The huge gaming clan FaZe has fired its member FaZe Kay. Moreover, FaZe Jarvis, known for Fortnite , has been suspended. Two more members of the FaZe clan with millions of followers on YouTube have also been suspended: Nikan and Teeqo. All 4 had advertised the cryptocurrency “Save The Kids”, which quickly lost value. They were accused of promoting a “Pump and Dump” scam.
This is the situation:
- The FaZe clan is by far the largest esports clan in the world in terms of social media followers. On Twitter alone, FaZe has 5.5 million followers. The clan has repeatedly been involved in dubious dealings: it is alleged that clan leader Banks operated a CS:GO gambling website out of Antigua.
- 4 members of the FaZe clan promoted the cryptocurrency “Save The Kids” in early June. YouTuber SomeOrdinaryGamer accused them of encouraging their mostly young fans to invest in this crypto coin, even though it was actually a “Pump and Dump” scam. The influencers used their influence to knowingly or unknowingly promote a scam: as a result, people who trusted them lost a lot of money.
- Now FaZe has responded to the shitstorm. FaZe Kaye has been fired. The other three are suspended indefinitely. FaZe distances itself from the behavior of its members.
“Ambassadors for Cryptocurrency”
This is what happened: In early June, some members of the FaZe clan acted as “ambassadors” for the cryptocurrency “Save The Kids”. They advertised on Twitter and in promo videos for the coin.
They promoted the launch, saying how excited they were for the currency’s launch and encouraging fans to get involved.
The members primarily emphasized what a great cause the coin was. A tiny portion of the revenue from “Save The Kids” was supposed to be used for charitable, child-friendly purposes.
When the coin launched, it briefly gained value but fell drastically after a few days, dropping below the entry value and staying down. Those who followed the advertising from the FaZe members lost a large portion of their money.
Afterwards, allegations arose that the coin was a “Pump and Dump” scam:
- Insiders bought large amounts of the currency cheaply before the coin launched
- then advertised for the coin or commissioned advertisements
- and offloaded their massive amounts for a high price when the coin was at a peak value
This way, the few insiders made a high profit, while unknowing buyers were left at a loss.
4 influencers with a total of 14 million subscribers on YouTube
These are the FaZe members in question:
- FaZe Kaye has been with the clan since 2013. He has over 6 million subscribers on YouTube. His most successful videos are about challengers in Fortnite, where kids play for a lot of money. He also has typical influencer videos on his channel revolving around other YouTube content and amounts of money.
- FaZe Jarvis is Kaye’s younger brother. He has over 4 million subscribers on YouTube. Jarvis became famous as the first major content creator banned permanently by Fortnite. He had used an aim bot.
- FaZe Teeq has 2.4 million subscribers. His content consists of the typical patterns of “Money, Influencers, Crazy Challenges” such as “I’m Unboxing My New $6000 PC” or “I Baked the Most Expensive Pizza in the World”; he also posts videos about Among Us.
- FaZe Nikan has 1.4 million subscribers. His videos show him eating large amounts of fast food.
FaZe distances itself from Crypto actions: “The trust of the fans is the highest good”
This is what FaZe says: FaZe states that they made the decision to fire Kaye. Jarvis, Teeq, and Nikan will be suspended.
They claim: They had no involvement in what the members did in the “cryptospace” and would not endorse that.
The trust and respect of the fans are the highest good.
What’s noteworthy: Of the 4 members being banned now, only FaZe Kaye commented on “Save The Kids” after the coin flopped. The other members made no statement. Nikan still has the tweets from early June where he promoted the coin.
Kaye apologized to the fans. He stated that there was no malicious intent behind his promotion of the coin. He is still new to the crypto business and makes mistakes.
However, fans accused him of having “sold them out for money”. It is assumed that the influencers were likely paid handsomely for their services as “ambassadors”.
In any case, they likely should have scrutinized more carefully what they were so proud to promote.
Anyone wanting to know more about the case and the exact details of how a “Pump and Dump” works to protect themselves: MeinMMO has reported extensively about the case.
Fortnite stars allegedly sold their fans a lousy cryptocurrency – “We lost $50,000”
