Wen | Liu Liu
Esports big business reporter
In recent years, the e-sports boom has spread all over the world, and the popularity of FPS shooters in Countries such as North America and Europe has been the highest, such as "CS:GO", "Fortnite", "Call of Duty" and other sports circles and entertainment circles. There are many sports stars and entertainment industry superstars who have joined professional e-sports clubs as investors, e-sports players and content creators.
In the field of working with traditional sports stars, the organization that has been leading is FaZe Clan, which runs a professional esports team and a large content creation department. On June 18, Beijing time, NBA Lakers star Anthony Davis (nickname: "Thick Eyebrows") announced on social media that he had joined nuke Squad, a "Call of Duty" internet celebrity e-sports team under the North American e-sports club FaZe Clan.
Thick eyebrows joined the Internet celebrity team Nuke Squad and FaZe Clan to join forces to circle traffic
Since the end of this year's NBA regular season, players have been given nearly six months of rest starting April 5. Players can use this time to recuperate physically, spend time with their families, or improve themselves. For hard-working players, the offseason is a perfect time to "overtake in the corners", such as Ingram, who completely lost contact as soon as the offseason came, and LeBron James, who is still in full form at the age of 37, all of whom invested in body and skills in the offseason.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James
But there are exceptions, such as Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis "play hi" in the offseason, on June 12, Thick Brow invited friends to come to the home, and revealed in the live broadcast, for two months without shooting training or even touched basketball, but indulged in the game "Call of Duty".
Just in the offseason, members of Nuke Squad, a Call of Duty influencer team owned by North American esports club FaZe Clan, were invited to visit the bushy mansion, and Anthony Davis showed his gaming skills to the members of the Nuke Squad team. Nuke squad also promised that Thick Brow could join the team as long as he could complete three kills in a game, and eventually he successfully reached the target, becoming the fifth person in the Nuke Squad team, and Nuke Squad captain FaZe swagg also confirmed the news on social media.
Nuke Squad has been working with FaZe Clan since being invited to join FaZe Academy in October 2020, and all four members of Nuke Squad, Swagg, Booya, Santana and JSmooth, have passed faZe Academy's six-month training program, a program designed to nurture new members and help them fulfill their destiny as elite players and content creators. This program covers, for example, FaZe Clan's history, culture and sensitivity training, code of conduct review, media training, mental health awareness, content strategy and creation, and audience development.
Nuke Squad Team
The members of the Nuke Squad played and unique friendships in the Call of Duty game entertained their fans. Swagg, JSmooth, Booya, and Santana are old friends who first met through online call of duty. The name "Nuke Squad" was suggested by fans in their live chats, derived from four friends getting together to play Call of Duty and spending their days trying to trigger a powerful killstreak weapon nuclear bomb, which only happens after 30 consecutive kills.
FaZe Apex, founder of FaZe Clan, said: "Nuke Squad is a walking symbol of FaZe Clan. They are all beasts of Call of Duty, engaging storytellers and incredible entertainers. We've been working with JSmooth, Santana and Booya for the past few months, and I've seen them hone in the academy. It's effortless to make them full members of the FaZe Clan. I know esports fans will be happy to see that they are now fighting alongside Swagg as FaZe Clan. ”
FaZe Apex, founder of FaZe Clan
And Nuke Squad is currently sitting on 7 million fans of the net red e-sports team, not relying on e-sports games, but relying on high-quality video content and live broadcasting in the e-sports circle to become famous, the NBA star thick eyebrow joining, can make the popularity of this net red e-sports team to a higher level, can be described as a "strong combination", so that it will not affect the NBA games and offseason training next season.
Superstars such as Snoop Dogg and Simmons have joined FaZe Clan with 510 million fans
Since its inception in 2010, FaZe Clan has become the world's most famous and influential esports club, known for its disruptive original content and global fan base of 345 million super engagements across all social platforms. FaZe Clan has an unrivalled position at the heart of gaming, sports, culture and entertainment, driving a new generation of ways to consume content, games and stores. They have 85 influential people, including world-class gamers, engaging content creators, and a variety of talent outside the gaming world, including NBA star Ben Simmons and rapper Lil Yachty.
FaZe Clan's esports division includes Seven teams, including Fortnite, FIFA, PUBG, PUBG Mobile, Rainbow Six, Call of Duty and CS:GO, with dozens of world championships.
CS:GO team FaZe
In today's era when traffic is king, FaZe Clan can be said to have seized the economic dividends brought by this traffic from its establishment to its listing. The fledgling Faze Clan specialized in making innovative gameplay video content for Call of Duty games, which made them one of the first most popular game channels on Youtube at the time. It wasn't until 2012, when their subscribers exceeded one million, that they began to extend their business into the esports space.
Even after entering the field of e-sports, FaZe Clan has always maintained the creation of game content, achieving a future territory in which the two major businesses of Faze Clan content creation and e-sports complement each other. FaZe Clan has 34 content creators, 15 professional esports players, and 11 players who are both pro and entertainer. Video content creators live in a mansion of more than 1,000 square meters in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and the LCD screen around the house will play the real-time count and ranking of fans of each member on YouTube, Twitch and Instagram, according to official statistics, the total number of fans of The Faze Clan reached 510 million in 2022, making it the most subscribed esports club in the United States.
FaZe Clan Los Angeles base
In addition to its own mining of excellent game content creators, FaZe Clan also cooperates with big names in the sports circle and entertainment industry to attract traffic, in 2019, Faze Clan has attracted a large number of outside investors by relying on its excellent fan base, including well-known singer Ray J, rapper DJ Paul, NBA star Ben Simmons, LeBron James's son Brownie, legendary skateboarder Nija Houston and starred in "Smelling Women" and "Three Musketeers" And other classic film actor Chris O'Donna and other big names joined.
FaZe Clan's relationship with these big names is not a one-sided claim either, and James' eldest son, Brownie, became a member of the e-sports club two years ago. According to the Washington Post, after Brownie James joined Fade, his Twitch account views increased by nearly 9 times in just one day. The purpose of FaZe Clan's partnership with these stars is also to build a bridge of communication with young people.
In Hollywood mansions, FaZe's video creators will invite rapper BlocBoy JB to skateboard and post it on social media, or fight rap superstar Snoop Dogg basketball 1-on-1 bullfights, etc. These high-quality video content will make young people think this esports club is cool, greatly enhancing fan stickiness. (Extended reading: Esports debuted on the cover of Sports Illustrated because he was James' son!) ）
LeBron James' son Bronney joined the FaZe Clan
FaZe Clan began raising money outside in 2018 with celebrities such as rapper Lil Yachty joining, and before this round of funding, FaZe Clan also received a multimillion-dollar investment from American rapper and songwriter Kiari Kendrell "Offset" Cephus. (Extended reading: Raising $40 million, how did the veteran esports club FaZe Clan attract 19 million followers?) ）
American rapper and songwriter Offset
In 2021, Faze and Japanese artist Takashi Murakami launched a joint costume, Murakami Takashi is also a famous traffic king in the art circle, under the momentum of many e-sports game stars and external stars, such a joint model exceeded $1.2 million in total sales within 4 hours of release, and the ability to absorb gold is terrifying.
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami
It was announced on March 8 that hip-hop rap superstar Snoop Dogg has joined The Faze Clan's board of directors and will also serve as a member to "co-create content, participate in key business initiatives, and launch merchandise with the brand." Kai Henry, Chief Strategy Officer of Faze Clan, said: "The organic relationship between Faze and Snoop has been in place for many years, so we are delighted to officially welcome Faze Snoop to the family. ”
"As an early internet kid and first-generation gamer, Snoop has always understood the cultural connections between music, lifestyle and gaming. Today, Snoop is an important spokesperson for the emerging Web3 community, and we have exciting plans to co-create in the metaverse, driving new engagement opportunities for our two fan groups. ”
Rap superstar Snoop Dogg joins FaZe Clan
At present, the FaZe Clan market valuation has reached $1 billion, and the next step is to list in the United States. FaZe Clan has explored a unique e-sports commercialization model through diversification, confirming that the income of e-sports clubs can not only rely on the results of the game, which may bring some commercialization inspiration to domestic e-sports clubs. (Extended reading: The world's No. 1 with a valuation of $1 billion!) North American esports giant FaZe Clan to be listed)
Note: The images used in this article are from the Internet