Turner “Tfue” Tenney’s lawsuit against FaZe Clan 
quickly caught the attention of social media last week with involved parties and onlookers alike expressing their opinions about the nature of the influencer’s player contract with the organization.
As discussion swirled, FaZe Clan co-owner Richard “Banks” Bengtson took to YouTube and Twitter expressing how upset he was with the lawsuit, and in a flurry of social media posts, Bengtson was quick to point out the growth that Tenney’s media platforms experienced after he joined FaZe Clan on April 30, 2018.
I recruited Tfue to FaZe Clan in April of 2018. These are graphs from both his YouTube & Twitch channels following the mark of our relationship. pic.twitter.com/c7m3QwsoTZ
— FaZe Banks (@Banks) May 20, 2019
It’s irrefutable that Tenney has seen more success on Twitch
in the past year than he ever did prior to joining FaZe Clan, but did Bengtson and company truly create the monstrously influential Fortnite gamer who’s racking up more hours watched this year than any other personality?
Was Bengtson responsible for making Tenney the professionally competitive juggernaut that leads all other Fortnite players in prize money earnings? Or was he simply a recruiter who had an eye for talent and looking to pick up someone who was on pace to be the next big thing?
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In order to understand what sort of affect FaZe Clan’s Fortnite team has on a player, it’s first necessary to understand the origins of the team. FaZe Clan as an organization was born in May of 2010, and its Fortnite division was started on March 3 of last year with the signing of four players: Dennis “Cloak” Lepore, Brendan “Jaomack” O’Brien, Thang “SpaceLyon” Phan, and Thomas “72hrs” Mulligan.
However, with Mulligan parting from the team shortly after it was formed, Bengtson began to recruit Tenney as a replacement, and he was ultimately added to the roster on April 30 before he started to compete in Daniel “Keemstar” Keem’s Friday Fortnite tournaments in May.
Teaming up with Lepore for Friday Fortnite events from May through July, Tenney managed to put together a run of competitive performances that resulted in him winning four times with one second place finish, and one third place finish. By the time Epic Games effectively cannibalized the event with its own Summer Skirmish series, he and Lepore were recognized as a most formidable duo in the youthful and growing professional Fortnite esports scene.
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As Tenney established himself for his competitive chops, his viewership statistics also increased. While Tenney’s viewership on Twitch saw a slight boost from April into May, it wasn’t until his first Friday Fortnite win at the end of May that his viewership truly took off.
Prior to signing with FaZe, Tenney broadcasted on Twitch for 146 hours with 331K hours watched averaging 2K concurrent viewers, and from April 30-May 24, he saw that average boost to 8K CCV with 494K hours watched across 65 hours of airtime.
With successful Friday Fortnite finishes, his average CCV shot up to 24K (for May 25-June 30), and the amount of time he dedicated to streaming increased exponentially to 208 hours as he reached 4.9M hours watched from May 25-June 30.
It’s difficult to say that Tenney would have seen the same type of success that he did without Bengtson recruiting him to join forces with Lepore, but it’s equally difficult to say that Tenney would have seen that type of success without a grassroots event like Friday Fortnite to leverage.
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From that point onward, Tenney continued to establish himself as not only a member of one of the strongest pairs in the world, but he also began to show off his skill as a masterful solo player. Following notable performances during the Summer Skirmish, Tenney won the North American regional competition for two single-player events during the Fall Skirmish.
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins may have claimed his stake as the quirky and influential face of Fortnite on Twitch, but Tenney was taking a different approach to laying down the foundation. Tenney’s ability to grind and compete helped him slowly become a powerhouse as a player and as a Twitch broadcaster.
Though FaZe Clan has certainly played some sort of role for Tenney, it would be incorrect to suggest that he couldn’t have put together an impressive following and competitive resume on his own.
Since Feb. 17, 2018, Tenney has stacked up just over $522K USD in prize money, according to esportsearning.com. That’s enough to make him tops among all Fortnite players. For comparison, FaZe Clan players Lepore ($421K) and Nate Hill ($348) are also in the top 10 on that list.
Not only has Tenney managed to outperform every other Fortnite player in terms of winnings, he’s also managed to turn his stream into the most-watched personality broadcast on Twitch so far this year.
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Outside of Tenney, FaZe Clan has six other players on its competitive roster who were signed in 2018 that are still active. Of those six players, only Lepore has managed to record more than 10M hours watched on Twitch since joining FaZe Clan, and combined, all six players have recorded 18.5M hours watched since becoming a member of the organization. Tenney has posted more than that (20M hours watched) in the past two months alone.
With the conflict between FaZe Clan and Tenney ongoing, looking at one piece of data in a vacuum can make it difficult to see the role it plays in the larger narrative. The services and support that an esports organization like FaZe Clan can provide for a young gamer are obvious, but it takes more than just an esports organization’s time and resources to create the powerful personal brand that Tenney cultivated in such a short period of time.
