FaZe Clan Announces VALORANT Ignition Series Tournament In Partnership With Riot Games

After surpassing 1 billion YouTube View, FaZe Clan Looks To Grow Presence In The Livestream Event Space.

FaZe Clan’s VALORANT Team to Make Their Competitive Debut At The FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational August 6-9

Broadcast Production And Tournament Operations Will Be Powered By Nerd Street Gamers.

July 28, 2020 – FaZe Clan, the world’s most prominent and influential gaming organization, announced today in partnership with Riot Games the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational, a North American event that will take place August 6th – 9th on twitch.tv/faze, twitch.tv/valorant and twitch.tv/nerdstgamers. A part of the VALORANT Ignition Series – the first-ever official tournament series for the second most-watched game in Twitch history – the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational comes on the heels of the media company’s latest milestone, surpassing 1 billion views on their massively popular YouTube channel, and marks FaZe Clan’s growing presence in the livestream event space.

Sixteen teams of up-and-coming talent will not only compete in the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational for the opportunity to make a name for themselves in the new title, but will also be competing for $50,000 in cash prizes, provided by FaZe Clan’s valued partners Nissan and Verizon. More information can be found at FaZeClan.com/VALORANTinvitational. While 12 teams will be hand-picked, the four remaining spots in the competition will be determined by qualifiers open to amateur teams, which will take place on August 1st and 2nd, hosted by Nerd Street Gamers. The qualifiers are open to all gamers and those interested in competing can REGISTER HERE.

FaZe Clan has been adding professional VALORANT players to their roster in the recent weeks and plan to make their competitive debut as a fully announced team in the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational. Additional teams will be announced closer to the tournament date.

“We are so excited to team up with our friends at Riot and our amazing partners at Nissan and Verizon to put on this tournament,” said Jeff Pabst, chief revenue officer of FaZe Clan. “Building our livestream business is a huge priority of ours for 2020 and beyond. We are excited to keep our momentum going in this space with the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational. Fans can expect a true FaZe Clan live experience chock-full of entertainment unlike any tournament the gaming community is used to seeing.”

“FaZe is a name that’s immediately recognizable across esports, and we’re thrilled to support their debut VALORANT event as well as their growth in live events,” said Matt Archambault, head of NA esports partnerships and business development at Riot Games. “With a sizable prize pool, and hand-picked competitors, we’re confident the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational will not only live up to the hype, but will be yet another huge step forward for VALORANT competition in North America.”

The FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational further establishes the gaming and media organization’s expertise as a livestream event curator and comes on the heels of multiple successful live digital events FaZe has put on during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, FaZe Clan rapidly galvanized the gaming, entertainment and sports communities with their Fight2Fund initiative, a weekly online pro-am tournament that raised roughly $125,000 in four weeks for those affected by COVID-19. With participants including Marshmello, Diplo, Paul Geroge, Ben Simmons, Dr. Disrespect, NICKMERCS and more, the tournament drew more 1.5M unique viewers across the four weekly tournaments.

Earlier this year, FaZe Clan also teamed up with Verizon for their Pay It Forward Live, their weekly livestream series in support of small businesses affected by COVID-19. FaZe Clan and Verizon worked together on multiple successful virtual live events inclduing FaZe Clan’s Nate Hill vs. Marshmello, FaZe Cizzorz vs. Pokimane and more, with the FaZe events drawing in the highest engagement throughout the series. Today, Verizon and FaZe Clan formally announced their official partnership and plans for custom content creation, livestream event curation such as the FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational and more experiential marketing that brings Verizon’s 5G network and advanced technology to the forefront of the gaming community. For more information, check out today’s announcement here.

The FaZe Clan VALORANT Invitational will kick off at 2pm PT on August 6th. Fans can tune in for the competition, entertainment and fun on FaZe, VALORANT and Nerd Street Gamers Twitch channels. Broadcast production and tournament operations will be powered by Nerd Street Gamers.

About FaZe Clan

Since its inception in 2010, FaZe Clan has established itself as the world’s most prominent and influential gaming organization known for its disruptive original content and hyper-engaged global fanbase of 230 million combined across all social platforms. FaZe Clan holds an unrivalled position at the epicenter of gaming, sports, culture and entertainment, driving how the next generation consumes content, plays and shops. Their roster of 85 influential personalities consists of world-class gamers, engaging content creators and a mix of talent beyond the world of gaming, including NBA star Ben Simmons, NFL star Juju Smith-Schuster and global superstar artists Offset and Lil Yachty. The organization’s unmatched esports division includes seven competitive teams in Fortnite, FIFA, PUBG, PUBG Mobile, Rainbow Six, Call of Duty League (Atlanta FaZe) and CS:GO with dozens of world championship trophies among them. In addition, FaZe Clan has become a sought-after fashion and lifestyle brand through an inspired apparel line and limited-edition collaborations with partners including Champion, NFL, Manchester City FC, Lyrical Lemonade, Kappa, CLOT, LA Kings, and more. Follow us @FaZeClan, @FaZeApparel and @FaZeUpdate.

About Nerd Street Gamers

Nerd Street Gamers is a national network of esports facilities and events dedicated to powering competitive opportunities for gamers. The company promotes greater access to the esports industry, laying a national framework for esports talent development and high-quality gaming tournaments. NSG has received backing from Five Below, Comcast, SeventySix Capital, Elevate Ventures, and angel investor George Miller.

For more information, follow @nerdstgamers on Twitter or visit nerdstgamers.com.

About VALORANT

VALORANT is a competitive 5v5 character-based tactical shooter for the PC developed by Riot Games. VALORANT is a precise and lethal multiplayer game with high-fidelity gunplay, a diverse arsenal of guns, agents with unique abilities, and competitively tuned maps for thousands of hours of play.

VALORANT is a free-to-play game and optimized to perform on a wide variety of PC hardware, allowing for a global audience to compete. Demonstrated by the game’s best-in-class game server quality, global infrastructure, and proprietary anti-cheat technology, Riot Games is committed to preserving the core tenets of the tactical shooter genre and upholding the competitive integrity of the gameplay experience.

About Riot Games

Riot Games was founded in 2006 to develop, publish, and support the most player-focused games in the world. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, to worldwide acclaim. League has gone on to be the most-played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports.

As League enters its second decade, Riot continues to evolve the game while delivering new experiences to players with VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and multiple work-in-progress titles, while exploring the world of Runeterra through multimedia projects across music, comic books, TV, and more. Founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, Riot is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and has 2,500+ Rioters in 20+ offices worldwide.