State Champ Radio FaZe Clan
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Source: Andrew Toth / Getty / FaZe Clan
Esports is struggling, and you don’t have to look further than what popular esports and influencer brand FaZe Clan is going through. Now, the organization is hoping after being purchased, it can stay afloat.
Spotted on The Verge, Faze Clan has been acquired in a stock deal worth about $17 million by gaming analytics and Esports brand company Gamesquare.
The $17 million is a steep drop from Faze’s $725-million valuation at the time of its special purpose acquisition company, SPAC, merger in July of 2022.
The website also notes that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is an investor in Gamesquare.
Like many entities in the Esports industry, the Esports organization has struggled since SPAC made it a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq exchange, posting a $28.4-million loss “through the first half of 2023,” Bloomberg reports.
A History of Struggle
Before news of the $17 million acquisition, FaZe Clan gave CEO Lee Trink the boot. The Esports organization boasted big names like Lil Yachty and LeBron James’ son, Bronny James, as members and NBA hooper Ben Simmons as an investor.
The organization abruptly lost one of its most prominent investors, Snoop Dogg, who reportedly lost millions after investing in the Esports organization.
With the acquisition by Gamesquare, FaZe Clan hopes that hitting the reset button will help right the sinking ship. FaZe Clan’s leadership is reverting to its original leadership structure.
Richard “Faze Banks” Bengtson will serve as CEO, Thomas “Faze Temperrr” Oliveira will become president, and Yousef “Faze Apex” Abdelfattah will take over as COO.
Via a press release, FaZe Clan says it will be “re-engaging with its core fanbase” in hopes that it will return the organization to the top of Esports relevancy.
We shall see if this all works out for the once mega-popular Esports organization.
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Photo: Andrew Toth / Getty
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Source: David J. Becker / Getty / FaZe Clan
Once uber-popular Esports organization FaZe Clan is struggling and now needs a new CEO.
Spotted on Digital Music News, FaZe Clan has given CEO Lee Trink the boot, “effective immediately.” The news comes on the heels of the publicly traded company’s shares plummeting “nearly 99 percent since mid-September of 2022,” the website reports.
FaZe Clan “quietly” decided to change leadership in a formal release. Before joining Faze Clan, Trink worked at Atlantic and EMI as an exec before joining the organization in an advisor capacity in 2016 before he was promoted to CEO in 2018, and it’s been all downhill since he took the job.
Per Digital Music News:
Previously an Atlantic and EMI exec, Trink signed on with FaZe Clan as an advisor in 2016 before beginning as CEO in September of 2018. But for a variety of reasons, it’s been a downhill ride for the Jimmy Iovine-backed company since it listed on the public market via a SPAC merger in July of 2022.
Shares parted with north of 25 percent of their worth immediately thereafter, and Snoop Dogg, having joined the gaming collective’s board of directors in March of 2022, abruptly ducked out of the operation in April of this year.
The following month, former BMG exec and Raised In Space CEO Zach Katz, who’d started as FaZe Clan’s president and COO in May of 2022, exited the role. And in August, the business reported Q2 2023 revenue of $11.69 million (down 37.84 percent year over year) as well as a quarterly net loss of $14.36 million.
COO and CFO Christoph Pachler will take over Trink’s now-vacated role in an interim capacity. Digital Music News reports that it’s unclear if he will permanently take the role or if there is an active search for a replacement.
Is this the beginning of the end for FaZe Clan? We shall see.
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Photo: David J. Becker / Getty
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Source: Activision / Call of Duty / Nickmercs
FaZe Clan member Nickmercs learned swiftly that spewing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric will cost you.
Spotted on PC Gamer, Nickmercs got his Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone skin pulled by Activision after he posted a headass anti-LGBTQ+ tweet.
In response to a tweet from CharlieIntel, a Call of Duty-focused website, which speculated that that was why Nickmerc’s skin was suddenly missing because of his comments, the Call of Duty Twitter account did confirm his skin is no longer available.
“Due to recent events, we have removed the ‘NICKMERCS Operator’ bundle from the Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone store,” the tweet begins.
The tweet in question from the FaZe Clan member, who has 6.7 million followers on Twitch and 2 million on Twitter, was a reply to a tweet from eSports broadcaster Chris Puckett highlighting a clash between anti and pro-LGBTQ+ demonstrators at a school that was voting to decide if it should recognize June as Pride Month.
“They should leave little children alone. That’s the real issue,” Nickmercs said in his problematic tweet.
Outrage quickly followed after Nickmerc’s tweet, with Puckett himself responding, “Who is this ‘they’ and what terrible act is everyone afraid of?” he inquired. “I think/hope the goal of most of ‘them’ is to reduce child suicides. This is done through acceptance and removing the stigma of feeling/being different.”
Per the website, Nickmercs said he would not delete the tweet or apologize in a stream, claiming he does not resent the LGBTQ+ community.
Riiiiggghhht.
Bigots Are Big Mad
As expected, Actvision’s decision garnered plenty of reactions from gamers. You got the usual suspects who claim they will now be boycotting the company and popular video for taking the right stance.
Welp, it looks like they will have to stay mad because Nickmercs skin is no longer available, and there are no signs it is coming back.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Activision / Call of Duty
1. LOL, you won’t be missed on the COD battlefield
2. Another hater
3. Another loser who claims to be an ally
6. Y’all know what he meant
7. The lack of comprehension
9. Are y’all okay?
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