FaZe Clan: How three teenagers posting Call of Duty trick shots in 2010 built a gaming brand worth over $1 billion

FaZe Clan did not start with investors, executives, or a billion-dollar valuation. It started on May 30, 2010, when three teenage gamers - Eric “CLipZ” Rivera, Jeff “House Cat” Emann, and Ben “Resistance” Christensen, created FaZe Sniping. Their setup was simple: bedrooms, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and a love for pulling off difficult sniper trick shots. The early content was built around montages and high-skill plays, not business plans. One of the biggest early boosts came from “ILLCAMS,” a synchronized YouTube series that packed their wildest gameplay together. The FaZe name began carrying its own status inside gaming, turning a small online group into a recognizable identity. Then the model changed. Thomas “FaZe Temperrr” Oliveira and Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengtson became key figures in management, helping move the brand beyond anonymous gameplay and into personalities, vlogs, creator houses, and influencer-led content.The Call of Duty group grows into something much biggerThat shift gave FaZe a much bigger lane than Call of Duty alone. The organization pushed into esports and built championship-level teams in Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Rainbow Six Siege.It was no longer just a channel for sniper montages; it had become an organization spanning competitive teams and creator personalities. FaZe also connected gaming with streetwear, hip-hop, and traditional sports.Snoop Dogg, Lil Yachty, and NFL player Kyler Murray joined the organization, while partnerships with Nike and Takashi Murakami expanded its image.Nasdaq brought the billion-dollar momentThe real financial test arrived in July 2022. FaZe went public on the Nasdaq through a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, trading under $FAZE.The market debut came with huge retail-investor excitement, and the company’s valuation briefly moved above $1 billion. For a brand born from teenage gaming clips, that number was massive. But the public-market story quickly turned in the other direction.FaZe struggled with monetization, heavy cash burn, and weaker sponsorship revenue. Within a year, its stock had fallen more than 90% and was trading below $1 per share, making it a “penny stock.” By early 2024, FaZe was no longer an independent public company.GameSquare Holdings, a media company backed by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, acquired the organization at an equity value of roughly $17 million to $47 million.The deal effectively erased the billion-dollar public-market peak. The gap between those numbers was enormous, especially because the company had recently been valued above $1 billion.FaZe went back toward its internet-first rootsThe brand did not stop there. After the acquisition, GameSquare created FaZe Media as a separate corporate division and returned FaZe Banks to a leadership role as CEO.The business also cut down its bloated operation, removing multiple corporate executives and mainstream creators while refocusing on internet culture, streaming events, and gaming audiences.That makes FaZe’s story less like a clean rise to the top and more like a wild loop: bedroom trick shots, cultural empire, celebrity-backed expansion, Nasdaq hype, collapse, then a return to its internet-first roots in its latest corporate structure.The brand’s latest structure is built around the audience and culture that made its original name matter.