Call of Duty League side Atlanta FaZe has been accused of “stealing” their logo from clothing brand Alpha Forward — which launched two years before the CDL was even announced.
Atlanta FaZe is arguably the greatest franchise in the CDL’s short history so far, with a world championship and several victories to their name.
It’s also a subsidiary of FaZe Clan, one of the biggest esports organizations in the world with millions of fans and investors that include sports stars and mainstream celebrities.
As such, you would expect them to make sure their branding is always on point and, not to mention, actually their own — but that appears to not be the case.
The iconic ‘AF’ logo that has come to be so recognizable among Call of Duty fans, an evolution of the original FaZe Clan logo that spent so many years dominating at events.
On June 29, though, people started to tweet about the Alpha Forward logo, suggesting that they might have stolen the Atlanta FaZe one and tried palming it off as their own.
Instead, the Alpha Forward owner tweeted out an image of their original patent & trademark documentation, proving they registered the AF logo (albeit with two quadrilaterals above the letters) back in December 2017.
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https://twitter.com/EvanChilds11/status/1542499517421035520
The Atlanta FaZe logo was unveiled almost two years later, in October 2019. According to the Call of Duty League website, it was designed by FaZe Clan owner Thomas ‘Temperrr’ Oliveira, “paying homage to Atlanta’s rich culture while also crediting Atlanta Esports Venture’s progressive esports advancements in the state.”
This has caused a number of fans to call out FaZe, saying that they “stole” the logo.
Atlanta FaZe just completely stole their logo lmfao
— 𝖌𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗 (@GotherSZN) June 30, 2022
Whether the logo really was copied is unclear, but the two are almost perfectly identical. If the Alpha Forward logo didn’t have the two upper shapes above the letter marks, they would be exactly the same — and that could present an even bigger problem.