FaZe Clan

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 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 Guerts, decided to invest in FaZe Clan. Hubrick recruited former record executive Lee Trink to serve as CEO. 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 CEO Lee Trink stepping into the CEO role full-time. 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 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 initial valuation of about $1 billion. As part of this merge, FaZe would receive $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.