FaZe Banks says starting the “new FaZe era” was the "worst decision" he made in his life which left him deeply in debt as Clan members quit

Formerly known as FaZe Banks, Richard “Banks” Bengtson is denounceing the time he spent leading the esports and gaming content creators’ collective, FaZe Clan as CEO. In a new video uploaded to X, Banks railed against the FaZe Clan and expressed that he had deep regret that he spent time trying to make the organization better for all individuals involved.

In the video, Banks criticized the time he spent at FaZe’s leader, and said,

“I’m here to tell you, as former FaZe Banks, this was one of the worst decision I have ever made in my entire life. I gave up my entire adult life to this, I have put myself in millions and millions and millions of dollars of debt. I have never made not one singular dollar outside of my salary via FaZe, not selling it, not buying it, raising money, I have just put myself further and further in debt.”

While providing estimates for the losses he suffered during his time working with FaZe Clan, Banks provided an alleged amount that he said the organization spent on its members’ careers. He claimed,

“Yeah, I think, FaZe, to acquire and all the costs for these guys’ careers over the last two years, I think, ballpark 40 million bucks. And I think probably collectively these guys have had to have probably made like 20 million in the last two years, collectively, I would guess.”

FaZe Banks left FaZe Clan a few months ago after a meme coin controversy

When GameSquare acquired FaZe Clan in 2023, FaZe Banks was named the CEO of the organization. In 2024, Banks led a restructuring of the organisation, which was referred to as its new era. FaZe removed many of its creators to have a 14 member roster, as per Dexerto. At the time, Banks claimed that the action was necessary to make FaZe more efficient.

Banks himself faced a difficult time at FaZe when this year, a MLG meme coin controversy broke out. Banks and other FaZe members were accused of promoting a coin, the value of which shot up and quickly declined as investors rapidly withdrew their money, according to Complex. Banks responded to the backlash by announcing in July that he would be leaving the organization, noted the news outlet.

It seems that Banks’ exit became finalized later. In his recent video posted to X, he provided insight into his exit, and while claiming that other FaZe members asked that he leave, said,

“I left FaZe five months ago. And this wasn’t for a narrative, this wasn’t for the camera, this wasn’t for twitter. This was very very real. It was off the heels of some twitter drama and the boys were, you know, getting blown up in their comms and their chats. And as we all know, in this world, whacky strange world of streaming, that’s really all that matters.We get on a call five months ago and the guys are like, ‘listen, we’re over the drama, we think its best if you just like publicly step down from FaZe, just to col down the drama online.’”

While recalling the time, Banks spoke about how personally he was involved in building up FaZe. While expressing his disappointment, Banks added,

“I reacted very emotionally to this, I was obviously, took it very personally and was offended because again, I used my entire network, every dollar that I have ever made, everything that I have ever had, to this brand that I built, I used all of it as leverage to start these guys as a content group and to kick this s**t off with the sole goal and intent to bring FaZe back to the top.”

Addressing everything properly on Twitch all day tomorrow pic.twitter.com/FJaRxKESEX

— Banks (@Banks) December 26, 2025

He also added that he was responsible for the success of FaZe and many creators involved with the organization.