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FaZe out: The story of a falling esports org

FaZe was once one of the fastest-rising organizations in gaming. Now, it risks getting taken off the stock exchange.

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Steven Asarch

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Notorious esports organization FaZe Clan has a history of infighting. It’s only gotten worse in recent weeks.

“I don’t like you, I think you are a terrible person,” Stranger Things actress Grace Van Dien told Nordan Shat, aka FaZe Rain, in a tense video on his channel on May 31.

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Van Dien was the latest streamer signed to FaZe, a controversial group with over a decade of history that Shat is a co-owner of. The pair had been publicly feuding since Shat leaked her signing days before it was announced. He claims the actress only got signed because of her television series.

In a highly criticized misogynistic comment, he later added on a May 28 stream that she was “excruciatingly mid” and he would “never let [her] touch [him] even on [his] drunkest night.” Shortly after, Van Dien temporarily privated her Twitter account, seemingly due to the backlash and alleged death threats she received from Shat’s fan club. 

The FaZe Twitter account tweeted on the day the video was released that “the mistreatment of our newest member is in no way OK.” In response, one of the longest-running members Richard Bengston, aka FaZe Banks, tweeted, “You guys have lost the fucking plot”—referring to the current org’s lack of support from some of its longer-term members.

Van Dien was caught in the crossfire of the ongoing feud between the original “OG” FaZe members and its newer management, a series of venture capitalists …

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The Daily Dot