North American esports, gaming and lifestyle brand FaZe Clan has terminated its CEO Lee Trink from his position, effective immediately.
Trink will be replaced by interim CEO Christoph Pachler, FaZe Clan’s current COO and CFO, until the company finds a suitable replacement. FaZe Clan did not share any further details about the move.
Lee Trink first joined FaZe Clan in 2016 as an advisor before coming the organisation’s CEO in September 2018, almost exactly five years ago. During his time at FaZe, he headed the company’s major expansion and transformation into a lifestyle brand, as well as the company’s public listing on NASDAQ.
On the competitive front, FaZe teams won several high-profile tournaments during his tenure, with perhaps the most notable accolades being the 2021 Call of Duty League and CS:GO’s PGL Major Antwerp in 2022.
However, since listing on NASDAQ in the summer of 2022, the company endured a difficult financial period that continues to this day. Since its large SPAC deal in July 2022, the company has laid off staff and its stock price has fallen significantly. The latter situation prompted NASDAQ to warn the company of a potential delisting if the price does not stabilise.
The warning was issued in late March 2023, and FaZe has until around September 19th to raise the price to $1 and avoid delisting. At the time of writing, the FaZe Holdings stock sits at $0.22. The organisation’s shareholders did approve a reverse stock split to boost its share price above the threshold earlier in July, however, this seemingly not yet to be implemented.
The financial results for the company in the first two quarters of 2023 have shown a loss of around $14m, with slightly decreased revenues noted for both quarters. Snoop Dogg also left the FaZe board in April.
In July 2023, FaZe was involved in rumours of a potential acquisition by Enthusiast Gaming and GameSquare Esports. While Enthusiast has said that this was not true, GameSquare remained silent.
Trink’s successor will definitely have a lot of challenges to overcome if FaZe is to return to its former glory days. In the meantime, the hot seat will be filled by Christoph Pachler, a well-known Sony and Playboy Enterprises executive who joined FaZe just over a year ago.
