FaZe, OpTic, and 100 Thieves Leaders Gear Up for Founding Fathers LAN Tournament

All this and more in esports and gaming news for the week ending May 25, 2024.

May 26, 2024

Pictured: 100 Thieves CEO Nadeshot (left), OpTic CEO H3CZ (center) and FaZe Clan CEO Banks (right).

📢 Following AFK Gaming’s announcement this week that 80% of its content will be behind a paywall (premium content, and totally worth it, BTW—learn more here), I have been thinking about monetization, and what the best way to approach it is.

It’s a complicated topic because I understand that people mostly want to get their information for free (most get their news from Twitter and LinkedIn and don’t click through), and I certainly don’t subscribe to every newspaper or business publication out there (I’m currently subscribed to

Richard Lewis

,
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, AFK Gaming, and Bloomberg and just ended subscriptions with the New York Times and Business Insider), but here’s the truth of the matter: if even half of our current, collective free subscribers to my newsletters on LinkedIn and Substack, I could fund everything I do on every platform (including The Esports Advocate).

I always want to offer free options and this isn’t some end-of-days plea for you to support me, but it sure would be nice to see the same kind of support from our readers that content creators on other platforms see every day such as Patreon, YouTube, and Twitch (people hand subs out there like candy!).

To get some insights from readers, I am including a poll this week to gauge interest in this topic—and i’ll know from the response to it where we’re at on this front—but no matter what that looks like, I really appreciate all the people that followed this newsletter over the last month (hat tip to Richard Lewis for the referrals) and the wonderful folks who have been on this journey with me for over two years. To be blunt, my work is irrelevant without you, the loyal readers. Poll Below:

I’ll let you know what the “collective you” had to say about this as soon as I can, and if the response is good enough, we will talk about what kind of content (which would, of course, be exclusive and not appear anywhere else) you want to see from me.

But enough about that, Let us delve into this week’s most interesting stories in gaming and esports. - James.

📰 Top Stories 📰

FaZe, 100 Thieves, and OpTic Reveal The Founding Fathers LAN Tournament

In what is sure to grab a lot of attention from fans, the top guys from FaZe Clan, 100 Thieves, and OpTic Gaming are teaming up to beat the hell out of each other… in Call of Duty.

Dubbed “The Founding Fathers LAN Tournament,” 100 Thieves CEO Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag, FaZe Clan CEO Richard "FaZe Banks" Bengtson, and OpTic Gaming CEO Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez will come together for a Call of Duty competition set to take place on May 30 and be broadcast live on multiple YouTube/Twitch channels. The event will also include a limited-time merchandise drop, which will also launch on May 30.

While it might sound like hyperbole, the response from the gaming community was almost immediate and overwhelmingly favorable (and given the collective following of all involved, not surprising.).

While the physical location of this event has yet to be disclosed, The Founding Fathers LAN Tournament will be streamed live on FaZe ZooMaa's Twitch, OpTic Scump's Twitch, and 100 Thieves Nadeshot’s Twitch on May 30 at 11:00am PT. ZooMaa, CouRage, and Scump will serve as casters. Not-so-coincidentally, The Founding Fathers LAN Tournament will take place on FaZe Clan’s 14th anniversary…

The format for the tournament will be Modern Warfare 2 - 4v4; Black Ops 2 - 4v4; with a Banks vs. Nadeshot 1v1 Finale. Banks vs. Nadeshot will be a 1v1 in Modern Warfare 2’s Rust map, played on Xbox 360.

As of this writing the participating teams are:

FaZe: Adapt, Apex, ATL Pro, Banks, Blaze, Crimsix, Kaysan, Max, Rug, Scope, Silky, Swagg, Temperrr, YourRAGE, ZooMaa
OpTic: HecZ, Hitch, MBoZe, Methodz, Pamaj, Scump, Shotzzy
100 Thieves: Enable, Nadeshot, JoshChx

For a glimpse of how this is playing out on social media right now, check this out. What’s interesting is that all of this was not planned, and (as far as we can tell) the result of organic online banter between Banks and Nadeshot.

League of Legends Esports World Cup Teams Revealed

The Esports World Cup Foundation announced this week the eight teams that will compete in the "League of Legends Championship" leg of the Esports World Cup. Two teams from each regional leagues within the official League of Legends Esports ecosystem were selected to participate. Those leagues are League of Legends Championship Series (LCS - North America), League Legends Championship Korea (LCK) League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC), and League of Legends Pro League (LPL China).

Representing LCS are FlyQuest and Team Liquid; for LEC, G2 Esports and Fnatic; for LPL, Bilibili Gaming and Top Esports; and for LCK, Gen.G Esports and T1. Teams earned the right to participate in the Esports World Cup by winning or placing second in their respective league Spring Finals (LCS Spring 2024, LEC Spring 2024, LPL Spring 2024, and LCK Spring 2024).

The prize pool for the LoL portion of the Esports World Cup is to be announced, but we do know that competition will begin in Week One of the eight-week competition, alongside Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (men's) Dota 2, and a "to be announced" title.

On a related note, North American esports organization FlyQuest put out a puzzling post on social media were it noted that players and coaches had the opportunity to refuse participation in the event:

"FlyQuest strives for competitive excellence in every esports title we participate in — and through hard work and dedication, FlyQuest players and teams across multiple titles have earned the right to compete at the 2024 Esports World Cup.
We understand that the EWC is a unique proposition, and as such, we will encourage each one of our players, coaches and staff members to decide for themselves whether they want to participate.
We will support all members of FlyQuest, regardless of whether they choose to participate in the EWC or not."

In case you haven’t been paying attention, The Esports World Cup is funded by a financial grant from the Saudi Arabian government. The eight-week competition is being facilitated by Savvy Games Group-owned tournament organizer ESL FACEIT Group—Savvy is wholly owned by the Saudi-run Public Investment Fund and its chairman of the board is HRH Crown Prince MBS, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

Rolling Stone Launches Rolling Stone Gaming, Partners With ESL FACEIT Group

Penske Media Corporation-owned publication Rolling Stone has launched a new gaming vertical called Rolling Stone Gaming, with funding from the Saudi Arabian government-owned tournament organizer ESL FACEIT Group.

Financial terms of this deal were not disclosed.

The new offering within the publication will be run by Christopher Cruz, who is also the executive producer for branded content at Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone will work closely with Savvy Games Group-owned ESL FACEIT Group to help shape its esports coverage, according to an announcement.

The new partnership with the Saudi government-owned company is at odds with past Rolling Stone coverage on the Crown Prince; in February 2021 it reported on the killing of Washington Post journalist and United States citizen Jamal Khashoggi in the story headlined, “Saudi Prince Approved Khashoggi Killing, U.S. Intel Report Concludes.” Its other fairly recent coverage on the country and its current leader has been very blunt, so how (or if) this changes the tone across the publication will be important to pay attention to in the months ahead.

🌎 News of the World 🌎

💰 Atari acquires Intellivision for an undisclosed amount.

🛑 Riot reveals hardware ID bans for LoL cheaters.

👿 IGN Acquires Gamer Network, immediately fires a bunch of people…

📈 Allied Esports releases Q1 2024 results.

📈 GameSquare releases Q1 2024 results.

📈 Better Collective reveals Q1 2024 results.

📈 Nvidia announces a 10-for-1 stock split.

🤷🏼‍♂️ UK-based Insomnia Gaming Festival/Player1 Events heading to bankruptcy?

🤔 Esports players are doing less strategic thinking.

🤝🏼Upthrust Esports teams with Taco Bell for BMGI-based Challengers Showdown.

🏆 Samsung’s Galaxy Gaming Academy events kick off in Southeast Asia.

🏆 U.S. Air Force details 2024 DAF Gaming League summer season.

😅 Researchers from the Center for Esports Medicine release a textbook.

👓 Concerns about Google’s Project Astra glasses.

🌞 Saudi Arabia plans for summer tourism blitz.

🔎 The next marketing blitz for Saudi Arabia: Murabba.

👎🏼 Pixar cuts a large number of staffers.

💵 Futures First Gaming wins a small Startups302 grant.

📴 ICQ finally going offline.

🎲 BetMGM in pact with the Associated Press for odds.

🚌 People on the Move 🚌

Former Riot Games exec Francine Li joins IPSY as its new chief marketing officer.
Kyle Thomas joins WePlay as a (freelance) esports partnerships manager.
Christopher Sutherland joins Elusive Talent Agency as its new senior talent manager.
Enthusiast Gaming appoints John Zorbas to its board of directors.
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios names Shams Jorjani as its new CEO.
Jack Fenton leaves Esports Insider to join Fourth Floor as its new partnerships manager.
Colm Larkin is named the first CEO of IMIRT - The Irish Game Makers Association.

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