FaZe Clan confused the Apex Legends community by signing their second Team after even though they already have Phony, Frexs and Snip3down. But then FaZe also signed the Tripods of Streamer NICKMERCS, FaZe is now represented with two teams and this could possibly cause problems.
As expected, Eric “Snip3down” Wrona returns from the last split, and he is joined by Josue “Phony” Ruiz and Joseph “Frexs” Sanchez. Since Frexs used to play for Spacestation Gaming and Phony used to compete for Esports Arena, the two players definitely have a lot of experience. Streamer and content creator Nick “NICKMERCS” Kolcheff announced via Twitter that Deeds and Rigo “Gent” Padilla will be part of FaZe’s content creator lineup, they also have a team together which goes by the name of Tripods and are currently playing the NA ALGS Pro League.
Tripods and FaZe
Before Gent joined them they played with Nathan “Lewda” Dias, one of the founding players, making the team on the 08.03.2022 almost exactly a year ago! They played the second Challengers Circuit split together and earned some good results, in the end a 10th place in the Last Chance Qualifier got them invited to the Apex Legends Global Series.
Introducing our new Legends.@Frexs
@Phonyhead@Snip3down@ZZapex_See you for ALGS Split 2 #FaZeUp pic.twitter.com/Qaf6cIL6F8
— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) March 9, 2023
Gent subsequently jumped in for Lewda at the start of the next competition year. The Lineup barely held on to their ALGS slot by securing the 18th place last season, which also meant they weren’t part of the London playoffs.
Do two teams make sense?
Most people liked the addition of Tripods to FaZe, but obvious doubts were voiced, as two teams from one organisation could impede the integrity of the ALGS in case the teams end up playing against each other in one lobby. The rules are clear and prohibit two line-ups playing for the same organisation and Complexity’s Bowen “Monsoon” Fuller already said that EA has acted on those rules.
Good afternoon ☀️
The kid’s back! Well-rested & ready for the monster week. ALGS officially begins, our group kicks it all off on Sunday! Let’s lock in — make the believers proud & the haters pissed. Cya soon gang 🔥https://t.co/Etk8WeG3Wa#MFAM | #FaZeUp pic.twitter.com/j3K3aADFFA
— FaZe Nickmercs (@NICKMERCS) March 7, 2023
So FaZe might run into problems later on, maybe they will just pick the better team in case EA puts up any pressure. If EA really wants to, they could cause trouble because it’s in the rules, but often content creators are treated differently.
Preferential treatment?!
For example previously, players who were contracted as content creators could still compete under different teams. So Tripod only would have to remove the FaZe Clan tag from their names, which kind of sounds stupid because they would still be part of the organisation and potentially work together in highly competitive lobbies to give each other an advantage, however tiny this could be. At the moment, there is no decision for the two teams by EA yet. We have to be patient to find out what their ruling will be.