In case you missed it over the weekend, esports influencer group FaZe Clan announced it is back to its bro-y, frat-house roots. On April 27, the group announced it kicked out over 17 creators from its roster, retaining only 14 “core” members, in a swift, polarizing blow.
The news of team cuts follows a troubling year for the company. It's faced low stock prices, record losses, a series of layoffs, an ousted CEO, and controversial team departures.
In October 2023, one of FaZe’s founding members, creator Richard Bengston — aka FaZe Banks — took over the organization as CEO after the company was acquired by esports marketing company GameSquare.
A few months later, in early April 2024, Bengston announced that over 110 FaZe employees had been laid off in the past year. He hoped to get staff numbers even lower, to around 10.
In a video posted on April 29 following the news of the roster changes, Bengston said the decision came after years of corporate “mismanagement.”
“I can’t apologize for doing what feels right,” he said. “I’ve seen FaZe mismanaged and abused and fucking the life sucked out of it for so long that, like, all I want to do is, I want to see the brand run, and win, and thrive because it deserves to.”
Originally, FaZe's first cohort of gamers and YouTubers pioneered “trickshot” Call of Duty videos and lived in a New York content house in the early 2010s. But since then, various corporate interests have floated in and out.
First, social media company Hubrick partnered with FaZe in 2015. Hubrick brought in entertainment entrepreneur Lee Trink as President to try to give FaZe a more professional business push.
Under Trink, the group expanded, leasing a $10 million, 8,000-square-foot “Clout House” in Los Angeles. After 2020, FaZe attracted $40 million in funding, with celebrity investors like Offset, Pitbull, and eventually Snoop Dogg. Forbes estimated it was worth $305 million that year.
But Trink was also an overspender, hosting over-the-top Hollywood parties he couldn’t afford. (And letting his pet pit bull bite employees in the office, at least on one occasion, according to Bloomberg.) ...
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