Swagg interview: Joining FaZe, his Warzone tournament & the Bruen meta

FaZe Clan YouTuber Swagg has risen to stardom in Call of Duty, especially with the popularity of Warzone. But, he’s now a veteran content creator and a major influencer. We caught up with him ahead of his very own Warzone tournament.

Swagg’s Summer Warzone Invitational starts on August 17, and will feature all the big names Warzone fans have come to know as the best in the game and the biggest on Twitch and YouTube.

He told us how joining FaZe Clan, the explosion of Warzone, and his years of hard work and dedication got him to where he is today.

What was the inspiration behind coming up with a new tournament attached to your name? Where can you see it going over the following weeks and months?

The inspiration behind coming up with a tournament attached to my name actually came from Activision. They approached me with the idea and I immediately jumped at the opportunity. I’ve always wanted to have my own tournament to give back to my community.

As long as Warzone stays updated, I’m hoping to be able to host tournaments like this once a week and open up the format to my entire community so that everyone has a chance to qualify. With qualifier tournaments, you’re really able to discover talented players that just haven’t received the recognition they deserve yet. Everyone loves kill races because they’re so entertaining and they keep you at the edge of your seat, especially if we can bring in different celebrities and athletes sometime in the future.

We’ve seen rapid growth from you across all of your channels with your Twitch numbers continuing to rise. What do you think has been the secret to your success?

I know this may sound cliche, but I think the main secret to my success has honestly been hard work and dedication over the years. I was able to build up my fanbase on YouTube and hit 1 million subscribers before Warzone even came out.

After Warzone came out, my YouTube community continued to expand faster than I anticipated and I think I owe that to winning big tournaments, like the 100k Toronto Ultra tourney, running with influential streamers like Nickmercs, and of course, joining FaZe Clan. All of those things helped get my name out and really paved the way for me to become one of the biggest Warzone content creators.

How did you get your shot in FaZe? What do you think made you stand out compared to thousands of others looking for that contract?

I think I got my shot in FaZe by standing out and keeping my viewers entertained. I would always make class setup videos even back when I was playing Groundwar. During my streams, every other message in the chat is literally “Swagg, what’s the class setup?”.

Even Apex and the other FaZe members would watch my setup videos. To me, I stood out because I produced different content by being one of the first to stream and upload strictly Warzone content. When creating content, most people have the approach of “How can I join FaZe?” but I was always thinking “How could the team benefit from having me?”

How have FaZe helped you grow as a content creator, and what is the best piece of advice you’ve been given while being part of the org?

FaZe helped me grow as a content creator by allowing me to branch out and work on projects outside of gaming. It was more about exploring the person behind the controller, discovering things about my personality and not just me as a gamer. Getting to know Kris instead of Swagg.

The best piece of advice I’ve been given while being a part of FaZe is there are a lot more opportunities for growth outside of gaming. I’ve learned that I’m able to explore other options and dive into areas that may seem uncomfortable at first but help contribute to my brand overall.

The Warzone meta has been dominated by the Bruen, where do you stand on the gun, and what do you think are the three best alternatives if it finally gets nerfed properly?

Bruen, Bruen, Bruen…all my homies hate the Bruen. Even after the nerf the Bruen is still one of the most OP weapons in Warzone. I personally don’t use it that often because I feel like I play just as well, if not better, with the Kilo. If the Bruen finally gets nerfed properly I think the three best alternatives would be the Kilo, M4, and PKM.

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Swagg’s Summer Warzone invitational starts on August 17, at 1PM PT / 4PM ET / 9PM BST. Catch all the action with our dedicated hub.