The recent relegation of Disguised Toast’s VALORANT team from NA Challengers is one of the most surprising results of the tier-two league’s first year under the VCT ecosystem, especially given the manner in which it happened. When the team brought on Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker, a world-class player considered one of the best with OpTic last year, no one thought the team would go winless.
In a video posted today titled “The fall of Disguised Toast VALORANT team,” former 100 Thieves coach and current VCT desk analyst Sean Gares did his best to dive into what went wrong for DSG.
Sean Gares said both of DSG’s Pearl games against OREsports and MAD Lions on June 4 and 5 “were some of the most ridiculously disappointing games” he had ever spectated. “They just lost so many retakes and man-up scenarios where they just didn’t play off each other,” he said. “Their ability to communicate off the fly seemed almost non-existent; it seemed like no one was saying an idea.”
Related: MAD Lions releases NA VALORANT team after missing Challengers playoffs
Gares noted that the inability to peek together and make good calls plagued the team on Ascent too, when they were blown out 13-3 and sent to the lower bracket.
“It sucks to say this as an ex-player, but I truly feel like the players slightly let [Toast] down here,” Gares said. “[They were] not trying to work things out. There was clearly something bad happening behind the scenes which caused the roster changes, and then things spiraled out of control. [It] sucks to see.”
Gares even let fans in on his involvement with the team early on, when it was in the early stages of being formed. He said Toast came to him for input on players, but Gares warned Toast that the players would likely cost more than the original budget he had in mind, and that “the juice might not be worth the squeeze.” Gares said he even turned down a payment offer from Toast, expressing that he wasn’t sure if the project would work.
While many members of the community decided to interpret yay’s post-relegation tweet as a disparaging one toward his teammates, Gares provided a more sympathetic and positive outlook. “I’ve felt that way before; like impostor syndrome,” he said. “It just sucks that he joined a team that, in hindsight, never stood a chance. The losses took a toll on him. I don’t think he meant to throw shade, he’s just saying what everyone’s thinking.”
At time of writing, Disguised just announced that the organization has released all players and its coach as it re-evaluates the future of the org’s involvement with VALORANT. For now, what Disguised does next in VALORANT is unknown.
