players to compete, elevate the competitive scene, and an opportunity to create more interesting content. “This roster you built is another tool, another inspiration that will hopefully reach an even wider audience,” former CS:GO veteran sapphiRe said.
The next VCT GC tournament will feature eight teams who earned their place through open qualifiers. It doesn’t include invited teams, so Disguised Toast’s new roster will have to fight their way to the tournament by winning the NA Series S1 Open Qualifier tournament, which will kick off on April 4.
