A professional e-sports brand is going topsy turvy after several key players announced their exit on Christmas.
Five members of FaZe Clan (pronounced “phase”), an e-sports and content creation brand, announced their exit from the company on Thursday, Dec. 25. The members made up the company’s six-person e-sports competitive team, per the FaZe Clan website. In addition to competitions, the players are known for their popular videos on YouTube and the interactive livestream platform Twitch.
Though reasoning for the “mass exodus” has yet to be shared, FaZe Clan co-founder Richard Bengtson, more commonly known as Bank, said in an X post on Christmas that he would address fan concerns during a Twitch livestream on Dec. 26.
In the meantime, the five players took to social media to alert fans.
“Left FazeClan,” 27-year-old Alexander Prynkiewicz, popularly known as FaZe Adapt, said in an X post on Christmas. “14 years. Over half of my life. I’d be lying if I said this didn’t hurt, but it had to be done. Thank you to everyone who’s been a part of this journey, the best is yet to come.”
FaZe Clan members Jason Nguyen, known as JasonTheWeen to viewers; Nick Fosco, known as LacyHimself; Jerry Woo, known as SilkySzn; and Stable Ronaldo informed fans with shorter X posts, just saying “Left FazeClan” on Christmas Day.
Josh Maynard, known as YourRage, was the only player of the six-person team who had not announced a leave from the company as of Dec. 26.
Neither the five creators nor FaZe Clan immediately responded for comment when contacted by USA TODAY on Dec. 26.
Established in 2010, FaZe Clan is self-described as “one of the most prominent influential gaming organizations … designed to reimaging gaming, sports, culture and entertainment,” per the company’s LinkedIn. The company includes an e-sports competition arm, which lately has been made up of six professional gamers, and other content creators.
Fifteen years ago, FaZe Clan – then FaZe Sniping – was just a group of three teenage video game content creators, popular for their YouTube videos that centered around the game “Call of Duty.”
It didn’t take long for the channel to take off, creating an entire culture around trick shots in first-person shooter video games.
Around 2012, FaZe began entering e-sports competitions, organized video game tournaments, entertainment publication Complex reported.
FaZe Clan’s content began to shift around 2013-2014, when many of the creators decided to publish more vlog-style content, FaZe Clan members discussed in a 2020 YouTube video outlining the company’s history. Around this same time, some FaZe Clan members began living together, allowing them to create even more content.
Simultaneously, FaZe Clan’s e-sports arm continued to participate in global competitions. In 2019, members of FazeClan took home the top prize for the inaugural Fortnite World Cup, winning $3 million.
As FaZe took off, brands took notice. Over the years, the company has partnered with brands including Champion, the NFL, Nissan, G Fuel, SteelSeries and Lyrical Lemonade.
In 2021, FaZe made history as the first e-sports team to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Despite FaZe Clan’s successes, the company hasn’t been without controversy. In 2021, the company fired one of its members and suspended three more for their involvement in a cryptocurrency scam.
By 2023, the company was losing traction, laying off about 20% of its employees and seeing a change of CEO. By the end of that year, FaZe Clan was purchased by e-sports giant GameSquare Holdings.
Despite the internal changes, FaZe Clan has continued to compete in e-sports tournaments and several FaZe content creators continue to publish videos and host Twitch streams.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.
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