The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.21 The TFue FaZe Clan Lawsuit Could Change The Future Of Entertainment, SCAM Alert, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Remember, hit that like button, otherwise I will physically assault your throat with my fist. But with that said, let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today

Starting point is 00:00:12 is the situation with Chick-fil-A and Texas. And the reason we're talking about this today is a piece of legislation dubbed the Save Chick-fil-A Bill has passed through the Texas House. And as far as why it has this nickname, it's because back in March, the San Antonio City Council voted to block a Chick-fil-A from opening up in the city's airport.

Starting point is 00:00:26 With a councilman saying in a statement that San Antonio does quote, "'Do not have room in our public facilities "'for a business with a legacy of anti-LGBTQ behavior.'" And they say this because Chick-fil-A has a reputation for donating to groups associated with anti-LGBTQ messages. With reports saying that in 2017 alone, the company gave $1.8 million to charities

Starting point is 00:00:42 with anti-LGBTQ messaging. This including one group called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which reportedly bars employees from participating in homosexual acts, which I imagine makes it oh so much hotter when you do. But Texas Republicans disagreed with San Antonio's vote, with the state's attorney general opening up

Starting point is 00:00:56 an investigation into whether or not San Antonio was in violation of the First Amendment and members of the state Congress coming up with a controversial piece of legislation. And this bill says that the government cannot take any adverse action against a person or company based on their sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction. And getting the bill to this point was not easy for Texas politicians. There was a version drafted by the House that was killed by Democrats earlier in the month, but ultimately what we saw is that the state Senate pushed through their own version passing with a vote of 19 to 12.

Starting point is 00:01:20 Also of note, according to NBC, the vote was held without prior notification, meaning that the public didn't have the opportunity to provide their take on the bill before the vote took place. And all of that brought us to yesterday when similar legislation passed through the House with a vote of 79 to 62 with only one Republican voting against it. Although it is important to note, it is not the exact same legislation. The House made some changes to the legislation before the vote and the biggest one was that they removed a part that gave the state's Attorney General the right to bring forward lawsuits against cities to quote, enforce compliance. Now, as far as the reaction to this, you have Democrats in the state fearing

Starting point is 00:01:49 that this bill will allow for discrimination against the LGBTQ community in the state, with Texas's LGBTQ caucus also fighting against it. Yesterday, while this was being debated for two hours, we saw a Democratic member of the caucus, Representative Aaron Zwiner say, "'Members, this bill is here being debated "'on the floor today to make LGBTQ Texans feel less than,

Starting point is 00:02:05 to make us feel attacked by our government. As well as Representative Julie Johnson calling this bill, a concerted effort to violate the constitutional protections that we've had for centuries with the separation of church and state. However, we've seen Republicans maintain that this bill is about religious freedoms and protecting companies like Chick-fil-A

Starting point is 00:02:19 and not about discriminating against any community. With Representative Matt Krause, who sponsored the bill saying, look at the language in this bill. There is nothing discriminatory in the language. There is nothing discriminatory in any community. With Representative Matt Krause, who sponsored the bill, saying, look at the language in this bill. There is nothing discriminatory in the language. There is nothing discriminatory in the intent. Now as far as what happens next, it's important to note that this bill is not a law yet.

Starting point is 00:02:32 Because the version that was approved in the House is different, it now goes to the Senate. And then if the Senate approves the changes, they pass it there, it will then head to the Republican Governor, Greg Abbott. And if you're wondering, will the governor sign it, because apparently there's not enough writing on the wall, last night we saw Abbott tweet,

Starting point is 00:02:46 "'So what are the odds I'll sign the Chick-fil-A bill? "'I'll let you know after dinner.'" So if it gets to him, it seems like it's a sure thing. But even if he passes it, many think that we'll see blocks in court, with Representative Johnson saying, "'I have no doubt that if passed, SB1978 will be fought "'in the courts at every level

Starting point is 00:03:01 "'and at great expense to the taxpayers. "'To vote yes today is to put your signature "'on that invoice.'" But ultimately, that's where we are right now. To vote yes today is to put your signature on that invoice. But ultimately, that's where we are right now. We're gonna have to watch to see how this plays out. And of course, with this story, I'd love to pass this question off to you. What are your thoughts around this?

Starting point is 00:03:12 Do you feel like this bill makes sense that it protects religious freedoms? Or do you feel like this is an unconstitutional attack on San Antonio and lawmakers who, in their view, don't feel that it's appropriate to support and or allow a business that may have ties to discriminatory practices. Not because those organizations are religious in nature,

Starting point is 00:03:28 but because at least one effectively ban homosexuals. Right, and so it's this idea that you can't discriminate against discrimination. Or no, do you see this as an appropriate measure to protect religious freedom? Any and all thoughts, I'd love to see from you. And then let's talk about your grandma donating money to ISIS is the weirdest way that I've ever started a story.

Starting point is 00:03:44 We have fun here in this room by myself. No, your grandma didn't donate money to ISIS is the weirdest way that I've ever started a story. We have fun here in this room by myself. No, your grandma didn't donate money to ISIS, but she may have actually been tricked into thinking that she donated money to ISIS. According to a new Department of Homeland Security fraud alert, scammers are using Facebook and law enforcement phone numbers to trick people into thinking that they donated money to ISIS.

Starting point is 00:03:59 So how and why are they doing this? Well, reportedly scammers have been using apps with messaging features like Facebook Messenger, Words with friends. They're befriending targets and victims there. Also another way that they've been getting close to people is using dating services or chat rooms to pretend that they're romantically interested

Starting point is 00:04:12 in that person. And then after they gain the trust of that victim, the scammer will go on to describe some sort of hardship that they're going through, and then they try to persuade that victim to send a small amount of money. And when that victim finally helps them out, the following day, that victim gets a call

Starting point is 00:04:25 from a fraudster who claims to be a member of law enforcement or the DHS. And to make it seem even more legitimate, they reportedly spoof the phone numbers of legitimate law enforcement to trick the caller ID. And so the scammer who's posing as law enforcement will tell the victim that the money that they sent actually went to a terrorist organization

Starting point is 00:04:38 like ISIS or Al-Qaeda. They then threaten to arrest that individual. They then direct the victim to contact a lawyer, not really a lawyer, to clear up the issue, and that lawyer tells them to pay $1,000 or more as a retainer. And boom, grandma got scammed. And so this has become such a problem,

Starting point is 00:04:53 DHS has actually had to warn people, and they want you to know, legitimate law enforcement callers will never ask you to pay fines over the phone or request money from you. If there is a question about the validity of a call, we encourage the public to call the relevant field office number of the government agency and ask to be put in touch with the individual who called you. I guess all of this is to bring us to the main point. Trust no one. Using heartbreaking stories or romantic feelings, this is not a new way of scamming people on the internet. And the thing is, a good number of them don't even have to do with you sending money willingly. We've seen stories in the past about how people have used Tinder as a way to blackmail people into sending them money.

Starting point is 00:05:26 Start this fake online relationship, you send them risque photos, boom, blackmail. So be careful, man, people out there suck. Yeah, that's the main point of this story. Trust no one, people suck. Welcome to the Philip DeFranco Show. Then let's talk about the situation that is just massive. And it's technically about e-sports,

Starting point is 00:05:40 but even if you're not familiar or you do not care about it, it is still very, very interesting as far as entertainment. And actually, depending on the specifics we see come from this story, it has the potential to change an entire landscape. So, what the hell am I talking about today? I'm talking about Tfue. And if you're unfamiliar with Tfue,

Starting point is 00:05:56 whose real name is Turner Tenney, he is arguably the largest gamer in the world right now. He does amazing competitively, he has one of the largest Twitch channels, he has over 10 million subscribers on YouTube, which is incredibly notable. Because just about 14 months ago, he was a general unknown, and in just the past 30 days on YouTube,

Starting point is 00:06:12 he's gotten almost 70 million views, right? And he's just been absolutely crushing it. And yesterday, Tfue made headlines because he reportedly filed a lawsuit against FaZe Clan, which is the gaming organization he has been a part of since April of 2018, an organization that many people say made him who he is today.

Starting point is 00:06:26 But this lawsuit describes and alleges a much different relationship between Tfue and FaZe Clan. The lawsuit describing the agreement with FaZe Clan as quote, oppressive, and also claiming that it allows FaZe Clan to take up to 80% of his earnings from brand deals that are brought by FaZe Clan, as well as 50% of the money that he made from tours and public appearances.

Starting point is 00:06:42 It also says that he tried to end his gaming agreement with FaZe Clan back in September based on the organization's quote, numerous breaches of contract, but they wouldn't let him. And as far as what those breaches were, the lawsuit claims that one of them was that FaZe Clan received third party payments from sponsorships and didn't give the payments from those deals to Tfue.

Starting point is 00:06:56 The lawsuit also goes on to say that FaZe Clan uses quote, illegal gamer contracts to prevent Tfue from pursuing other brand deals that might be better than the deals that are acquired by FaZe Clan. Going on to say, equally egregious is FaZe Clan's breach "'of its fiduciary duty of loyalty owed to Tenney. "'Acting in the capacity of Tenney's agent, "'FaZe Clan rejected at least one sponsorship deal

Starting point is 00:07:12 "'on Tenney's behalf due to a glaring conflict of interest.'" And the lawsuit argued that it was illegal because it prevents him from competing in the marketplace. More specifically, the lawsuit also alleges that FaZe Clan's gamer agreement violates California's Talent Agency Act because the organization acts like a talent agency by procuring quote, employment and engagements.

Starting point is 00:07:27 But the lawsuit also says they don't have a business license to operate as an agency. The lawsuit also does not end there. There's a lot of stuff littered in there. Tfue's lawyers have also claimed that FaZe Clan violated the Talent Agency Act in a petition to the California Labor Commissioner on May 15th. And in that petition, which was included as an exhibit

Starting point is 00:07:42 in the lawsuit, the attorneys wrote, "'FaZe Clan pressures and encourages young artists like Tenny to perform dangerous stunts, alleging that Tfue suffered an injury that resulted in permanent disfigurement." And to add in quote, "'Faze Clan' also encourages underage drinking and gambling in Faze Clan's so-called clout house and FaZe house."

Starting point is 00:07:56 So following this story breaking, there were obviously a lot of big reactions. A lot of the initial ones being, wow, if Faze Clan is actually taking 80%, that is insane. Or you had a lot of people saying that sounds predatory. But on the other side of this, almost immediately this was denied. The owner of FaZe Clan, FaZe Banks, responding.

Starting point is 00:08:12 This whole thing with Tfue is pretty unbelievable. The first thing I'd like to say is we do not and have never taken 80% of anyone's prize money. Not sure where that came from, but a contract like that has never existed. We've collected zero dollars from Turner's prize money. Also, I feel like before moving forward, I should note that there were also interactions between, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:28 certain choice people like Nadeshot, the CEO of 100 Thieves and FaZe Banks and all this other stuff that was happening. I'm not focusing really on any of the drama aspect. I think there are a lot of emotions running high. What I'm specifically trying to talk about here is the situation at hand regarding the legality, what this potentially means for business

Starting point is 00:08:45 and esports and entertainment in general. So, in addition to Banks tweeting, we also saw FaZe Clan tweet from their official Twitter account, saying, we're shocked and disappointed to see the news of Tfue's press article and lawsuit. Over the course of our partnership with him, which began in April 2018, FaZe Clan has collected

Starting point is 00:08:58 zero tournament winning, zero Twitch revenue, zero YouTube revenue, zero dollars from any social platform. In fact, we have only collected a total of $60,000 from our partnership while Tfue has earned millions as a member of FaZe Clan. While contracts are different with each player, all of them, including Tfue's, have a maximum of 20% to FaZe Clan in both tournament winnings

Starting point is 00:09:14 as well as content revenue with 80% to the player. In Turner's case, neither of those have been collected by FaZe Clan, adding, we're proud of what we've accomplished together over the past year with Turner and will continue to support him. That was retweeted and liked a bunch, it spread. But then faze clan also provided a follow-up which didn't get as much attention But was incredibly notable where they added after hearing the community feedback

Starting point is 00:09:32 We'd like to address the issue regarding faze clan taking 80% of T foo's brand deal earnings adding There is a clause in T foo's original contract where faze clan could take 80% of a brand deal We introduced to him for clarity here Is that clause that screenshot reading brand deals featuring the gamer that exists on gamer or companies content creation platforms EG twitch youtube or social media sites if the deal is brought to gamer by company 20% a gamer and 80% to company So it appears a phase plan is admitting that this part is in their contract But then they state let us be clear that we have never collected on that clause from T4 or any other phase clan member these

Starting point is 00:10:03 original agreements were created by a previous legal team and every new agreement since last summer has maximum 20% to FaZe Clan and 80% to the gamer." And then seemingly answering the question, well, why wouldn't you get Tfue one of these new contracts? They write, As far as Tfue, starting as far back as September, we have been working directly with him and his attorney to dramatically improve his contract. We have offered numerous versions of an improved contract, some with a seven-figure dollar bonus, some with FaZe Clan taking 0% from Tfue's earnings, every one of which has been rejected or ignored. But also adding, in every corner of sports and entertainment, deals are made based on the perceived value of the talent and the opportunity at the time of signing. When talent starts to show dramatic improvement in value, it's a common practice to renegotiate based on that new value. This happens in sports, music, film, TV, and certainly now in e-sports and gaming.

Starting point is 00:10:45 FaZe Clan has made every effort to respond to Tfue's massive success fairly and accordingly. Also as far as other meaningful reactions that gave us a little more insight, we had a response from Cloaksy. For those who aren't familiar, he's Tfue's partner and he released a statement starting off by defending Banks, saying he shouldn't be getting any hate for anything,

Starting point is 00:11:00 crediting him for the success, saying he is nothing but love. But then regarding the situation with Tfue, he unfortunately, we didn't see eye to eye with some management Lots of people wanted to make a lot right but their hands were tied contract things that happened behind the scenes slash Situations that will not be brought to light not involving banks regarding banks He was one of the main people that was reacting to this whole situation Which as an owner makes sense he first did an interview then releasing his own video on his channel called dear Tfue He goes into detail about how he feels blindsided.

Starting point is 00:11:26 Once again, denies FaZe Clan taking 80% of anything. Once again, repeating that $60,000 number and adding, But I can tell you that $60,000 of his total amount of money that he's made is probably closer to like 0.1%. And mind you, that's $60,000 because where it came from is important. That $60,000 came from two brand deals that we brought Turner that we took 20% of. So that is an 80% split to Turner and then the rest, the 20 goes to FaZe Clan. And saying they've collected 0% of anything else.

Starting point is 00:11:52 Also regarding some of the other claims like FaZe Clan tries to get these young kids to do dangerous stuff. He flips it and says that it's actually Turner that's pushing people. Turner, we all know you're a fucking sicko. You jump off of shit. You've been doing that far, far, far before you before you met us if anyone was pressuring anybody into doing that

Starting point is 00:12:08 It was you regarding the allegations that faze clan pressured tfue into underage drinking We saw you went to a party at your current girlfriend's house before you were 21 and Steve will do chug the handle of alcohol And you were trashed in the video and you were 20 years old at the time Thanks also tweeting out a video of tfue shotgunning a beer back in 2016. But in general, a lot of the video is just Banks feeling very betrayed. I'll link to the video because I don't want to misrepresent what he's saying because he says a lot.

Starting point is 00:12:34 But essentially his mindset is he found this kid, he made this kid, he cared about this kid, he didn't take money from this kid. And while he doesn't feel that Tfue did this to intentionally hurt him, the organization is essentially him. And so ultimately, that's where the situation is right now. As far as my opinion, without having other insight

Starting point is 00:12:50 or without Tfue releasing a statement of his own, it is hard for me to have a concrete opinion on this. I will say based off of what we've heard, I think it's fine that FaZe Clan can say that, you know, they didn't take 80%. You know, we see the number zero a lot. But the fact that there was a contract, it can be from, you know, a zero a lot. But the fact that there was a contract, it can be from a previous legal team,

Starting point is 00:13:06 but the fact that there was a contract where it says on the paper that was signed, that 80% goes to the organization, 20% goes to the creator, that is incredibly concerning. That said, so far I haven't seen anyone come out, go, no, FaZe Clan's lying, they were actually taking 80%. I haven't seen that. So I do wanna take them at their word there,

Starting point is 00:13:22 but we also don't know if there's a situation where there were other people, not banks. Or you have Cloaksey who seemingly was defending both Tfue and FaZe Banks, mentioning some management. Maybe use the fact that there was a contract that had 80% in it as maybe some sort of leverage, as a way to add pressure in the renegotiation of a contract.

Starting point is 00:13:38 We don't know though. And as someone that has been fucked by a contractor or two before, what is on the paper matters immensely. Doesn't matter what was said when there were just two the paper matters immensely. Doesn't matter what was said when there were just two people in the room, doesn't matter what bro deals are, what is on the paper.

Starting point is 00:13:50 So that's why as of right now, I don't have a fully formed opinion on this and I'm just kind of waiting to see what Tfue's response is going to be, if there is going to be any. But whatever happens here, it has the potential to make massive waves in this industry, which by the way, eSports is now in the billions.

Starting point is 00:14:04 Aside from the immense levels of fandom, this is big, big business news. And that's because if Tfue wins this lawsuit, it could seriously change how e-sports is regulated. The lawsuit claims that because e-sports is a new industry, there is quote, little to no regulation or oversight, but the need for regulation is dire. And the lawsuit frames Tfue as the potential catalyst

Starting point is 00:14:23 for this change, with the lawsuit saying that Tfue seeks to shift the balance of power to gamers and content creators slash streamers. And continuing, as a result of this action, others will hopefully take notice of what is going on and help to clean up esports. But yeah, with all that said, I do wanna pass the question off to you.

Starting point is 00:14:37 What are your thoughts around all of this? And that's where we're going to end today's show. And hey, if you liked this video, we'd love if you took a second to hit that like button. If you're new here, definitely hit that subscribe button so you don't miss our seven videos a week. Which on that note, if you missed yesterday's Philip DeFranco show, you like this video, we'd love if you took a second to hit that like button. If you're new here, definitely hit that subscribe button so you don't miss our seven videos a week. Which on that note, if you missed yesterday's Philip DeFranco show, you wanna catch up,

Starting point is 00:14:49 you can just click or tap right there to watch that. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.21 The TFue FaZe Clan Lawsuit Could Change The Future Of Entertainment, SCAM Alert, & More

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