North American esports organisation FaZe Clan has expanded its weekly gaming tournament series ‘FaZe Fridays’, with $1m (~£792,000) in cash prizes set to be offered in 2024.
The tournaments are set to feature a range of titles including Call of Duty and Fortnite, and will see a combination of online and LAN events.
Prizes of $25,000 (~£19,800) will be up for grabs each week with prominent players, creators, and streamers — who ‘must meet exclusive criteria’ — selected to compete.
Comcast-owned internet service provider Xfinity is confirmed as a partner for the series having also sponsored the initial FaZe Fridays events in 2023. According to a release, those tournaments surpassed 82m minutes watched and garnered more than 20m social media impressions. Game highlights from the 2024 events, including best plays and MVPs, will be shared through FaZe’s media channels and giveaways will also be held throughout the series.
Over $1m in cash prizes throughout 2024 will be delivered with the help of FaZe Clan’s ‘key partners and sponsors’, according to the North American organisation.
FaZe Clan also noted that the expanded series will unlock a multi-million-dollar revenue opportunity for the organisation. This comes a few months after esports and entertainment company GameSquare announced that it would acquire FaZe Clan following a continued drop in FaZe’s stock value since it went public in July 2022. More recently, FaZe announced a partnership with cryptocurrency casino and trading platform Rollbit to sponsor its Counter-Strike 2 team.
On the FaZe Fridays expansion, Mark Cruz, Senior Director of Brand Partnerships for Comcast, commented: “FaZe Fridays has given us an amazing platform to spotlight Xfinity as the network connecting FaZe Clan with some of the biggest gamers on the internet in this new go-to weekly gathering.
“We’re thrilled for our brand and product to have this visibility and drive authentic conversation amongst one of the most difficult to reach, but most engaged audiences. We’re excited to build off the success of the first series of tournaments and supporting more FaZe Fridays in the future.”