After a rather disheartening VCT 2023 season, popular VALORANT Challengers team Disguised (DSG) has announced its partnership with Ascension winner and Pacific partner BLEED Esports for the upcoming VCT 2024. This collaboration not only aims to support top SEA talent, but to entertain the community with engagements and more.
The official press release on Jan. 25 revealed DSG and BLEED’s plan to support a VALORANT team in the Malaysia/Singapore region. Besides fielding local talent, the roster will also feature some of former BLEED VALORANT players.
DSG’s competitive VALORANT journey began in 2023 when Toast announced a roster of promising athletes for VCT Challengers. That said, the road was incredibly rocky for the roster, leading to several roster shuffles in the middle of the season and, eventually, the disbanding of the roster. The organization then turned toward the Game Changers circuit, but the road here wasn’t pleasant either. Now, with Bleed’s support, Disguised has officially exited the North American scene to break into VCT Pacific with hopes to rewrite its history in VALORANT esports.
BLEED, on the other hand, became a Pacific partner after its glorious Ascension win in 2023. While it intends to keep its focus on the partnership league, it also plans to remain close to where it all began. “As the Ascension team for VCT Pacific, it’s important to us to remember where we started,” BLEED COO Ian Huston said. “To keep supporting Challengers and Malaysia/Singapore through VALORANT, we couldn’t be more excited to welcome Disguised’s expansion into Asia.”
Speaking of DSG x BLEED, owner and CEO Disguised Toast revealed he had always wanted to expand to Asia, and with plans to build DSG as a global brand, all of it fell into place. “I lived in Malaysia from age 1 to 13 and haven’t visited since, so I’m excited to make a return,” Toast shared. “A huge thank you to BLEED for supporting us through this whole process and helping us build a roster. Fans can expect DSG to be visiting the SEA region this year.”
Interestingly, this collaboration isn’t just about DSG shifting to the Asian scene, but it’s also beneficial for BLEED. While it helps DSG settle in Asia, the Pacific partner intends to use DSG’s contacts to potentially enter the North American esports scene at some point in the future. Besides esports, both organizations intend to build and nurture the esports community with engaging content.
While we’re definitely getting to see a Challengers team out of DSG in 2024, it’s unknown whether it will field a VALORANT Game Changers team in the Pacific for the upcoming season.
