The Twitch streamer and Fortnite star Turner “Tfue” Tenney has put so much pressure on his eSports organization FaZe with a lawsuit and a shitstorm that they are now at least publishing the contract. The clan leader of FaZe sees Tfue’s father as the puppet master behind the action.
This is Tfue’s problem: The Fortnite player and now Twitch star Tfue (21) was still a small light on Twitch in April 2018, hardly anyone had him on the radar.
His career began when he joined the eSports organization “FaZe”. For this, he signed a contract for 3 years.
Later in 2018, Tfue became one of the biggest stars in Fortnite and on Twitch because he simply played incredibly well.
Fans constructed a rivalry of Tfue with the former Fortnite star Ninja.
At the end of October 2018, Tfue won an important Fortnite tournament. By then, he had already made a name for himself as the Fortnite player who never buys skins.
But since September 2018, Tfue wanted out of the contract with FaZe, as has now become known.
Because the contract had unfavorable conditions for him.
But FaZe did not want to release him from the 3-year contract, but, according to Tfue, offered him contracts with significantly better conditions.
But Tfue did not want to sign them.
This is how Tfue wants to solve his problem: Tfue has filed a lawsuit against FaZe. In the lawsuit, he accused the eSports organization FaZe of, among other things,
- claiming up to 80% of his earnings when a sponsor deal was brought to him by FaZe
- having lured him into drinking, gambling, and dangerous stunts
- not paying him the money he is owed
This is how the clan reacted: Especially the clan leader Ricky Banks was horrified by Tfue’s accusations. Although such clauses existed, they had never been enforced. They had only earned $60,000 with Tfue while he had made millions.
Banks said he had made Tfue possible. The clan leader expressed personal disappointment in the matter. He would never forgive Tfue, whom he had considered family.
This is how streamers reacted to the lawsuit: The lawsuit and it becoming public led to outrage, as many other streamers expressed solidarity with Tfue and shared their opinions:
- For example, Summit1g said: Tfue needs to get out of the contract. He cannot risk staying in and FaZe eventually demanding money from him. (via dexerto)
- Ninja said that FaZe had indeed accelerated Tfue’s career and that he was invited to tournaments like Fortnite Friday because of clan membership – however, Ninja saw the reported 80% as a “joke”.
- DrDisRespect offered to connect Tfue with “his guys” who would then help him find a better deal.
- Many streamers could hardly believe the 80% and wondered how anyone could sign something like that or how a renowned organization like FaZe could even offer such a clause.
Clan now wants to publish the contract
This is how it continued: On Tuesday and Wednesday, the matter continued to escalate. Half of Twitch commented on Tfue and his lawsuit.
Additionally, the clan leader Ricky Banks was very active and described his view of things. He portrayed the situation completely differently from Tfue and emphasized that FaZe and he themselves:
- had played an important role in Tfue’s career
- had done everything to avoid escalating the situation
- had never enforced the clauses and had offered him better conditions early on to acknowledge Tfue’s star status
In a new video from Tfue (via YouTube), he retracted his accusations of drinking, gambling, and stunts against FaZe. He told his lawyers to remove that from the lawsuit.
Yet Tfue demanded from FaZe: “Publish the contract.” The public should see what the contract looks like and what clauses are contained.
FaZe boss Banks then announced on Twitter that he would relent. He is currently speaking with the “higher-ups” to publish the contract.
This will take a while, but they are working on publishing the contract with all the contexts.
Banks says everything about Tfue’s behavior is strategy. Banks sees Tfue’s father as the puppet master. He decided that it was in his best interest to leave FaZe, and nothing stopped him. Tfue is just reading from the script, it is said.
Banks says, however, that he appreciates Tfue’s apology for the alcohol and stunt issues. He could have seen in Tfue’s eyes that he himself did not want to bring these topics to the public.
Note: In an earlier version of the article, we reported that FaZe would release Tfue from the contract – this was a mistake and has since been corrected. We apologize for the misunderstanding.
