Dogs biting staff, obscene sums spent on rappers, and eye-popping losses: How FaZe Clan was 'building a mythology' bro

pcgamer.com:

FaZe Clan's share price currently sits at 18 cents on the Nasdaq: which is a problem, and come September 19 will become a catastrophe. In March this year the Nasdaq issued a notice of delisting to the lifestyle-slash-esports company because its share price had fallen below the $1 minimum bid for 30 days in a row. FaZe was given six months to get it back to that level for a minimum of ten days and, so far, has failed.

Check back in soon if you want to see a car crash, but if you're wondering why such an omnipresent and seemingly successful brand is in such financial dire straits, Bloomberg has a new report going over some of the company's history in recent years, and it lists some eye-popping decisions and expenditures.

It begins with a July 2022 event featuring the rapper Travis Scott performing, which was attended by FaZe's staff and players and filmed for online distribution. Scott's fee for a 15 minute set that barely anyone in the venue could hear? $1.7 million. Nice work if you can get it. 

That was the brainchild of one Lee Trink, who until September 9 was FaZe CEO, leaving ten days before that Nasdaq deadline, which I'm sure is just coincidence. FaZe made a $48.7 million loss last year and its onetime boasts about a billion dollar valuation now seem utterly delusional: the (very brief) high for the shares saw them trading at $20, before the collapse into sub-$1 valuations.

Part of the perception of FaZe as successful is the genuinely impressive reach it can boast of: countless videos with millions of views and 512 million social media followers across multiple platforms. But setting aside some notable one-off sponsorships (McDonalds) and merchandise successes (a collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami