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

LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- 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.

SOURCE FaZe Clan