FaZe Banks

FaZe Clan, or simply FaZe, is a professional esports and entertainment organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Founded on May 30, 2010, as FaZe Sniping, the organization has players from around the world, across multiple games, including Call of Duty, Counter-Strike 2, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Halo Infinite, Valorant, Fortnite Battle Royale, Rocket League, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

FaZe Sniping made its debut on YouTube on May 30, 2010.

Originally, the group were a Call of Duty clan founded by three players, Eric "CLipZ" Rivera, Jeff "House Cat" Emann (now known as "Timid") and Ben "Resistance" Christensen.

The trio garnered a reputation for innovating trickshotting in the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Their YouTube content took off when Ted "Fakie" joined the clan.

It was then when FaZe unveiled the most popular series on their channel, ILLCAMS.

FaZe Clan's focus on trickshotting and a personality/social-media approach led to FaZe Clan becoming one of the first popular YouTube video game channels, compared to other Call of Duty channels which were focused on winning tournaments.

In 2012, the channel had one million subscribers, and the clan began to branch out into esports competitions.

Teams under the FaZe name began competing in competitions such as the Call of Duty Championship and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championships, who were separate from the clan's YouTube content creators, splitting members of FaZe Clan into two mostly autonomous camps.

Originally, FaZe Clan did not have a corporate structure, however the original CEO was Brazilian Thomas "Temperrr" Oliveira, who had been a member of FaZe since he was 16 years old.

Oliveira and COO Richard “Banks” Bengston created the first FaZe shared home in 2014 in Plainview, New York, where they could incorporate lifestyle content with their gaming content.

In 2015, former social media platform Hubrick, run by Norwegian entrepreneur Sebastian Geurts, decided to invest in FaZe Clan.

Hubrick recruited former record executive Lee Trink to act as an advisor.

In January 2016, FaZe Clan acquired European esports team G2 Esports's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive international lineup, who competed as FaZe Clan in the 2016 MLG Major Championship: Columbus, The team won second place in ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, losing to US-based Cloud9.

In 2017, Bengston moved to Los Angeles, starting a new shared home with YouTubers called the Clout House.

FaZe Clan were the runners up in ESL Pro League Season 6 in 2017, and second runners up of ESL Pro League Season 7 and ESL One Cologne 2018.

FaZe Clan were the champions of ELeague CS:GO Premier in 2017, winning $500,000 of prize money.

In 2018, Greg Selkoe, founder of streetware web retailer Karmaloop, became the president of FaZe Clan, with Trink becoming the CEO.

In late 2018, FaZe Clan opened its series A funding round.

Throughout 2019, musicians Ray J, DJ Paul, Offset, Swae Lee, Yo Gotti, Pitbull, and Disco Fries, basketball players Meyers Leonard, Josh Hart, Ben Simmons, Jamal Murray, footballer Gregory van der Wiel, skateboarder Nyjah Huston, radio host Big Boy, music executives Sylvia Rhone, Troy Carter and Guy Oseary and actor Chris O'Donnell invested in FaZe Clan.

In December 2019, FaZe closed its series A led by entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine and mobile e-commerce platform NTWRK.

In 2020, the organization expanded into the Asian market, acquiring a Thai PUBG Mobile and EA Sports FC (Online) roster.

In October 2023, an agreement was announced for FaZe Clan's parent company FaZe Holdings to be acquired by GameSquare in an all stock deal.

In January 2020, FaZe Clan obtained a $22.7 million investment loan from a private lender.

FaZe was advised on the transaction by Canaccord Genuity, a Canadian financial company.

On June 18, 2020, FaZe Clan announced its co-ownership of CTRL, a food supplement company.

In December 2020, FaZe Clan was worth $305 million.

That same month the revenue of FaZe Clan was estimated $40 million.

It also released the film Crimson under FaZe Studios in 2020, with Brian "Rug" Awadis in a leading role.

On June 10, 2021, FaZe Clan became the first esports team to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

The same year it announced it was merging with special purpose acquisition investors B. Riley Principal to become a public company listed on NASDAQ, with an expected initial valuation of about US$1 billion.

As part of this merge, FaZe would receive US$291 million from B. Riley, and would be renamed to Faze Holdings Inc. and refocus itself as a brand for "the voice of youth culture".

The merger was approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the company went public on July 20, 2022, however with a lower than announced valuation of $725 million.

Also in 2021, FaZe Clan member Frazier Khattrri (FaZe Kay) would become one of the lead promoters of Save the Kids token, a pump and dump cryptocurrency which was additionally promoted by FaZe members Jarvis, Teeqo and Nikan.

Upon the token's launch and revelation to the public that it was a pump and dump, FaZe removed Kay and suspended Jarvis, Teeqo, and Nikan for their involvement.

In July 2022, FaZe Clan became a publicly traded company.

The company had only received a portion of the money they were promised by private investors ahead of their merge with B. Riley Principal 150 Merger Group.

On January 20, 2023, the price of their stock fell below a dollar for the first time, which lead them to be at risk of being delisted.

According to Nasdaq policy, if a company's stock is under $1 for more than a month, the company will receive a deficiency notice, in which they have 180 days for the stock to be $1 or more for ten consecutive business days.