Earlier this year, Richard ‘Banks’ Bengston reassumed control of FaZe Clan, the organisation he helped found almost fifteen years ago. This was following an acquisition by GameSquare that was arranged last year amid FaZe’s ongoing financial woes. As promised by Banks a while ago, the slate has now been wiped clean, with FaZe Clan letting go of a wide list of content creators, streamers, and employees – some of whom have been with the brand for more than a decade.
It has generated widespread debates online as to whether the right decisions are being made. There’s still a dense roster of creators and players at the core of FaZe Clan, but most of them are the ‘OGs’ – and a few more top-tier creators like NICKMERCS. It wasn’t a surprise as we knew it was coming, but the impacted creators have wasted no time taking to social media to profess their shock and disappointment.
It seems as though the creators let go thought they’d somehow escape the restructuring effort.
Out With The New
In March, FaZe Banks took control of the brand’s social media pages and blacked them out – and then went silent. He promised that he’d change the operating structure of the company, moving away from content creation and focusing more on esports and gaming. It was written in a bid to go back to the original era of FaZe Clan when the brand peaked and was pulling in the fastest-growing following in gaming history. Today, FaZe Clan is one of the strongest brands in the scene, but that hasn’t stopped troubles landing at its door.
In a post on Twitter, Banks confirmed that the core FaZe Clan roster (outside of the organisation’s esports teams) will now consist of:
- Adapt
- Apex
- Banks
- Jev
- Kaysan
- NICKMERCS
- Replays
- Ronaldo
- Rug
- Scope
- Swagg
- Temperrr
- Your Rage
- ZooMaa
It’s an aggressive restructuring, though. It hasn’t been handled with class by any means, with FaZe Banks openly insulting or challenging users expressing their disappointment:
Some followers of FaZe Clan are jubilant about the changes, stressing that some are long overdue. Here’s the list of members removed from FaZe Clan:
- Blaze
- Booya
- CBass
- Cizzorz
- Faxuty
- Flea
- H1ghSky1
- Kalei
- Nate Hill
- Nio
- Proze
- Replays
- Santana
- Sway
- Testy
It’s not immediately obvious how the organisation will move forward from here, but this restructuring is all built around ‘getting back to the way things were’. Most of the recent buzz is around the removal of Kalei, one of the most popular female Warzone streamers and a staple of the FaZe Clan roster for years. In an emotional video, she summed up how she was feeling about the news that suddenly hit her, but unlike other former members, FaZe Banks took to Twitter to explain why the decision had to be made:
‘I promise the only reason you were let go is because a genuine relationship couldn’t really ever have been formed. Because of the nature in which you were recruited. You were recruited unfortunately during the darkest era of FaZe and we just have to wipe our slate clean at all costs. It’s paramount to getting this brand, the vibes at this team, and the company back to where I know they can be. Friends fucking around playing video games cracking humor. You fell in this corpo buckte and it’s not fair, but just know that it’s unfair for us too.’
Almost every former FaZe Clan member has uploaded a similar video stressing their hurt and shock at this restructuring effort. It’ll be an interesting space to watch in the coming days to see which former FaZe employees are picked up by other organisations and brands.
For more industry news, Esports.net
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