FaZe Clan
Migos rapper Offset is a FaZe Clan investor and helped the team raise $50,000 for the American Cancer Society.
- FaZe Clan is a multimillion-dollar gaming organization focused on esports and video content creation.
- FaZe Clan began as a YouTube channel showcasing "Call of Duty" trick shots, but now it supports roughly 70 professional gamers and creators.
- Business Insider spoke with Vera Salamone, FaZe Clan's director of talent, and Erik Anderson, FaZe Clan's head of esports, to find out what FaZe Clan looks for in new recruits.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
In an era when pro gamers can make as much as some athletes, and YouTubers are building multimillion-dollar careers, FaZe Clan has created a brand that straddles the line between esports and the influencer world to capture a growing audience of young fans.
FaZe supports about 70 professional gamers and content creators, with ages ranging from 12 to 29. While the role of each member differs, their common goal is pushing FaZe to the forefront of online culture with a steady stream of video content and branded street fashion. FaZe has attracted a list of investors including rapper Offset of Migos and snagged sponsors like Nissan and the Manchester City Football Club.
FaZe separates its members into two groups: esports, which consists of players competing specific games in ongoing competitions; and content creation, which focuses on creating videos and other forms of media for consumption. While the organization manages the two groups differently, team members can freely swap between from esports and content creation during their off season.
FaZe Clan
Members of FaZe Clan showing off some of the team's branded gear.
FaZe pays team members a monthly salary, provides travel, and negotiates branded partnerships with sponsors. Players are required to split a percentage of appearance fees, prize money, sponsorship deals, and other revenue with FaZe.
But how do you get in?
Business Insider spoke with Vera Salamone, FaZe's director of talent, and Erik Anderson, FaZe's head of esports, to find out what one of the most popular brands in the gaming industry looks for in new recruits.
FaZe went from 'Call of Duty' YouTube videos to international esports recruiting
FaZe's popularity started with one of the earliest forms of esports fandom.
The organization began in 2010 as FaZe Sniping, a collection of "Call of Duty" players known for creating videos of their outrageous trick shots for YouTube. As a perennial best-seller, "Call of Duty" has an international audience, and millions of people became fans of FaZe's skilled players, including Richard "Banks" Bengtsson, Thomas "Temperrr" Oliveira, Nordan "Rain" Shat, and Yousef "Apex" Abdelfattah.
The international focus has continued, as Anderson said FaZe is constantly recruiting on a global scale to find the best players to represent the team. FaZe players come from 15 different countries and the organization's latest esports signing included four "PUBG Mobile" players from Thailand.
"I'm looking for the best regardless of any background or where you come from," Anderson said. "I want to make sure that you've got a diverse group of people, but I also want to make sure that they're the top gamers."
For older esports like "CounterStrike," FaZe looks for players who are performing well within the existing infrastructure, but newer games like "Fortnite" require more scouting from FaZe leadership.
"It varies by game - some games have closed ecosystems where there's a pretty clear-cut selection of talent that's out there, with a path to get to that top level," Anderson said. "If you're making a name for yourself, you're going to get on people's radar. I think our guys, who've been doing this for about 10 years, kind of know what they're looking for. In FaZe Clan, we still have the soul of the company with our content creators, and they're still very active - weighing in and making sure the decisions are there, their voices are heard, and they're setting the tone."
Anderson said that ultimately he wants esports recuits who will seize the opportunity to play professionally and remain passionate about their game of choice.
"I don't want to have to call a guy to wake him up to get him to and play video games as his career," Anderson said. "I want someone that's hungry to go and compete at a high level and understands that they're in a really amazing place to do that."
If you want to join FaZe Clan's content team, passion and skills are more important than your follower count
FaZe's content creation team is more focused on entertaining than competing.
Team members living in FaZe's content creator house perform stunts, tricks, and pranks for millions of subscribers on YouTube. The team recently revealed a new $10 million mansion that will serve as a base of operations for the content creation team in Los Angeles.
While generating buzz for the team is the goal, Salamone said that a massive social-media following on YouTube or Instagram isn't a requirement for joining FaZe. It's more important to show that you have unique skills and are self-motivated.
"We're looking for people that are really skilled and talented and have a passion," Salamone said. "Obviously we would like members that have the whole package and are on multiple platforms, but that isn't necessarily a defining factor for us."
She continued: "We have definitely signed some talent before that was completely unknown on almost all platforms. Some of the founders that really pay attention discovered them and thought they had a special something. Then when they sign to FaZe, they blow up."
FaZe Clan
Turner "Tfue" Tenney saw his popularity skyrocket after joining FaZe, but he's no longer with the organization.
"You can sense a spark in some of the kids that are generating things out there," Anderson said. "You don't have to have a massive amount of followers to see that they're able to create something that's either unique in their own voice or they're really good at a certain skill, like perhaps they're a phenomenal editor."
FaZe has mastered some of the most popular video formats on YouTube, bringing in more than seven million subscribers to its channel. Along with producing video for the primary FaZe social channels, content team members also run their own personal YouTube and Instagram accounts, which helps FaZe cover even more of the online media landscape.
"For the content creators, each is so different that we don't have broad organization-wide goals, but the talent managers work with individual talent to set goals for their overall careers and that may include the consistency with which they stream, upload videos, or post on socials," Salamone said. "They may also set milestone goals around reaching a certain number of YouTube subscribers or social followers within a certain time period for example."
Join us in welcoming our first ever roster in Asia, FaZe PUBG Mobile! 🇹ðŸ‡@FaZe_Vintorez
@BulSharkz @FaZeEcho3 @FaZeMR5 #FaZeUp #FaZePUBGMobile pic.twitter.com/jpbIiQKqWS
- #FaZeUp (@FaZeUpdate) January 11, 2020