Written by Lawrence Chen
Published in the April 17, 2015 issue
Senior Lucas Mosing began uploading videos through his YouTube channel two and a half years ago and currently sits at roughly 250 thousand subscribers and over 15 million views. Mosing, known as FaZe Blaziken online, joined the acclaimed online gaming community called FaZe clan on Jan. 3 of this year. “I didn’t start taking YouTube seriously until about a year ago,” Mosing said. “That’s when I started uploading every single day. It was my goal for a long time to get into FaZe. I started to upload a lot more to get my name out there, but I started really enjoying it and I kept working hard at it and it just happened.”
While FaZe recruits competitive “Call of Duty” players and maintains a competitive eSports team, Mosing looks to reach out and help FaZe as a community figure. “FaZe looks for two kinds of people, either people who are really good at competitive, trickshotting, or sniping in “Call of Duty,” or they look for more entertaining players, such as players who upload videos and people who can help the FaZe channel,” Mosing said. “That’s the player I wanted to be.”
As a member of FaZe, Mosing is required to maintain activity on the main FaZe channel and upload at least three videos a month. “You have a lot more responsibility and a lot more people who look up to you and see you as a role model,” Mosing said. “Everyone has a certain job that they need to do in FaZe. Some people manage different parts of the company and work with sponsors. Some people have the job just to get videos onto the channel like me.” However, perks as a member of FaZe clan include flying out to events to support the team and meeting all kinds of different people. “Every month, there’s a really big event and FaZe has a competitive team and FaZe flies out the players and FaZe members to the events to support the team,” Mosing said. “The cool thing about that is that you get to meet a lot of people and you gain a lot of connections. Not just in the gaming world but also from people who make apps, people who make clothing, and a lot of companies are trying to get into this gaming market.”
Being such a prominent online figure, Mosing experiences a level of fame that many high school students are not able to achieve. “Having so many people who care about you and having all the support from the community is definitely crazy,” Mosing said. In addition to a fanbase, Mosing enjoys the opportunities presented to him as an accomplished YouTuber and FaZe member. According to him, one of the best parts of his YouTube experience is meeting new people. “Once you grow in the ranks of YouTube I started meeting new people who I would have never been able to meet before,” Mosing said.
In the coming years, Mosing looks to continue to grow his YouTube channel as there is the possibility of YouTube becoming a self-sustaining career for him. “I’m actually thinking about taking a gap year next year to pursue YouTube just to see where it goes, because it’s not an opportunity you get very often so I just want to see where it brings me,” Mosing said. “It can easily become a career for me but I don’t know how long that is going to last. However, at the end of the road, my goal in the end is to turn my channel into a blogging channel.”
Facebook: /BlazikenFaZe Twitter: @FaZeBlaziken Youtube: FaZe Blaziken
