LTA North — Disguised: A Dark Horse Roster On A Budget
Disguised, the esports team of Disguised Toast, is set to debut in the LTA this week.
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Disguised
DSG's roster has a lot to prove
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With the LTA North Opening Weekend on the horizon, all eyes are on the NACL Guest team, Disguised, as the streamer-owned organization prepares for a landmark Tier 1 LoL esports debut. Though the team had competed in the NACL since mid-2023, they rebuilt the roster from the ground up in preparation for the inaugural LTAN split — but they started later than everyone else. Chris Yong, general manager at DSG, highlighted several directions they could’ve taken the roster, each of which was eventually shut down.
Though many players considered joining DSG, the smaller organization was consistently outbid by more established, wealthier teams throughout the offseason, forcing them to keep pivoting. Felix “Abbedagge” Braun was the first pickup of DSG’s offseason — a choice that came a little too early for DSG’s liking. If they had it their way, Yong explained, they would’ve decided on a coach familiar with the League of Legends ecosystem before starting to assemble the roster. Unfortunately, Abbedagge had an existing contract with an ERL team — BIG, in Prime League, as reported by Sheep Esports — that only permitted him to accept LCS offers until the end of October.
An NACL prospect
Without time to wait for other teams to conclude negotiations with remaining players in NA, DSG picked a veteran midlaner before deciding on a coach — after all, the plan was to pair him with rookie jungler Ganbat "Yuuji" Ulziidelger. That plan didn’t end up working out. “Even before we got accepted into the LTA, Yuuji posted that he was just looking for opportunities," Chris Yong detailed. "Even Toast was like, ‘Oh, I like the spunk on this kid.’ He was a pretty big target for us in the offseason — he's now counted as a resident, and he's going to be fresh in the LCS. So how can we pair that with some experience? That's where "Abbe" really fit the mold."
Yuuji, widely considered the best player in NACL, had experience playing in-person with the Maryville team, traveling for competition, and being part of a high-stakes competitive environment. He’d even competed on stage at the Riot Games Arena. For DSG, with limited resources to develop players who would need more easing into Tier 1 play, Yuuji was perfect. "Bringing [Yuuji] to LA wouldn't be a huge adjustment period for him," Chris Yong explained. "Some of the [other NACL players] are coming from playing NACL at home. Going to the LCS stage is a very big jump. [...] I think Maryville, in general, has a very good system and program to prepare them for that transition — they know how to handle themselves. [...] There's not some of those growing pains of ‘okay, this kid's never been out of the house before.’"
At the last second, his revised residency status meant that DSG would be locking both of their import slots to start their offseason — and one of them would go to a rookie. "Soon afterward, we were about to lock in the coach, and I talked to Yuuji one more time, just to clarify ‘Hey you're sure that you’re a resident in North America?’ And he said, ‘Yes, my agent told me [so, and I’ve been approaching] the entire offseason as a resident.” The very next day he double checks with Riot and he comes to me and he says ‘Hey, I'm no longer counted as a resident.’” Abbedagge was signed with Yuuji in mind, a veteran midlaner to help the prodigious rookie jungler play at his best. Now, everything had to change.
Several options for the Head Coach position
Brandon "Mash" Phan, the team’s head coach, was the next to join. DSG considered other options — Tanner “Damonte” Damonte, who chose to stay with FlyQuest, and Han “Rigby” Earl, who went to Dignitas, chief among them — but Yong emphasized that Mash’s game-focused, strategic approach was a key deciding factor. Rigby is known for his strong strategic approach to the game and Damonte is a former pro player who helped NRG and FLY win titles in back-to-back years — in Yong’s view, a strong strategic foundation would be vital for DSG.
“[After Damonte and Rigby], when I was talking to coaches other than Mash, I didn't get as much confidence on the strategic aspect of things — Mash actually had an idea of how he wanted to go about the next season, how he wanted to play, and how he wanted to coach and develop players. A lot of coaches gave me the same old “This is my process. This is my structure. I want good vibes and all this stuff. [But] the only other person you [could] have on staff, on a day-to-day basis, [could just] be me, right? I don't have a League of Legends background. I need someone pretty confident in the game. Everyone coming to me was saying ‘I can do these things if I have the right staff behind me.’ And I'm like, ‘Okay there's literally no one else but you. You have to be able to do all these things.’ No one gave me confidence [in being able to work as a solitary Head Coach] outside of Mash.” — DSG General Manager Chris Yong
With Mash, the rest of the offseason wrapped up quickly — the team quickly settled on toplaner Cho "Castle" Hyeon-seong and support Choi "huhi" Jae-hyun, filling their import slot with the former and establishing a veteran reunion with the latter. With both import slots filled and most LTA rosters already locked, it was clear that DSG would be rounding out its roster with a relatively inexperienced jungler.
Huhi, the captain
Huhi, one of the longest-tenured players in the league, would be another veteran voice to help lead the team. "Huhi has a big out-of-game role, being in a leadership, captain position," Chris Yong said. "It gave us a lot of confidence that [despite not having] the best season on NRG, [...] he showed that he wants to take accountability for certain things, [and go through] the circumstances with us. He was a pretty big pickup for us and gave us a lot of confidence in how he could possibly lead the team next year"
Much later in the offseason, only weeks from season start, DSG brought on Brandon "Brandini" Chen as an assistant coach — initially, though, they anticipated having to play the season with only one coach. Yong emphasized that alongside Mash, a player like huhi would be critical.
Castle, who drew attention for his solid performances despite mediocre results with Immortals last year, was a complex decision. At the time, DSG was still considering picking up Yuuji, a move that would require a resident toplaner — with Jett Michael "Srtty" Joye off the market, though, the only real option was Milan "Tenacity" Oleksij. The final decision came down to which ADC the team ended up securing.
Another Maryville product
Frank "Tomo" Lam was DSG’s first choice. He distinguished himself by helping 100 Thieves get to Worlds, and he was a solid contender on Dignitas earlier in the year — with the right environment, he had the potential to become one of the best players in his role. Tomo, who ended up settling on joining Dignitas, took a long time to finalize his decision, forcing the team to simultaneously explore other options.
Lawrence "Lost" Sze Yuy Hui was first on the list — during his time away from professional play, he had continued to stay sharp in solo queue and was interested in returning to NA. Personal circumstances that had previously prevented him from playing seemed to be shifting. Jeremiah "ScaryJerry" Leathe had the advantage of being a Maryville product like Yuuji, bringing competitive experience and a mature mindset. Edward “Tactical” Ra has become an LCS veteran, defined by his pop-off plays and — though it happened less last year — heartbreaking misplays.
With the knowledge that their jungler would be a player with limited Tier 1 experience, picking up Castle was stabilizing — he wasn’t a veteran, but his year of LCS play was impressive and showed incredible potential. With only one coach for the team, Yong feared that picking up Tenacity and Yuuji could’ve put them in a tough position for finding a bot lane duo since huhi wasn’t locked yet.
Before huhi, when we were looking at possibly getting Yuuji Tenacity again, Tomo was still indecisive — we didn't know what kind of AD Carry we would end up with. We also thought, “Okay, what if it just so happens that we end up with Abbe and four players straight from NACL? Not to say that these NACL players aren't good enough to be in LTA, but we don't have the resources to develop four NACL players to [the LTA level]. We're also competing at the end of the year in a promotion-relegation system — so, in this roster of Abbe and four NACL players, where can we get them by the end of the year? And honestly, with limited resources, it probably wasn't a good idea. [On the other hand,] Castle has the LCS experience, [and he’s] very bought in on the process. We know his English is good — [...] his ability to understand sarcasm, for example. I think being able to connect outside of the game is very important “ — DSG General Manager Chris Yong
The final piece, then, was their jungler. It came down between Lawrence Lin "eXyu" Xu and Tomio Phanlith "Tomio" Chan, both with limited LCS experience. Tomio would’ve been returning to the org after helping them win their first NACL title in 2023, but he struggled severely on Shopify Rebellion last year. Though eXyu wasn’t particularly dominant in NACL, he had solid performances and strong communication — and, importantly, he was extremely committed to the DSG project.
A lot to prove
“When we were deciding, we were also looking over their VODs — we noticed Exyu has a very big voice leading in-game. He brings a lot of good communication skills and [we thought] with huhi Shot calling, IGLing, and feeding him a lot of information around the map, you [could] have a very good vocal system that way. And again, going back into the buy-in [to the process], eXyu gave me a lot of confidence, at least from a staff perspective. I know Mash would probably say the same thing as a coach — eXyu gave us a lot of confidence.”
With this roster, DSG has a lot to prove. In past years, Abbedagge and huhi have been some of the most dominant players in their roles, asserting themselves at the top of the league. Castle and eXyu have shown the potential to be just as dominant, but haven’t had a stable roster to grow with. ScaryJerry, though dominant in the NACL, may not be ready to play at the LTA level. DSG has a single coach leading a roster that will need to develop faster than any other team in the league — if they can pull it off, their fans will be there every step of the way.
