There's a wind of change blowing within FaZe Clan and the consequences have left the streaming and esports communities in a fix. After a roller coaster 2023 that involved internal disputes, mass layoffs, the decline in its stock price, and finally, news of a takeover by GameSquare, there's been a lot of recent activity within the company.
With this above-mentioned acquisition, the longstanding organization was put back in the hands of its founding members Temperrr, Banks, and Apex. The second of these online personalities has been the one hogging the limelight, having revealed his plans for the esports and gaming entertainment brand as its newly appointed CEO just last month.
CTRL+ALT+DEL pic.twitter.com/UXvM560JVf
— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) April 27, 2024
Alongside FaZe Banks, FaZe Temperrr took over as the President and FaZe Apex as the COO of the company after the formalities were completed. These online personalities have a vision that involves a reboot, which is where the termination of the contracts of many of their industry colleagues came into play.
Over the last two days, this plan has been seen in full force, with as many as 17 content creators 'kicked out' of their roles with the now wholly owned subsidiary and independent division of GameSquare. The full list can be seen below:
- Blaze
- Nate Hill
- Kalei
- Dirty
- Booya
- Kitty
- JSmooth
- H1ghSKy1
- Linkzy
- Bloo
- Agony
- Sway
- Proze
- Nio
- Faxuty
- Cizzorz
- Rain
After such a massive clearout, FaZe Clan has only 14 streamers on its books:
- Adapt
- Apex
- Banks
- Jev
- Kaysan
- Nickmercs
- Replays
- Ronaldo
- Rug
- Scope
- Swagg
- Temperrr
- Yourrage
- Zoomaa
- Fakie
Of course, such a drastic step has got the community taking, with many of the departed names sharing their thoughts and feelings on social media in the aftermath. Reactions have ranged from grateful to unhappy to disappointed to sad to outright frustration, with many feeling that the likes of FaZe Blaze, who had been with the clan since its inception, should have been retained.
Viewership contributions of exited FaZe Clan streamers
Looking at the FaZe team on Twitch, between April 1 and 28, the most viewed content creator was Zoomaa, who has more than three times the watch time of any other internet star. The first name to pop up from those let go was Kalei, who had an appreciable 116.6K Hours Watched in this period, a growth of 10% from the previous corresponding phase.
Among the top ten list by watch time for this month, seven names have been released or quit recently, showing that despite being active and putting in the hard yards, the top management decided to cull employees based on separate criteria. Sticking with Kalei, she was especially heartbroken by the news of her exit, claiming on social media that despite not getting paid for her contributions to FaZe, she was willing to stay. However, the way things had turned out left her unhappy, which could be seen in the fact that she teared up quite a lot during this live broadcast.
This also means that out of a total of 1.8M HW so far this month, the influencers who were let go contributed just over half the figure. That is a pretty significant amount to be replaced or made up by the names remaining on the roster, meaning these 14 creators will have a pretty hard task ensuring the quality and volume of streams remain consistent.
Even when looking at the year's top contributors for this Twitch team so far, the top ten by watch time doesn't change much. Diceyzx is the only new name, replacing Snip3down, although both have left the American esports organization.
Clearly, Temperrr, Banks, and Apex have a goal in mind to bring one of the world's oldest and most recognized esports and entertainment brands back to the forefront of public consciousness. It could mean letting go of many OG streamers and other content creators who have a large part of its success, but they are willing to take that risk and are 'ok with being the bad guy,' as Banks put it.
How the company performs forward will depend largely on how quickly it moves away from its recent troubles and re-establishes itself as a force in competitive gaming and content creation. The names it has released may have been vital cogs, but judging by who remains, there are lots of positives for management and fans to latch on to.
