FaZe Clan

The voice of youth culture in esports and entertainment.

via Wikipedia: FaZe Clan · see source

FaZe Clan, or simply FaZe, is a professional esports and former entertainment brand. Founded on May 30, 2010, as FaZe Sniping, the organization has professional players and content creators from around the world, across multiple games.

Quick Facts

Trade name

FaZe Esports, FaZe Clan

Industry

Esports
Content creation
Merchandising

Predecessor

FaZe Sniping (2010–2011)

Founded

30 May 2010

Founder

Eric "ClipZ" Rivera
Jeff "House Cat" Emann
Ben "Resistance" Christensen

Headquarters

Frisco, Texas

Country

United States

Owner

GameSquare

Lore & Background

FaZe Sniping made their debut on YouTube on May 30, 2010. Originally, the group was 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 that FaZe unveiled the most popular series on their channel, ILLCAMS. FaZe Clan's focus on trickshotting and a personality-driven approach to social media led to it becoming one of the first popular YouTube video game channels, compared to other Call of Duty channels that often focused on winning tournaments. In 2012, the channel had one million subscribers, and the clan began to branch out into esports competitions. Separate from the clan's YouTube content creators, teams under the FaZe name began competing in competitions such as the Call of Duty Championship and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championships.

The original CEO, Thomas "Temperrr" Oliveira, had been a member of FaZe since he was 16 years old. Oliveira and COO Richard “Banks” Bengtson created the first FaZe shared home in 2014 in Plainview, New York, intended to facilitate lifestyle content alongside their gaming content. In 2015, former social media platform Hubrick, run by Norwegian entrepreneur Sebastian Geurts, invested in FaZe Clan. Hubrick recruited former record executive Lee Trink as an advisor.

In January 2016, FaZe Clan acquired 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, Bengtson moved to Los Angeles, starting a new shared home with YouTubers called the Clout House. FaZe Clan were the runner ups in ESL Pro League Season 6, second runner ups in ESL Pro League Season 7 and ESL One Cologne 2018, and were the champions of ELeague CS:GO Premier that same year, winning $500,000 of prize money.

In 2018, Greg Selkoe, founder of streetwear web retailer Karmaloop, became the president of FaZe Clan, with Trink becoming the CEO. Later, FaZe Clan opened their series A funding round.

Did You Know?

On June 10, 2021, FaZe Clan became the first esports team to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
FaZe Media was formed in May 2024 and received $11 million in investment from DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish.