---
title: 'How Do Esports Teams Make Money? | MoistCr1tikal'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=vcHSSnV4Bhc'
video_id: 'vcHSSnV4Bhc'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 1010
---

# How Do Esports Teams Make Money? | MoistCr1tikal

> Source: [How Do Esports Teams Make Money? | MoistCr1tikal](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vcHSSnV4Bhc)

## Summary

MoistCr1tikal discusses the financial struggles of esports organizations, using FaZe Clan's declining stock and delisting risk as a case study. He explains that most esports teams lose money due to high player salaries and travel costs, with revenue primarily coming from content creation and merch sales rather than competitive winnings.

### Key Points

- **FaZe Clan's stock decline** [0:10] — FaZe went public, initially performed well, but now trades so poorly it risks delisting.
- **Esports orgs spend more than they earn** [1:01] — Most esports organizations lose money; revenue rarely comes from esports itself, often from merch.
- **Snoop Dogg signing generates zero revenue** [1:25] — Snoop Dogg has done little for FaZe, questioning the value of the partnership.
- **FaZe could be bought out cheaply** [1:49] — Market cap dropped to ~$50M, making a hostile takeover feasible with a group investment.
- **Signing players: winning potential is key** [4:06] — Decisions are based on whether a player can win championships; example: interest in Street Fighter.
- **Esports teams are the least valuable asset** [5:05] — FaZe's creators driving merch and event sales are more valuable to investors than esports teams.
- **FaZe's IPO plan unclear** [7:16] — Going public seemed like a cash-out strategy, but the speaker is unsure of the rationale.
- **Why esports teams are expensive** [8:28] — Top Valorant players earn ~$20K/month, plus coaches, travel, and other costs add up quickly.
- **Moist Esports takes zero percent of winnings** [11:55] — All prize money goes to players; revenue comes from watch parties, sponsors like Opera GX, and merch.
- **Funding Moist Esports** [13:01] — Twitch earnings (subscriptions) are funneled into the org to cover costs.

### Conclusion

Esports organizations struggle to be profitable due to high operational costs, and most rely on content creation and merch rather than competitive success. Moist Esports sustains itself through the founder's Twitch income and sponsorships, avoiding the financial pitfalls of larger orgs like FaZe.

## Transcript

oh yeah we haven't talked about phase
up
so this is interesting I'm sure all of
you know FaZe went public and initially
their stock was doing pretty well
it was Trading
you know nicely for them
and then it wasn't and now it's trading
so poorly that they're at risk of
getting delisted
so
phase not super up at the moment
let's see tier one Chris and the
resubmicro and will
I don't know exactly what the reason is
I haven't looked too deep into it I'm
not exactly sure what led to it
but uh it's not looking good
they spend money but don't make money
that's the majority of Esports orgs
though the vast majority of Esports orgs
I don't know how many times I've talked
about it now but Esports does not
generate money
very very rarely and usually if an
Esports org generates money it's because
of merch voice crack merch and [ __ ] not
the actual Esports itself and I'll tell
you one thing that's generating zero
dollars for phase is Snoop Dogg
I don't know why the [ __ ] they even
signed Snoop Dogg he has taken one
picture with a phase chain and done
nothing else has he even appeared in a
single phase post
like it just seems like they spend money
on things that turn nothing for them
can FaZe be bought out I read something
very interesting and I don't know how
accurate it is I it was made as a [ __ ]
post but it seems almost feasible if you
got a big enough group together and you
bought the phase dip and I'm talking
like I think it was like 110 million or
something
I I don't recall the number but if you
got a big enough group of your Reddit
Pals together and you all put in 110 mil
you could actually just kind of take
over phase and be the majority
shareholder
so that probably wouldn't be good though
it couldn't be worse than where phase is
at right now I guess
moist Esports hostile takeover win yeah
this is going to be a shock we don't
have 110 million to play with plus I
don't think there'd be any reason to own
phase right now
you don't really get anything clearly
but I mean like you also just don't get
a whole lot in general
they have a lot of teams the teams are
good too but outside of that you just
take on a ton of debt
the market Cap's 50 the market cap 50
mil now
when I was reading about it was like a
hundred I didn't even look at them oh
you're right wow I didn't even look at
it
it would be cheaper to buy them instead
of buying into the Cod Championship you
mean the CDL
then uh it'd still be more expensive to
buy All Phase but not by much it's like
20 mil to get into the CDL scam
I think the bits Rin and swavy
oh Heat
Dwyane Wade used to be one of my
favorite players
I saw that video swaby I didn't I didn't
know he was being charged for it though
what goes into deciding to sign a player
well the only time you're ever signing
an individual player is in like the fgc
and clearly what goes into that is is
this player capable of winning
championships if the answer is yes then
we strongly consider it
like right now I really want to get us
into Street Fighter
because I've been really getting into
watching Street Fighter since six is
around the corner so I went back and
started watching some of five
tournaments I was even watching um salt
mine today
so I've been getting kind of hype about
Street Fighter So eventually we'll sign
a street fighter player
and then that we're just looking at who
is the best who is hype who can win
everything
but usually it's teams and you look at
how much does this team cost
is this team capable of winning
is this scene worth being in
it's usually pretty simple but always
the common denominator is is the team
good are the players good
if you take all the teams in phaser in
would it be below 50 mil
if moist Esports just had a presence and
every game phases and would it be below
50 mil yeah absolutely phase has a I'll
tell you right now phases Esports teams
are the least valuable thing they have
under their brand
you just lose money on the Esports teams
what phase has that has value for a lot
of the investors and the company as a
whole is their creators that are driving
merch sales they're driving event ticket
sales that's where their movers are
investors and [ __ ] could give a [ __ ]
less about them having a good CS go team
or having one of the best Smash Brothers
players with Spargo they don't give a
[ __ ] they only care about the creators
under their belt and what they can do to
move that needle
the product they can pedal and push
is Joey Fury not with an org right now
I'm pretty I thought I saw him sign with
an org pretty recently Joey Joey Fury
used to come by and win our Tekken
tournaments that I'd host on stream I
like Joey
thanks for Tiberius and Mars and chronix
or Kron
Theresa rum
you gonna get are you getting into the
new Tekken oh God yeah I'm super excited
for Tekken hate Street Fighter 6 and
Tekken eight I am super hyped for
is there a possibility moisty Sports
gonna release some shares what us taking
it public absolutely not what what in
the [ __ ] would that do for us
you can juice the stock
yeah that sounds that sounds good yeah
I'm sure that would work cool
what was faze's plan with going public I
gotta be honest with you I have no
[ __ ] clue I was surprised that this
ever did well at any point I thought for
sure them going public would insta crash
and burn but it was doing very well for
a good chunk of time all the way up
until it wasn't
going public gives you a lot of money so
basically cashing out if you remember
icos from crypto basically that
I guess to a certain extent
but I just I don't know I feel like they
could have cashed out in a different way
though maybe not as big a way and I'm
not knowledgeable enough on exactly
what's going on with their financials so
I can't say for certain
it just seems like an interesting idea
to do that if the goal truly was just
cash out quickly offset some of the cost
you ever started Valor CS go team
oh we want to
we've got we've got some cool news
coming around the corner we've got a lot
of cool [ __ ] cooked up
we got Ludwig on board now and we've got
some big plans on the horizon so just
stay tuned
why are Esports teams so expensive
that's a question I get asked a lot and
I'm always surprised people don't know
why they're expensive even from just a
salary perspective that's a ton of money
take a team you know let's take rocket
League rocket League you're paying four
people salaries three players and a
coach and sometimes a manager if your
team wants a manager has a manager
those are monthly payments and they're
not cheap payments far from it
and now go to something like CS go
or hey we'll do something even more easy
to understand we'll do valorant because
that one gets talked about so much with
its money you take a validate player at
the top level some of them are making
20K a month and that's like a pretty
high level valid player that's one
player you have to feel the whole team
plus a coach so multiply that by five
six you're doing that every month
that's one team
and then you have to pay their travel
for the big events
so you have to pay their travel on top
of that for all those people on top of
those salaries for one event
while you're paying these a month
like it adds up super quick with just
salaries and travel alone
20K sounds High well that's the value of
a valorant right now man valorant
players at a top level are making a ton
of money I would imagine the ones that
are also creators make far more than 20K
a month off just their salaries from
their orgs if you take a top level valid
player who is also a content creator
their value is even higher they're
probably getting paid somewhere in that
30 40K ballpark
I would I'm that I'm spitballing on 20K
I do know for some of the top valorant
players that aren't content creators but
I imagine the ones that also do double
as like streamers and [ __ ] make more
from their org
and that's just one player out of that
team
so it's very very very expensive
I think it's a tier one donut and a bit
snirt
yeah of course nert
20K a year 20K a month
brother a month I liked how you
immediately went to a year because of
how high that number is
a month
is there contracts like in normal Sports
of course there is
why are they why are salaries how they
play video games
why are athletes salaries high they play
games they play sports
because this the industry is Big then
they know they're worth
so example we'll stick with valorent
just because I think it's an easy one
Valor viewership your Org gets seen by a
ton of people your Org gets fans those
fans by your merch you're hoping to make
money back on the team your team wins
the championship there's a monetary
prize on that millions of dollars you
take a percentage of that winning so
you're making money
you're investing in the team you're
investing in a team's potential and
investing in potential fans that'll
purchase your [ __ ]
now that model works
poorly for every Esports org that's why
most of them just don't make money net
loss for all of them
but that's how it goes
moist Esports takes zero percent of
winnings so we don't even have that
Avenue when we won the rocket League
major that was a 90k prize for us that
all went to the players so we don't see
any of that
so our strategy is make fun content so
the watch parties for example
that kind of thing
and through the watch parties with like
viewership and then we also have a
sponsor with Opera GX that puts some
money back in the investment
at the end of the day content
thanks it's Jim wool
don't know about that Jim thanks a bit's
Peyton
and merch as well yeah our merch goes so
[ __ ] hard
I still think that track suit is one of
the best goddamn things ever made
that's a w but how do you stay afloat
financially
uh you can if you do X or um
there's an exclamation point subs or
subscribers I don't know
take that number
and what is it multiply by 2.5 3.5
whatever
that money goes into moist Esports every
month
so I put the whole twitch contract like
everything I make on Twitch in the moist
Esports
easy resubmed metal crew
how do you make money then I don't it's
the content
I'm an investor then I made a joke about
that a while ago but it's not super
far-fetched I guess really appreciate
the generosity dong thank you man
thanks for the fat drop dung
nice the bit's broken and it gives up
Josh and the reason precise
negative Walker Subs wouldn't be enough
to fund a valo team if they all made
240k a year right which is why we're not
invalorate yet that's right now just out
of our ballpark
is Theresa mores
what makes some games more expensive the
popularity of the game the more popular
the game the more expensive
League of Legends is kind of the gold
standard there league has a buy-in to be
there
and it has huge contracts for their
players because it is the Premier esport
or at least it was the LCS is dying it
the LCS is having a big big big big fall
off
League should at League should add it to
PS5 and Xbox
it won't be as good but it'll bring it
to a whole new audience
you're saying bring League of Legends to
PS5 in Xbox
I mean [ __ ] it I mean why not I guess
but I can't see that being like a great
strategy if I'm being honest with you
if they have like teams that aren't
doing anything sure
makes the resub school
they are with wild Rift are they really
is wild Rift coming to the PS5
League of Legends wild Rift isn't coming
to consoles or South Asia in 2022 that's
the latest I've seen on that that's the
most recent article
should I invest in Phase it's so low
it's got to go up at some point bro I'm
not I'm like the last guy you should ask
for investment advice I have no [ __ ]
glue man you do what you want
research it yourself make an educated
decision on it don't ask me
on the website it says it's coming to
mobile and console okay maybe that's
outdated info
we got a game from GameStop must be why
their stock is up
one used game sale just drove GameStop
stock price up five cents
you're a hero
[Music]