Who Is FaZe Banks? New Details On The FaZe Clan Owner And The Tfue Lawsuit
Who knew video gamers could be such bad sharers?
Instagram FaZe Clan, formerly known as FaZe Sniping, is an American esports and entertainment company that competes professionally in video game tournaments. Just this month, though, one of its members filed a lawsuit against them claiming that they deprived him of business opportunities and failed to pay him his fair share of the sponsorship money. Who is FaZe Banks?
Okay, cool, so professional gaming is a thing. Now who are these people?
1. FaZe Sniping was founded in May 2010 on YouTube by famous video game players known as Housecat, ClipZ, and Resistance
They were famous for their expertise at Call of Duty. The three of them were teenagers at the time, but none of them are involved in it anymore. ClipZ left because when he was 14 his Xbox overheated and he couldn’t afford to get a new one. Resistance left because it was taking up too much of his time and he wanted to have a social life again. He’d also been working out for four years and completely stopped when he started FaZe Clan. Housecat, though, doesn’t have much information out there about why he left. Then FaZe Temperrr joined by doing some graphic design for the Clan. Then one day, when the four gamers got into a really heated argument, Temperrr changed the password and email of the YouTube account, locking everyone out.
RELATED: Who Is Tfue? New Details On The YouTuber And His Feud With FaZe Clan
2. The Clan has since become the world’s largest gaming team, now worth $16 million
It’s comprised of 106 members who are all professional gamers in many of the most popular video games like Fortnite, Rainbow Six: Siege, CounterStrike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty, etc. (The membership even includes rapper Lil Yachty and NFL player JuJu Smith-Schuster). Their channel has over five million subscribers.
3. Ricky Banks became Chief Operating Officer of FaZe Clan
Born Ricky Banks in 1991, FaZe Banks started his own YouTube channel back in September of 2011 under the name BanksHasBank. Eventually, he began scaling the professional gaming hierarchy to become the leader of the game team SoaR. In 2013, he joined FaZe Clan. Now he’s not only a gamer. He’s got over a million of his own subscribers following his life through vlogs. Plus, he’s a producer, composer and songwriter. Damn, what doesn’t he do?
4. He doesn’t hold his anger well
There are a few “rage compilations” of FaZe Banks getting angry. For the record, I don’t think these outbursts are so bad. Throwing things might be a bit too far, but he doesn’t seem to get any more violent than that.
5. Now a former member is suing the Clan
This month, former FaZe member Turner 'Tfue' Tenney filed a lawsuit against the Clan for limiting his ability to pursue his career, which is in violation of California law. He claims that the group had robbed him of some business opportunities, failed to pay him his share of sponsorship money and took up to 80% of his earnings. He also added that some members had encouraged him to gamble and drink while he was still underage. FaZe responded to these claims on Twitter, denying them all. Turner urged FaZe to release the contract he signed to the public so that his fans could see the deal he signed into and how he was cheated. This started a trend with the hashtag #ReleaseTheContract. Since Banks’ video was published, Turner lost over 30,000 subscribers on YouTube, with Banks gaining over 200,000 (but since Tfue’s response he’s been earning them back).
Leah Scher is an ENFP finishing her degree at Brandeis University. She's an alumna of the Kenyon Review Young Writer's Workshop the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. She's passionate about Judaism, poetry, film, satire, astrology, spirituality, and sexual health. She draws inspiration for her writing from writer/director Wes Anderson, and for her lifestyle from her grandmother. Lastly, she's always actively seeking two things: a job having anything at all to do with publishing, and a chance to meet Jesse Eisenberg.