The Football and E-sports Gaming Partnership
When Premier League Champions Manchester City and e-sports juggernaut FaZe Clan announced a momentous partnership to bring together fans from both football and gaming, there was no better place to host the fun-filled kickoff party than at Evolve Soccer LA. This new partnership brings fans of both football and e-games together through new and innovative fan experiences.
On the indoor court, several FaZe Clan stars, FaZe Temperrr, Teeqo and Blaze competed in a “friendly” futsal tournament against former LA Galaxy pros Cobi Jones and Bryan Jordan, Canadian Women’s National player, Lauren Sesselmann, fitness guru, Sam Asghari and other celebs to see whose ball skills reign supreme.
Meanwhile, the expansive gallery side of Evolve was transformed into a giant gamer’s lounge with multiple gaming stations where kids and adults competed against one another in the newly released FIFA 20 game. In between FIFA battles and bites of spicy chicken, fans were able to mingle and take pics under neon signs with gaming giants FaZe Banks, FaZe Cizzorz and hang with FaZe Sommer Ray to name a few of the crew in the house.
One of the biggest thrills was having Manchester City star, Micah Richards in attendance to show support for the Man City and FaZa Clan partnership. Richards was seen enjoying the games and commented on the incredible level of skill shown during the tournament. Nobody could have been more excited than Evolve’s owner Damian Murphy, a Mancunian and life-long Man City supporter.
How did FaZe Clan and Manchester City got Connected
You may wonder how the English Manchester City connected up with FaZe Clan, created by Swedish Jakob “Teeqo” Swarden, but it really is not too far-fetched. Professional footballers spend a lot of time in hotels and have a lot of recovery time in between preparations, training and games. With such a physical schedule, and often away from family, many players like to rest their bodies by gaming on popular games as FIFA. The partnership was a match made in heaven.
In 2017, during a Summer tour of the United States, FaZe and Manchester City met up in Los Angeles one afternoon to shoot a pair of YouTube videos, including a series of 1v1 challenges with Man City stars John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling against FaZe stars Teeqo, Thomas “Temperrr” Oliveira and Lucas “Blaze” Mosing. We won’t say who won, but a friendship was built that developed into an official partnership.
In last Sunday’s Premier League game, did you notice Man City players walk out of the tunnel wearing the same sky-blue and purple jackets emblazoned with both City and FaZe Clan logos?
ESPN mentions Evolve Soccer LA!
The night after our event, ESPN write a wonderful article on the FaZE/ManCity partnership and the Evolve facility. Feel free to share with others!
Scroll through for some of the action shots from the FaZe /Man City event:
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