Twitter has announced a permanent suspension of President Donald Trump’s account, citing "the risk of further incitement of violence" after conducting a review of recent activity. Twitter issued a temporary suspension earlier this week following the events taking place at the US Capitol and required the removal of three specific tweets before the account would be eligible for reinstatement. Prior to this, President Trump used Twitter to announce policy positions and campaign decisions. See the announcement from Twitter’s Safety Team here.
🚨🚨NOK vent thread. NOKle HEADS GET THE HELL IN HERE. WE NEED TO TALK. 🚨🚨
Ok so, first things first you assholes, I am not a bot. I have been in the fucking game for about seven years now. I don’t typically do posts like this and so this is fucking new to me. Anyways, it seems like a shit ton of you are falling out of favor with NOK. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with you if you expected to gain a shit ton of money in a day, but what the fuck I have never seen such 🧻🤲🏻 in my fucking life for the past two days. Are you guys really just going to stand there and let the enemy beat the fuck out of us. And of course some of you are going to mention the total float as if that fucking matters because the stock is still cheap as fuck (for now lol 🚀) and because we managed to trade one fucking fifth of all the NOK stocks in circulation. They literally had to stop our asses from buying a couple of times. Just like you autistic retards I have lost thousands of dollars in this shit. My paychecks, birthday money, dividends, money from the sale of blue chips and Ark ETFs, etc. So where’s the upside? Well let me fucking tell you where the upside is and when you can expect to pull off the biggest fucking heist alongside GME and AMC Wall Street will have ever seen. 🔥🚀💸 NOK is well known to be the bigger beast when it comes to the BANG stocks (BB, AMC, NOK, GME). It has a fuck load of shares to go around and there’s a lot of paperhanded pussies out there, so I understand why it may be daunting to expect a Juggernaut like NOK to moon anytime soon. But it doesn’t have to be. NOK releases its earnings on Thursday and its expected to blow the competition out of the fucking water. I wouldn’t even be surprised at all if it were to get a higher price than ERIC in two weeks (hell, possibly by EOW). NOK even plans to merge with top tier companies in the near future due to their prowess in the 5G tech that they’re developing. The 🏳️🌈🐻 have had their big meaty claws ever since its ATH of $62 all those years ago. Do you really expect a change if you don’t fucking BUY and fucking HOLD. No, with a team of fucking retarded superstars in this sub, NOK is prepping for a fierce comeback in the upcoming weeks. GME is top dog right now, but let’s be honest. GME hype can’t last forever (even tho it can for a long time as long as we remain retarded). However being on team NOK makes me feel like I’m on a loosing, shitty ass baseball team and no one is hitting over .100 What’s the plan, Stan? The fucking plan is that you don’t buy market price. You look at the ask price and you fucking buy it. This is how we destroy walls. The $5 barrier battle today was hard fought and we fucking lost to the hedge funds. This next week is going to be fucking spectacular 🪄🚀🤲🏻💎 and I need to know if my fucking NOKle heads are even in it to win it or just downright frauds. You say NOK was a plan by the bots? Take a look at fucking BlackBerry. That shit took the same swerves NOK did that it’s pretty much identical. If NOK is a sham, then the idea of the BANG stocks is a sham. I know for a fucking fact you don’t believe that. I know that there’s dreamers in this sub. I dream just like you. I am trying to build a life just like you guys are. We are in something way bigger than ourselves so if you can for ONCE IN YOUR LIFE consider that maybe that the process is a trustable process then maybe we can win this shit. If NOK hits $50, I will literally buy new fucking silverware (like expensive handmade shit with sterling silver cutlery) and eat my own shit. I don’t give a fuck whether you’d want to see it or not, because honestly boys I’d eat my shit to go to the moon and I am 200% willing to take one for the team. This year, BANG is for real. So hedgefunds, keep your ears out for the NOK NOK sounds on the door. We’re pissed and we’re armed to the teeth. EDIT: General cheese reporting. Post this shit everywhere. I dont give a fuck. I WILL be producing a flank strategy tomorrow. People have to know goddamn it. Monday/Tuesday will close at $7 just give it time The bell doesn’t fucking ring until WSB says it fucking rings. 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🥵🥵 EDIT 2: some of you pussies are asking where you can buy NOK. The easiest way to buy it is with that fucking app all the whores on Tinder beg for food money on: Cashapp. There are literally no fucking limits and if you want an extra 2 fucking shares then use this shit when you sign the fuck up and get $10 extra buckaroos: BKXDNGQ. I also want to make it clear that everyone should share their cash apps so that we can get that $10 extra to put into NOK. I’m only doing this for the small wagecucks so if you have the money to do so, then don’t bother. This is just the only thing on the top of my head that would help out in any way List of reasons to buy:
Most essential 5G patents in the world
Fastest 5G speeds recorded
Controls over 27% of the 4/5G market
First company contracted to set up internet on the moon (NASA)
Will receive MULTI-BILLION dollar settlements from ongoing litigations with Mercedes Benz and Lenovo
Technology provider and main collaborator of the National Security Center of Excellence 5G Cybersecurity Project (Federal 5G project)
Selected to be the main collaborator of the Hexa 6G European Union Project
Has pending Department of Defense contracts yet to awarded
Just sealed a contract with TMOBILE for US 5G roll out.
Has and will take market share from Huawei, already has secured multi-year deals with important Chinese companies
Blackrock increased their position to 333,000,000 shares during 2020, an increase of 21 million shares held from the year before (7% increase)
May also be getting back into the phone business as they are manufacturing phones in India
Vanguard Capital owns 160,000,000 shares and is continuously buying
Google Cloud announced a partnership with $NOK to Accelerate Cloud-Native 5G Readiness for Communications Providers
Developer: Tarsier Studios Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 83 average - 92% recommended - 84 reviews NB: to fit Reddit's character limit, the following list is not including non-English written reviews.
Being placed in a world akin to a setting kids might be whisked away to if they were transported to a nightmarish version of their own imagination -- by that interdimensional beast that lives underneath their floorbirds -- it's, yeah, terrifying.
Being almost double the length of its predecessor, Little Nightmares II is a larger, more disgusting beast that is essential to gamers that are intrigued by the morbid. Whether you enjoy art, cinema, or games that explore themes of the grotesque, there are not many examples of it being done this well.
Little Nightmares 2 is a game where the central theme is escapism through the journey of Mono and Six. The title will explore the consequences of living a life full of distractions while hiding from the painful truth of existence. Undoubtedly a great game that despite its short duration, will keep you tense and will make you think a little to solve its puzzles.
Little Nightmares 2 is an ambitious, thrilling sequel that occasionally reaches just beyond its grasp, but stays engrossing and terrifying the whole way through.
Little Nightmares 2 is undoubtedly unmissable. [...] The insidious nature that carries its twisted aura throughout the campaign, ensures to encapsulate apprehension, awe, disgust, dismay, hatred, panic, abhorrence and terror.
A Nintendo Switch copy of this game was provided for review purposes. Little Nightmares II is out February 11 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC for £29.99.
Little Nightmares II builds greatly upon what the first title achieved, and pushes with great effort to accomplish even more in its setting, design, and gameplay - and it absolutely succeeds in every area of the game.
Whether you're a seasoned survivor or an all-new player, you'll have a thrilling time with the sequel. It's ideal to start from the beginning, but it's not mandatory – this freaky story stands on its own.
Little Nightmares II builds on the original's macabre formula of unsettling imagery and clever puzzles by crafting more diverse environments and expanding the player's toolset for solving and escaping tense situations.
Despite some rather annoying trial-&-error sections and puzzles which feel a bit too easy, Little Nightmares 2 managed to excite us from start to finish. Visuals are great, sound design is awesome, gameplay offers a fair amount of variety and the environmental story-telling again works excellent. Sadly this scary adventure is already over after roughly seven hours.
Little Nightmares 2 succeeds in building on the foundation that the original game laid out. The folks at Tarsier Studios have expanded on the story and lore with new characters and settings, added gameplay mechanics that don’t overcomplicate the action or bloat the pacing, and proven themselves worryingly imaginative when it comes to thinking up dastardly denizens of a perfectly grim world.
If you enjoy dark stories, difficult gameplay and the original game, Little Nightmares 2 is absolutely a must-play dark fairytale that you shouldn’t miss out on (if you can help it)! LN2 is a triumph for Tarsier Studios, but definitely needs to rethink accessibility.
A fantastic sequel soaked in atmosphere and tension. Little Nightmares II surpasses its predecessor far beyond what anyone would have expected. An outstanding finale which stretches from the finale boss fight from the closing credits will have fans desperate for a third installment.
Little Nightmares II is a great continuation of the grotesque exploration puzzle series. The game is a solo adventure, yet you’ll be joined by the protagonist of the previous game, both working together to discover the reason behind the strange signal and put an end to its hypnotic control. Some parts can get frustrating when trying to run away or solve a puzzle with a timer before you get slaughtered, but this only leads to a lot of satisfaction upon completion. Aside from a few issues with the controls, there’s very little to complain about within this brilliant no hand-holding horror game. Whereas the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in terms of the gameplay, the updated visuals, immersive sound, confusing yet interesting story, and new gruesome freaks, all combine to ensure that after playing Little Nightmares II, you’ll be having ‘Little Nightmares’ of your own…
Little Nightmares II is a true evolution from the first game. Tarsier Studios has done a fantastic job in creating a world that’s even more terrifying, brought to life with absolutely sublime art and sound.
Not only does Little Nightmares 2 live up to its name, but it also improves on nearly every aspect of the first game. Players may run into a few frustrating hiccups along the way, but exploring this horrific world with Mono and Six is immensely satisfying. At the end of the day, I'd recommend this one to any fan of surreal horror stories with emotional twists, though you might have trouble sleeping when it's all said and done.
Little Nightmares 2 improves upon the original with more terror, better puzzles, and a fantastic atmosphere. Fans of horror or puzzle games shouldn't hesitate to pick this one up.
Little Nightmares 2 makes every single moment count to craft a truly unsettling experience and to wordlessly deliver an expertly paced and impactful story.
Little Nightmares II tells a beautiful yet fragile story of friendship, sadness, and searching for the light among the darkness. The puzzles are well-designed, the music is stunning, and the visuals are on another level.
Tarsier Studios has created a dark and depressing world like no other. A gripping tale of adversity that has you begging for more. Little Nightmares II is the light at the end of the tunnel that you never knew you needed.
That same distortion and monstrous-like exaggeration of previous may be out in full force once again, but Little Nightmares II succeeds on its bolder and more refined continuation from the 2017 original.
With a presentation that will give you the creeps, a premise that's still very original and a gameplay formula that adds some welcome improvements, Little Nightmares II has every ingredient to make fans that liked (feared?) the first game love this one too.
Little Nightmares 2 is a decisive step forward for Tarsier Studios. The art style is set to an high standard, but the gameplay noverlties don't all work perfectly. It remains a fascinating adventure, a must for anyone who loved the first Little Nightmares.
Little Nightmares 2 brings a tremendously beautiful artistic mix and sound design, filled with very fun puzzles and some refreshing elements to gameplay, yet however, we still see some issues from the first game returns here and a missed chance for co-op gameplay
Little Nightmares II arrives as a sequel that delivers a dark adventure full of puzzles and feels like a journey through a charming nightmare. Being that it is so similar to its predecessor, you should also expect the same setbacks, such as short duration, clunky controls and poor replayability.
A thoroughly entertaining work of video game art that improves mechanically on the original and proves thought-provoking in terms of more than just the puzzle-solving.
Little Nightmares II improves on the first game's formula in every way: better narrative, more varied puzzles and gameplay, better design overall. It still suffers from the experience only lasting a handful of hours, but it's definitely a worthy one.
Little Nightmares II has far surpassed the original, and it holds true that this series remains one of the most terrifying and emotionally provocative experiences you will ever face! Once again Tarsier Studios have enthralled me, gripping me for a solid 9 hours straight playthrough that I just could not step away from. I have experienced loneliness, companionship, hope, joy, despair, terror and betrayal. Overall, I feel like my heart has been ripped out, but I would willingly go through it all again. If I had to find fault with anything, the controls can be a little cumbersome and may take some getting used to, and at times my jumps did not quite land the way I wanted. I only encountered one bug where a hatch would not open by a checkpoint, but this was easily resolved by restarting from that point. Will I be revisiting? Yes, it appears I truly am a masochist, but there are collectible, wearable hats and sorrowful glitches I must go back for. I am sure this is not the last we will see of Six and Mono’s story, and I am genuinely excited to see what comes next!
Little Nightmares 2 is an absolutely brilliant puzzle platformer, with just enough creepy to keep you on the edge of your seat. An excellent step-up from their first outing, Tarsier Studios has created a phenomenal world, tackling incredibly adult concepts from the perspective of a child.
Little Nightmares II is one of those "experience" kind of games. It is similar to titles such as Journey and Abzu, where it's all about the journey, not the destination. Little Nightmares II revels in its use of compelling level design to tell a deep and saddening tale of discovery. The stealth sections in particular provided some truly intense moments, with the world of Pale City always providing a constant, creepy atmosphere. My time spent exploring dark hallways, brooding corridors, and creepy streets will be something I'll always remember.
Little Nightmares II is nothing less than engaging from start to finish, with superb pacing, entertainingly varied level design and excellent graphics and performance. Its only real flaws are based on the imprecision that comes with all games in its sub-genre, as well as a few sections that feel more about trial and error than reactive survival. In our view, though, this doesn't detract from a far superior sequel and one of the best cinematic platformers we've had the privilege of enjoying. A real stylish treat.
Little Nightmares II is easily going to be one of the best games of 2021. Its horror themes weigh on the player throughout the entirety of the adventure to a climax that will leave you breathless. Pacing through the various puzzles creates a nice balance of linear game design and subtle exploration. It's a game that anyone can get through if they can stand to be scared a little, but the trial-and-error approach makes it an easy recommendation to gamers of all skill levels.
Little Nightmares II's ambition makes the original look like its introduction, and although this added ambition contributes to some of its frustrations, they ultimately don't prevent it from becoming even more clever, gripping and chilling than its predecessor.
Little Nightmares 2 is a game that pulls together every aspect of a game's presentation and pulls it off miraculously. Everything here is amplified from the original and moments feel like true cinematic wonders, unlike anything you have seen before. Combat doesn't always work, but the whole package is truly impressive and a showcase of the talent Tarsier Studios possess.
Little Nightmares II isn't content with just iterating on its predecessor, instead improving on it in practically every way. The puzzles are challenging and rewarding, combat surprisingly functional, and the imagery is as striking as ever. While trial-and-error design bogs down Little Nightmares II considerably, it's far and away a better game than the original.
Little Nightmares II is bigger and bolder, which builds upon the foundations from the first game. The game is host to a disgusting, decaying world that opens up as you progress through each chapter. Its inhabitants will haunt your dreams for days and the emotional connection it draws between Mono and Six with absolutely no dialogue is powerful. It is worth noting that certain combat encounters and high stakes moments can become troublesome and do provide occasional road blocks which prevent the game from reaching its full potential. As it stands though, Little Nightmares II is a thrill ride filled with visually striking moments of pure nightmare fuel, which may invite you to leave your lamp on for the foreseeable future.
Little Nightmares II is worth experiencing for its art direction alone, although its hand cramping controls can be an obstacle at times. The title relies far too heavily on trial and error, which frustrates, but many of its encounters will live with you long after the credits roll, and so it's successful at creating a lasting impression. It's a stiff and rigid release, but its puzzles are constantly reinventing themselves, and each frame draws you in with its surreal and unsettling imagery.
Little Nightmares 2 is made up of creatures that would even keep the worst of demons up at night, waking up in cold sweats of terror too afraid to sleep alone in the dark.
Franklin Roosevelt once famously said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Then again, he was never chased by the oversized head of a giant schoolmarm with a serpentine neck. It’s just one example of the many surprises that Little Nightmares II has in store for players who wander into its bizarre and melancholic world. If you love creepy adventure thrillers with puzzle platforming to boot, this is one nightmare you’d want to tuck into.
A perfect sequel. Expanding on what worked last time, improving what did not work, adding ideas that were missing, and taking the story to places we have never seen before. As a fan of Little Nightmares, you could not ask for more.
Little Nightmares II is based on the relationship between Six and Mono, both from a narrative and a gameplay perspective, and there will be heart-pounding situations where you will come to wonder how much you are willing to push yourself to get both children safe from this spiral of pure terror. If you enjoyed the original game, this new chapter is another little gem worth buying.
It's rather obvious, but if enjoyed the first Little Nightmares then you will enjoy the Little Nightmares II. While some new elements have been added it is more of a next chapter to the story than a full blown sequel. The attention detail is incredible, bringing the story to life without a single spoken word. It's unsettling, creepy, darkly amusing, and at times a little frustrating, but immensely enjoyable. Another little, slime covered gem from Tarsier Studios.
With Little Nightmares 2 Tarsier Studios has once again dreamt up a wonderfully unnerving world filled with grotesque and fantastical creatures that is a horrifying pleasure to explore.
Chase sequences and the overall ambiance are as bone-chilling and thrilling as ever, while puzzles are even more challenging and satisfying to complete thanks to the tragic duo of Mono and Six. Even if you aren’t a horror fan, I’d highly recommend you play Little Nightmares II, as it currently sits as my favorite game of 2021 so far.
Little Nightmares 2 is a superb sequel that carries on the impressive tone of the original, but improves in all key areas. This isn’t explosive horror, there’s no gore or torture, and for the most part you’re jumping onto levers, solving puzzles, and climbing up furniture, but that doesn’t mean Tarsier hasn’t created a standout horror experience.
GOOD - Little Nightmares II is a delight to play, but its weak narrative and overarching goal dissuade from a wonderfully immersive world. Running away from big bad enemies and solving frantic puzzles in dark rooms are incredibly fun and surprisingly addictive. The game is fairly small with a very short campaign spread over three or four main locales (hopefully future DLC will alleviate this feeling). The game’s reliance on external sources for lore is also a bit disappointing. Fortunately, the minor caveats are forgotten courtesy of the wonderfully scary and well thought out world on offer. Little Nightmares II is a wonderfully scary delight, a great addition to the Little Nightmares Collection, and is a must play for anyone who enjoyed the first title.
It's worth pointing out that few other studios have the confidence to take this approach to horror: not to jolt you with sudden frights or to ration your ammunition, but to probe and puncture your emotional ease by putting foulness in such close proximity to the childish.
“Little Nightmares 2″ shattered my expectations. I expected something scary, but the impeccable sound design, terrifying enemy encounters and clever puzzles make it worth revisiting, even after completion. This nightmarish experience has a lot to offer. Just don’t expect to get much sleep after playing.
Little Nightmares II often manages to recapture the unsettling essence of Tarsier Studios' original game, but almost every attempt to expand the formula falls flat, resulting in an experience as lumpy and misshapen as the game's shambling monstrosities. If you loved the original Little Nightmares and need to know what happens to Six next, this sequel might be worth your time, but more fair-weather fans may regret reliving this particular bad dream.
With its delightfully scary monster designs and ominous atmosphere, Little Nightmares II stands out as a truly unique horror experience. Sure, it falters in some of its puzzles and clunky controls, but it makes up for it with its art and level design.
Little Nightmares II doesn't break the mould established by its predecessor but it improves on it in a number of small ways while introducing fans to a new cast of creepy characters to be kept up at night by
Little Nightmares II builds on its predecessor as a sequel should, expanding the scope of the universe both in terms of lore and mechanics. Little Nightmares II is one of 2021's first must-play titles.
Little Nightmares II is a gem of a game that successfully builds on everything that made the first one great. It's a short but well-polished and atmospheric horror-platformer that oozes with creepy charm. While its core physics-based platformer gameplay hasn't seen many radical changes, the setting, storytelling, and world-building alone make it worth experiencing. If you're a fan of the first entry or the likes of Limbo or Inside, LM2 is well worth the adventure … if you dare.
Despite contriving its fair share of unsettling moments, Little Nightmares II is a disappointing follow-up to one of 2017's most pleasant surprises. It might be a bigger game than its forebear, but it certainly isn't better.
Little Nightmares II is a wonderful sequel that adds unnecessary combat to the mix. The journey is still worth pushing through just to experience the horrors the team has delivered. I love these type of games as it stimulates that certain part of my brain that creates a sense of discomfort while also letting me solve puzzles to stay alive. The lighter price point and promise of next-gen updates also make it worth your time. Don’t miss out on the first genuinely disturbing game of 2021.
Talon Metals $TLOFF is very likely to go 10x, and soon.
I want to preface this DD by stating I’ve only began to invest seriously in the past two years. I’m a novice by any standard and am typically VERY risk adverse. I’ve only dabbled in penny stocks during the last half year or so, and when I have, I’ve been reluctant to invest any remotely significant portion of my portfolio into any one particular stock. I’m not recommending anyone do what I do and I’m definitely not a financial advisor. But having said that, Talon Metals (TLOFF) is the exception to all my investing rules. It’s a game changer and here’s why: I have family in Duluth, Minnesota. My brother-in-law has been in the mining industry his entire life. Talon Metals is on track to be the top nickel producing company in North America and it also happens to be located in central Minnesota. I knew nothing about mining or mining companies before diving into this, but he’s been working in the industry for 19 years. He’s worked and lived in both Canada and the US because of his career in the mining industry. I’m really not sure if this type of information is allowed here but I happened to randomly speak with him yesterday before the Super Bowl and following our conversation, I’ve never in my life been more excited about any one stock, or opportunity for that matter, after hearing what he had to say. All I will say (and all I believe I’m allowed to say here) is he is (1) very familiar with Talon Metals, (2) the EV craze for nickel is very real, and (3) Talon Metals is indeed on Tesla’s radar, and is absolutely in the running to get a long term contract for RESPONSIBLE nickel mining, along with one other domestic contender. He was emphatic that not only will this will happen before 2021 is over, but also that the contract will indeed be with a DOMESTIC nickel producer because of Tesla’s supply chain goals and because of the impending subsidies that are going to be granted by Biden, given to domestic, AMERICAN metal mining companies adjunct to the EV industry. This is the same reason Tesla has already begun exploring their own lithium mining operations in Nevada. Nickel, however, is an different entirely beast and cannot by extracted easily from clay sites like the one Tesla just purchased in Nevada. Nickel extraction is far more labor intensive and Tesla frankly doesn’t have a choice but to contract mining companies to unearth this metal. Before going further, I do not claim to be aware of any existing contract/agreement between Tesla/any other EV company and Talon Metals. I proceeded to grill him on what he was telling me and made him clarify over and over. Floored, I’ve been researching non-stop for nearly 24 hours straight about anything I can on Talon Metals and it’s major competitors, and any insight I can gather into upcoming EV manufacturer contracts. My brother-in-law’s knowledge of the situation lines up almost too perfectly after reading everything I’ve read in the last 24 hours. Check it out: Tesla will be making all their battery cathodes going forward without ANY cobalt whatsoever. In fact, Tesla has gone on record to rule out cobalt from its batteries going forward. This means a HUGE increased demand for nickel. Again, my brother-in-law is already seeing this firsthand in his industry. All the domestic mining industry can talk about is lithium and nickel, apparently. In his words “it’s becoming the new gold”. Cobalt is considered the “blood diamond” of metal mining. Cobalt is also the most expensive metal element in EV batteries. Nickel is cheaper and safer than cobalt and comes with far fewer environmental repercussions. Going cobalt-free and moving to nickel-based cathodes will be THE vital step in Tesla’s goal to make the $25,000 EV ubiquitous. Nickel ore is absolutely essential and Elon knows it, which is why he’s pleaded on record via Twitter stating - “... Go for efficiency, obviously environmentally-friendly nickel mining at high volume. Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time, if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way.” Nickel is not only the future of Tesla’s batteries, it’s the future of every EV maker’s battery cathodes. Tesla doesn’t just want a green car, they have become obsessed with the “cleanness” of the manufacturing aspect of the car itself. It is almost a forgone conclusion that every single other manufacturer of EVs, large and small, are going to follow suit with eliminating expensive, inefficient cobalt and replacing it entirely with nickel. To the next point and my single biggest questions - aren’t there larger mining companies that exist that can dwarf the amount of nickel mid-size mining companies can produce? And why is Talon Metals purportedly the golden child of all the domestic nickel mining companies? Here’s the answer. Tesla has held off awarding any contract because they are apparently vetting every mid-size and large nickel mining company with extreme scrutiny. Again, something my brother-in-law has told me he’s witnessed firsthand recently to a greater extent than he’s ever seen in his nearly two decades in the industry. Talon Metals has a proprietary nickel extraction method - arguably the cleanest in the world. They’ve literally coined the buzzwords “green nickel”. Talon Metals is the only domestic mining company the creates solar energy fields from former mining sites. Talon Metals is also the ONLY major nickel producer in North America that is actively attempting to make its entire mining operation carbon-neutral, including transitioning to its own on-site EVs. Better yet, geological testing at their main Tamarack mining site in Minnesota has revealed that it is indeed one of THE MOST high-quality nickel dense sites in the world rivaled only by the nickel mining industry in Indonesia (which currently has a nickel ore export ban). Most nickel sulphide mining projects are around .9% - 1.1%. Low-grade nickel sulphide mining projects are about .2%. Talon Metals Tamarack nickel sulphide deposit has averaged 1.8% - 2.1%! It may not sound like much, but it is extremely significant. Nickel sulphide deposits like the one at Tamarack are EXTREMELY few and far between worldwide. For this reason alone Talon Metals can provide high quality nickel at the lowest possible cost out of any single company in North America. It’s not even close. Talon Metals’ Tamarack mine is also only ONE OF TWO large-scale, high grade nickel operations in the US, the other being Eagle Mine in Michigan, which is purportedly going to be mined-out by 2025 (cease mining nickel altogether). This will leave Talon Metals as not only the sole, major high-grade nickel operation in the US, but also the greenest in the world. Unlike the trajectory of lithium recycling operations, nickel recycling operations do not and will not come anywhere close to meeting the current demand by EV companies for many years. It’ll be decades until that’s the case and until then, nickel mining is absolutely crucial to the EV world. Even with all that good news I saved the very best for last. From my understanding, here is the biggest reason Talon Metals is THE front runner for a massive nickel contract from Tesla and other EV companies: Talon has created their own proprietary hydromet process. What this means is, they have a created a process where nickel is minded and transformed into battery form ON-SITE! This means no smelting. It also means significantly lower cost and skipping transportation of the mined nickel multiple times across different continents before the nickel returns to the USA in a battery component called a cathode. Talon Metals has created the ONLY process in the world where the nickel goes from the mine to the battery in one place. From the CEO of Talon Metals, here’s what he said recently in an interview - “Talon is looking to raise the bar on how mining is done. By going directly from mine to battery we believe that we can play a vital role in a fully integrated domestic battery supply chain, rather than shipping the product around the globe multiple times for processing.” When the Talon Metals CEO was asked to comment about an impending partnership with Tesla he DID NOT flat out deny it. As leader of a publicly traded company he is required to explicitly deny claims of this type if he knows them to be false. Instead, he simply said he’d rather not comment at this time. Other huge mining companies are messing up, BADLY. Vale mining has had terrible publicity recently due to their horrific Brazilian mining accident where 270 people died because of sheer negligence. Also, not domestic nickel. Norilsk nickel mining in Russia might be the single largest nickel mining operation in the world, and possibly the single most environmentally UNFRIENDLY. Their stock has suffered because of it. They face billions of dollars in fines for egregious environmental violations and have completely polluted the largest river in the Taymyr area of Russia, infuriating the indigenous Taymyr people and causing massive protests throughout much of Northern Russia. And again, not domestic. Indonesia produces more nickel than anyone in the world but they currently have an export ban, and further, they’ve also begun terribly polluting the surrounding ocean as a consequence of increased nickel demand. Indonesia is actually probably the worst offender out of all three major nickel mining operations, even worse than Brazil and Russia. Tesla is also actively trying to eliminate Indonesian nickel from their future supply chain due the country’s environmentally unfriendly regard towards the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Maybe most importantly, Tesla has already shown their willingness to partner with relatively smaller, DOMESTIC metal mining operations. If you recall, Tesla signed a 5 year agreement with Piedmont Lithium based in North Carolina just recently in September of 2020. This was only 4-5 months ago! The Piedmont Lithium mine in North Carolina is still under development. They are an emerging lithium mining company still in its infancy who, I believe, had zero customers prior to Tesla. I don’t believe Piedmont Lithium has even begun extracting lithium and it seems they’ve only completed requisite geologic and feasibility studies. Talon Metals is arguably far, FAR more established. Before the Tesla agreement, Piedmont Lithium was trading at about $6 a share. Now it’s at about $60 a share. 10X in five months, still skyrocketing. Tesla entering a long term agreement with Vale, Norilsk or an Indonesian supplier goes against literally everything Tesla is trying to create, and a partnership, although possible, is highly, highly unlikely. They want environmentally sensitive green nickel extraction, they want to optimize their supply chain and they’d prefer a domestic source. Talon Metals is all of these things and by far the most likely choice. The foreign existing nickel mining operations are none of these things. Talon Metals will not only be the first major domestic nickel deal Tesla does, very similar to the Piedmont Lithium deal they did in September of 2020, but Talon Metals will be THE major green nickel producer of the world within a few years. Tesla has already begun its own lithium mining explorations in Nevada and STILL needed another domestic source in Piedmont Lithium. Tesla does not and will not mine for nickel, arguably the single most important metal in its battery. Take all this for whatever it’s worth. Like the stock. Don’t like the stock. Up to you. I am very, very long on TLOFF. This subreddit has been an extremely good source of penny stock info and I’m grateful to its members, big time. THIS is where I come for 90% of my penny stock sentiment. Of course I’ll research thoroughly from here before pulling the trigger and truly, I pass on a lot of what I read here, but my total return from investing in penny stocks recommended here is, as a percentage, significantly higher than my total return from investing in more traditional NYSE and Nasdaq stocks. And again, for that, I’m very grateful to this subreddit. I doubt I’ll post about other pennies in the future that I think are going to take off because frankly, I don’t know enough and don’t want to mislead people... but if there was ever one stock I was extremely confident recommending, it’s Talon Metals $TLOFF. I truly wish you guys the very best of luck with all your future investments! Thanks for reading. I think I’m required to do this, so for transparency, I own 41,200 shares of $TLOFF at an average of price of $0.46. Single biggest investment in my portfolio. EDIT: I’m really new to making DDs and didn’t realize links to my sources were expected. I’ve heard it a few times now. My apologies. I don’t really plan on making a habit of doing DDs or recommending stocks in general. I just happened to get some incredible insight into this company’s near term expectations and figured I’d share it with the community that’s been the single biggest positive contributor to my own personal investing.
I wanted to clear the air a little bit, especially with Mike leaving the channel he created. First off, this is the real Justin. I know there's been a lot of fake Screenwave people on here over the years, but... I think you'll tell from my post that it's me. It's going to be too inside-baseball to be faked. Plus, mod GreatBowser confirmed it in Twitter DM. I also wanted to do an AMA for a while, was going to do one on Facebook in that Assposting group... but they started contacting family members on my Facebook profile and stuff. So... I left all Cinemassacre fan groups I was in and locked my profile down. I feel that this subreddit is probably the best place for the AMA... since you guys clearly care about the channel a lot and wouldn't hold back any punches. I was on here a few years ago. But, I jumped ship pretty quickly and didn't really engage after that, or even lurk. I would get sent threads from time to time. Yet, over the years I noticed the Truth went from heavy trolling and hyperbole, to more shitposting and constructive criticism. That's something I can get behind. Plus, you guys aren't going away... and Screenwave isn't going away. So, I wanted to meet in the middle. I wanted to step out in front of a lot of your questions. Answer them for you. I am going to use the Megathread and newer top posts to pull questions from. (But, feel free to ask stuff below. I'll only be monitoring this thread the next week or so, if that's alright.) Lastly, I do not speak for James, Mike, Ryan, Screenwave Media, or the other guys... it's just how I see things, or what I know personally. Who owns Cinemassacre now? Screenwave Media? James owns it. I don't know the specifics after that or with the AVGN movie, but I know Screenwave Media owns 0% of any of it. We only have a stake in the AVGN games we produce. Yes, we take a percentage of monthly revenue, like we do other partners on the network... but we don't have any control of the Cinemassacre company... OR have any creative control. James can do whatever he wants with both. He decides to work with us, and we like working for him. So, do the Screenwave guys work for Cinemassacre or what? "The Slobs," as we are called (thanks for that) don't have any creative control or financial stake, as said before. We are just employees of Screenwave Media. Hell, Cinemassacre isn't even my full time thing here. I do a lot of producing of our games and social media content, plus direction for the company kinda stuff. Tony and Kieran are the only full-time employees at Screenwave working for Cinemassacre... and that is mostly writing, filming, and editing. Why wasn't there a better way to introduce "The Slobs"? That's the last time I'll call us the slobs, haha. Honestly, we probably should've introduced ourselves better. Mind you, we were working on the channel for a while at that point... and, when you're James or whatever, you're already really acquainted with us... so, when Tony slips into that Halloween 6 review or we start doing Rental Reviews, it doesn't really come to your mind to roll out the red carpet and send out flyers to everyone, because you assume people follow his socials where we're mentioned or at conventions or whatever... you just kinda do it... which, I don't think people would have cared too much about... if it wasn't for the departure of Kyle and Bootsy still stinging. What about Kyle and Bootsy then??? I started working for Screenwave in 2015... and on Cinemassacre in late 2017... so, I wasn't really there for the behind the scenes of Kyle and Bootsy. I met the guys a bunch beforehand though. I like the guys now too. You also know I did the stupid AVGN Roast in 2013... and I think I gave them that cake/award thing at TooManyGames the year before too... so, I knew Kyle and Bootsy well enough and we'd talk at after parties and whatever. Only saying that because I just want to put it out there that I don't harbor any animosity for them. None of us do. I'd like to work with them in the future if it's ever possible. Oh, and if you watch the Silvermania 2016 MAGfest video you'll see Bootsy. Really surprised none of you saw that yet... anyway... yeah, no idea why there was a falling out 100%. I know Kyle wanted to get more involved with his contracting company... and Mike and Bootsy had a falling out. Friends sometimes do, especially when they start working together and being in business together. All I know is what Mike posted publicly a while ago. Be cool to see them again one day regardless. Why did Mike leave? I think he was pretty clear about it in his reddit post. We were planning 2021 and I guess Mike was feeling disconnected for a while... and honestly, loves to stream on Twitch. So, it just made sense for him to bounce. All the old stuff he made is still there, and I guess there's some burnout mixed with enjoying his new thing. I don't blame him. Yes, James barely talked about it in the update video... but, Mike specifically didn't want a huge send off or too much said about it. So, James said as much as Mike wanted him too. That simple. What about all the Mike drama over the years? Same with the Kyle/Bootsy stuff. I wasn't around for it. I know as much as you know, maybe less. I think Mike has apologized for all of it... so, I am going to leave it there. I have no problems with Mike, he's always been good to me. Hoping to stream with him eventually from time to time or just hang out. Why doesn't James write the AVGN episodes anymore? Well, he does... and he doesn't. It's collaborative. Sometimes we play all the games together, sometimes just he does. Sometimes we'll come up with an outline for a script and he fills it in, sometimes it's the reverse. Sometimes he comes up with ideas for games, sometimes we do. It's so back and forth that I can't really separate it at this point... I understand they don't feel like stuff from back in the day... but, not much you can do about that. He's older, back in the GameTrailers day he had something to prove. I think the movie burned him out... plus his family life and side projects. It takes its toll, I think we were moving in a good direction but Covid kinda fucked stuff up, for all of us. Our goal is to make 2021 a great Nerd year. We have been working on the plan for a while now with more time to focus on writing, acting, all that. I think 2020 had us flying by the seat of our pants. I was editing stuff 24 hours straight sometime. Sorry if it doesn't seem that way, haha. We put a lot of time and effort into making what we can, but we want to improve and we want the content to improve. What's with all the brand deals and lack of cursing? As you know, YouTube is a minefield of demonetization, limited ads, and de-platforming. We're trying our best to make the channel money and keep views up. The brand deals really help, because a lot of our content gets limited ads, especially the older stuff. As you know, our backlog is huge. Cursing in the first minute is an instant limited ads. Which hurt money, sure, BUT it also makes the algorithm push you less. So, if a YKWBS gets limited ads it'll get half the views it would normally get, or less... so, we had to make these changes to stay afloat. Even the AVGN theme gets pinged... that's why a lot of AVGN episodes did worst this year (aside from whatever quality issues you have)... Bad Final Fight Games got limited ads because the Nerd said "blue balls," and that's too sexual. See what I mean? If we get hit, it kills views. So... we do brand deals, we put the theme after a minute, we changed it to BS in the front... if not, views would suffer, and future stuff would be pushed less and less. It's weird. Sure, we could do a Patreon and all that, but views would still suffer. And, we never want to just take your money... if skipping forward in a video is all you have to do, whatever. If you want to support us, merch is the best way to do that. And yes, James gets most of the profit from merch. It's not us running some scam. Why are the Screenwave guys such SLOBS?? (Oops, used it again.) I don't want to talk about how Ryan, Kieran, or Tony (from Hack the Movies) feel... but, I know Kieran really took a lot of the stuff here to heart. Especially after the years of fat jokes, caveman jokes, and people pretending to be his dead father. He went off the edge a few times. I think he's in a way better place now, and I think he's really been taking good care of himself. Shit, I lost 80 pounds this year but gained a lot of it back when the world started opening back up... that's the thing about being fat your whole life. It's hard to dig yourself out, it's easy to diet and exercise if you're already thinner. I was fat in like kindergarten, those habits and addictions just continue on with you. Plus, food has always been a comfort for me. Not to go into a sob story, but my Mom died in '99 because of drugs and stuff... and I grew up with 3 sisters across multiple states in a poor family... and, being teased your entire life just goes on and on. Honestly, if you're 20 pounds overweight or 200... it feels the same when you're ridiculed, so, what's the difference, just get bigger, you'll never be small enough to not catch shit. I mean, not to go into my psychology or whatever, sorry... BUT, my goal is to get healthy in 2021... it's a "rebuilding year" for me... that's a sports term. I mean, I doubt it'll affect my personality much... so, if that's your problem, then shit... but, clearly us slobs don't want to be slobs. Even Tony (from hack the movies) and Ryan have been working on themselves too... plus, I always put others before me... from work, to family, to my girlfriend... I'm usually the last stop. Any advice or whatever you guys wanna give, please do. My Twitter DMs are always open. Coat-tail riding MUCH?? I mean? Not really? Not sure how much fame we can get out of this. It's just our job, and we like helping James and shooting the shit on the internet. Plus, I had two failed YouTube shows before working with Cinemassacre (why the fuck did they hire me??) so, I don't really care about the clout. It's cool when people high-five us at conventions and other content creators give us the nod... but, we're just trying to make videos, build up Screenwave more, and keep James making the content he wants to make. That's it. I mean, hasn't really helped Hack the Movies much (LOL). What do you think of the AVGN movie? It's alright. I think it could be better here and there, but it's really hard to make a movie. Anyway, back when it was being planned... I was trying to get James to do it locally, with the Underbelly guys and people I knew into film. Do it cheap. But, I also understand wanting to make a big movie in Hollywood. That's a dream. Anyway, at the end of the day, I hope James gets to make another movie one day. I really liked his horror script, but clearly that's on the backburner if not cancelled... but, my goal is to get something to happen one day for him. Now I wanted to dive a bit into my past... Why do you defend Bob and still talk to him to this day? So, as you might know, Bob (who used to be on my old YouTube show Silvermania) was busted for having child porn several years ago, after we stopped working together anyway. He went to jail for a year and has since been off the grid. I don't talk to him anymore and I completely cut ties. I've talked about the matter before, saying he "did his time" and stuff. Which, I meant like... I don't want to dogpile on a guy whose life is completely ruined... and who already fucked up a ton. I wanted him to get the help he needs and never work with him again. But, as I said before, I haven't talked to him in years and I don't plan to. Why did you make fun of Total Biscuit's cancer? I regret everything that happened between Silvermania and TB. The short version, is we were invited on his podcast accidentally. They thought we were another show... my original show Underbelly, I think... which was a really different thing, and we were frustrated our YouTube network at the time (MakeTGS) didn't know the difference. Silvermania was me and my old roommate, who posted on here a few times as you know. They wouldn't let us on together and kept asking questions before the show about Underbelly and stuff that didn't pertain to us, but whatever. Watch it, it even says UnderbellyShow under my face. Things went south really quick... and honestly, I shouldn't have been a dickbag on the call... but, as I said, it was weird from the get-go. The energy was really off between all of us on the call, and I just played into being the bad guy. Anyway, we got kicked off the podcast halfway through and a wave of TB fans started attacking us for months. Now, there were like 5 people with access to the Silvermania YouTube at the time... plus I think mods and stuff. So, I'm not sure who did it. Hell, it could've been me under the influence. I drank way too much back then... anyway, someone made fun of TB's cancer down the road and it's been screen-grabbed and passed around. I mean, there's not too much context to it... aside from just being a shitty thing to say because we felt burned by the guy and his fans. Anyway, after that I met with him at a convention and we put it past us. He never actually saw the insult. I was really upset when I heard he passed, I always liked him and his content. Especially all the PC gaming stuff. Why did you post "I'm a pedo, watch out" on Twitter? AH, right. I know that sounds like foreshadowing about the Bob stuff, but it wasn't. Back then, I think it was 2013... I didn't really use Twitter much. We had the SilvermaniaShow handle... which connected directly to our Facebook fan page. So, if we posted on Facebook, it would auto-post to Twitter. Also back then, we would have huge parties at our apartment and stuff, like 50 people would show up once a month... a lot of friends and fans of the show too. Anyway, someone "hacked" our Facebook account... as in, went on the computer that was playing music, typed that in as a joke, and hit send. We immediately deleted it... but, we forgot it auto-posts to Twitter and forgot about it. Anyway, when the show ended... I changed the handle from SilvermaniaShow to JustySilverman, the one I am using now, making it my personal account. But, the wayback machine or whatever, just makes it look like my current profile said he's a pedo. That's the story. Someone was playing a joke, it went to Twitter, and we didn't realize it. I am not a pedo, but sadly, I worked with one for a while... well, kinda, Bob was kinda a guest on the show more than a member. Why did you make such shitty/troll content anyway back then? Man, it's been a real rollercoaster... if I knew back then what I know now... I think Underbelly or Silvermania would have made it... I let too many cooks in the kitchen, let friends have business control or creative whatever... I should've just been a solo act and just made fun shit... I mean, I think we did a lot of good stuff too... like, Underbelly was partnered with ScrewAttack and Normal Boots for a time... we were with the first ever YouTube network... but, all that pivoting fucked the channel up because of release schedules or what they wanted us to make... the production has always been good... Underbelly was the first YouTube channel with every video being in full 1080p back in 2010... but then we deleted every video and reuploaed them because our network needed us to for whatever reason... just a ton of issues... from back-end stuff to it not being fun anymore... to seeing others soar with similar content... it made me bitter. Which led to Silvermania becoming a weapon of trolling. I always skimmed the surface of making YouTube successful for me... hell, we pissed a LOT of content creators off too... I am STILL rebuilding those bridges even with being on Cinemassacre. I was just pissed off at the world and thought I knew better... when, we should've been focused on making fun stuff consistently and less toxic. That simple. Trying to do that now I guess. Why did you say the N-word? I really regret this. I mean, even without cancel culture and all that. It was just stupid. The one time was back in 2012, on YouTube, and was part of a skit where I was saying the N-word was actually "Nerd," because of the Big Bang Theory or some point I was making about Nerds being taken advantage of or whatever by Hollywood... it was a really dumb comparison. I even had my black roommate in the video with me to sell the joke... it was dumb, but edgy humor was cool at the time. I have since removed the video and apologized. The other time was just being a drunk-comedian with my friends trying to say the most fucked up stuff possible, same year. Kinda like when Kramer from Seinfeld did that dumb stand-up routine when he said it. But, I guess my ex-roommate decided to record it and post it this year for clout. That said... I am not a racist, I've never said anything remotely racist after the fact, and never from a place of hate. I'm a pretty liberal guy, not that it matters. But, I apologize, clearly won't ever happen again... and hasn't in 8 years. Why are you dressed as a Klansman next to Nazi and confederate flag? Whoops! Okay, this is a bad look. I can see this coupled with the N-word thing looking really bad... or being a Jewish guy next to a swastica. Clearly, this was a skit. The flags were from a WW2 and Civil War reenactment troop I knew, someone has to play the bad guys and their gear was really authentic. I don't own racist or facist flags. (Though, I kinda want a Mobile Infantry flag from Starship Troopers.) People share the photo around, but never notice the game collection behind me or the minture Hitler on my shoulder... it was a skit we filmed, but never fully released, and has since been taken down... it was part of our Lost Episodes clip-show. The joke was that I'm the "Racist Video Game Nerd," because everyone else on YouTube already picked all the names to sound more like AVGN. Like the Sad Video Game Nerd or whatever. So, the "RVGN" was going to review a game, then get thwarted by a group of racially diverse characters... so... just a stupid skit... that was never fully finished because we knew it was bad. Plus, the RVGN is the bad guy... he's shown in a negative light. Okay, I think that'll answer a bunch of questions you may have... so, yeah. AMA. Oh, and sorry if I blocked you on Twitter or whatever. I'll add you back if you want. [EDIT] I will get to EVERYONE'S QUESTIONS, there are just a ton and I like to work and sleep and eat and shit.
DDDD - Why GME Might 🚀🌝 Next Week, and How It Could Trigger a Financial Crisis
In today's edition of DDDD (Data-Driven DD), we’ll be going over over the details about what happened this week with GME, the drama around Robinhood and other brokers, and take a close look at some data to determine whether or not GME and other various meme / high SI stocks such as AMC, BBBY, FIZZ, LGND, and BB will continue 🚀🚀🚀in its short squeeze this week, and how this all could lead to widespread stock market crash and financial crisis. But first, something to cover my ass for the SEC investigators combing through this Subreddit Disclaimer - This is not financial advice, and a lot of the content below is my personal opinion and for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. In fact, the numbers, facts, or explanations presented below could be wrong and be made up and with some satire thrown in. Don't buy random options because some person on the internet says so. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions on what you should do with your own money, and how levered you want to be based on your personal risk tolerance.
What Exactly Happened at Robinhood This Week?
There has been plenty of speculation this week about what exactly went down and unverified (although reasonable) rumors on why Robinhood did this. I’ll go over the top two theories before taking a deep dive into the “official” reason given by Robinhood. Pressure from the White House and Sequoia according to a Robinhood employee This statement has been refuted by Sequoia. I personally wouldn’t believe the Sequoia part since I don’t really know what they would gain from it - they’re a Venture Capital firm, not a hedge fund, and would not be actively shorting stocks let alone be trading in stocks. It could be possible that the White House, or someone from the government did contact Robinhood - actually, I’d be pretty shocked if no one called them at some point this week to ask wtf was going on.During this call, they may have been afraid that GameStop’s short squeeze would have triggered a major financial crisis due to hedge funds collapsing and de-grossing, causing a mass selloff similar to what was seen in 2008 and in March 2020 - I’ll talk more about this later. Basically, without Robinhood shutting down GME from being bought, it’s actually very possible we would have seen the rest of the stock market collapse last week, and this was something the Biden administration was trying to make sure didn’t happen in the first month in office. Possible intervention from Citadel Securities This was a theory I personally believed in initially and would have been a very obvious area of scrutiny for many people. The most straightforward one being the fact that Citadel (the hedge fund) dumped a few billion into Melvin to bail it out a few days ago, who were the very well known shorts of GME. Citadel, the hedge fund, is owned by Citadel LLC, which happens to also run Citadel Securities - a market maker. If you don’t know what this is, go grow a few brain wrinkles and read my previous post about this. Citadel Securities is effectively Robinhood’s sugar daddy, directly being responsible for around 40% of their revenue in 2018 through their payment for order flow (i.e. selling your trades to Citadel, giving them the right of first refusal, and potentially giving you a worse price; this is how they get 0% commission trades btw). Theoretically, Citadel the hedge fund and Citadel the market maker is run independently and sister companies both owned by Citadel LLC, but anyone can see this being a potential conflict of interest. There’s also a possibility that Citadel Securities losing billions of dollars being short so many GME calls (they write 99% of all options contracts) and probably not being perfectly Gamma and (especially) Vega hedged, so when those two greeks skyrocketed on GME they probably lost tons of money there. According to WSB hero Chamath, he didn’t invest in Robinhood when they came to him on multiple occasions because he thought the founders lacked integrity, implying he believes they might have been the type of people to sell out their users (granted, they already literally do this) and do this type of shit. The Official Reason - Clearing House Limitations Let’s get to the official reason put out by Robinhood, which is that their clearing house, in this case the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp, suddenly increased their collateral requirements on GME trades drastically. Apparently, Robinhood is running out of cash, so they weren’t able to provide the cash collateral demanded by DTCC, and hence weren’t able to trade through them. Let’s dumb this down and talk about how brokerages work. Let’s talk about what a clearing house is and how they work. Imagine Bob wants to sell Dylan a share of GME. There’s a bunch of legal paperwork and logistics for actually transferring over the share, which can take a few days to finalize - this is called settlement. However, you don’t want people being able to back out of this exchange during this process for obvious reasons, so that’s where the clearing house comes in. Let’s call this clearing house Mary. What Mary does is facilitate (clear) this exchange, and ensures both Bob and Dylan follow through with their trade by having them both immediately give Mary cash as collateral while the exchange settles. If one party was no longer able to meet their end of the exchange (eg. Dylan goes bankrupt), Mary acts as an insurer and is responsible for buying the share from Bob instead. If it turned out that Bob was lying about actually owning a share and can't transfer it over to Dylan in time (failure to deliver), Mary is responsible for finding that share for him instead. Since GME suddenly became very volatile, and the financial soundness of some parties and their ability to deliver their side of the trade have been suddenly called into question (at least on the seller’s side), DTCC decided (...or due to pressure from other sources?) to increase the collateral needed for buying GME to be more than 10x of the proportion of the market value of whatever it was before. Most brokerages reacted to this by disabling margin trading. For some reason, Robinhood went one step further and disabled trading for all accounts, possibly due to their relatively small cash reserves compared to places like Fidelity, and the relatively large number of users who use margin in the platform.
What’s Robinhood Going To Do About GME?
Robinhood’s decision to stop purchases of GME basically got hate from literally everyone, to the point where it somehow united the country in a beautiful way. Here’s a list of things that happened as a result of Robinhood’s decision, for fun
Clearly, this decision has single-handedly made Robinhood the most hated company in the world right now. It’s especially bad given the optics - their mission is to literally “democratize finance”, with the idea of empowering individual retail investors to be on the same level of institutions. This decision, whether intentional or not, has literally gone against everything about Robinhood’s image and mission, and will end the company if not fixed soon. All of this right as Robinhood is planning to launch their IPO. The people in charge of Robinhood likely know all of this and are doing everything they can to find cash and liquidity to put up the collateral needed to resume GME trading. So far we’ve seen them raise $1B from investors and $500M through lines of credit overnight, although based on the fact that GME is still restricted, that doesn’t seem to be enough. However, in my personal opinion, I think it's likely that Robinhood is doing everything they can to find more money given the situation, and once they do, they will likely re-enable trading on GME. If that happens (which IMO will probably be some time next week), GME and all other high-SI stocks will absolutely 🚀🌝**.**
How GME Almost Caused (and Still Can Cause) a Stock Market Crash
Let’s go over something else interesting that went on as a result of the GME short squeeze - the fact that it started to affect the stock market overall. In fact, the stock market had the largest decline since October across all sectors on Wednesday when GME, AMC, and other high-SI stocks surged, with a very sharp recovery as the meme stocks fell after Robinhood suspending purchases; this was one of the biggest de-grossing of hedge funds in history. Chamath wrote a great Twitter thread about this, so amazing that I’ll just copy-paste his tweets rather than try to explain it better myself.
A children's book explanation of what's happening: 1. If you are "smart money" you are allowed to take your $1 and leverage it up to $15+ 2. You can now buy $15 of stock AND if you promise to short companies, you can short $15 of stock as well 3. In finance language, this means that you are $30 "gross" ($15 of longs + $15 of shorts) but $0 net (+$15 of longs -$15 of shorts). This makes everyone feel good because it feels like you are taking zero risk...but in reality, your $1 is exposed to $30 of risk. 4. Now you go around and tell your friends about both your longs and your shorts and when you do it at a restaurant vs on Reddit, its called an "ideas dinner". 5. You also publish your longs on a quarterly lag via an SEC rule. You don't have to tell anyone about your shorts. 6. Now the less cool people who weren't invited to the ideas dinners, start copying your longs based on your report. 7. You realize that publicizing your shorts is also a good idea so instead of only selling stocks, you also BUY options (puts) which has to be reported. 8. Now everyone can see both your longs and your shorts and if you have a hot hand, you can likely predict that the cool people from the dinner as well as the less cool people monitoring your filings will copy you. 9. But then an outsider notices that the math is way off! 10. Apparently, some of these shorts that you own represent more than 100% of the entire stock of the company. Huh? 11. So he grabs his chicken fingers and champagne and buys, starts a massive short squeeze. 12. Other's see what's happening and they jump in. 13. Now a massive short squeeze starts. You have to cover your shorts ASAP. But the banks also notice that you don't have enough credit to cover the $30 they lent you and ask for more collateral. You now also have to sell your long positions. 14. What happens next is that a cascade of short covering and long selling starts driving some stocks to the moon and others way down. Which stocks went up? Basically the ones that were the most heavily shorted by you and your buddies in the first place.
Hedge fund grossing / de-grossing In other words, as stocks like GME go up, the highly-leveraged hedge funds that are shorting these stocks are forced to sell their longs as they cover their shorts. Most retail investors are limited to 2x leverage, but since hedge funds are “hedged” by taking short and long positions, they can be up to 30x levered since theoretically they would be shielded from external events that cause all stocks to go up or down in price (i.e. Beta neutral), so they’re “safer”. To get out of these short positions, they will need to massively unwind their long positions as well so they can still have a reasonable “Net Exposure”, triggering a sell-off in those stocks. A very similar thing actually happened in March (with risk-parity) causing hedge funds to similarly massively de-gross, and literally everything from GLD to even AMZN’s stock price dropping as a result, even though theoretically COVID-19 would’ve been good for both from a fundamental basis, as we saw later on. It’s very likely that if Robinhood hadn’t stopped purchases of GME, many more hedge funds shorts would have had their shorts blow up and be forced to continue to de-gross causing a widespread stock market crash, potentially being the catalyst for finally popping the decade-long liquidity (leverage)-fueled asset bubble we’ve been experiencing. In fact, this could still happen since it doesn’t look like hedge funds have learned their lesson and are still heavily short GME with Net Shares Shorts barely moving this weekaccording to S3 Partners. Furthermore, despite seeing the largest de-grossing of hedge funds since 2009, gross exposure (aka leverage) of hedge funds still remainsclose to record-high levels. TLDR In case your attention span was too short to read everything above,
Robinhood is going to be doing everything they can to raise cash to resume GME purchases, when this happen GME 🚀🌝
Much of the stock market’s value is held by over-leveraged hedge funds, so if GME (and other common shorts) 🚀🌝 the rest of the stock market might collapse around it (EDIT - as hedge funds re-consider their long / short strategy), triggering a financial crisis
Now, just to be clear, buying GME right now is joining a game of hot potato; the longer you hold the potato the more tendies you get to eat for dinner, but at some point this will all blow up and when it does someone will be the bagholder - and right now everyone is rooting for these bagholders to be the hedge funds that are short GME. That being said, with Short Interest barely moving this week, this day of reckoning doesn’t look like it’ll be coming in the next few days and for reasons mentioned above, it’s probably more likely for GME to reach $1K next week than the probability that it’ll fall below $100. Or in other words, I like these stocks. EDIT - Appearently S3 Partners just contradicted their tweet on Friday and now indicate that shares short of GME have dipped below 30M shares. Still highly shorted compared to most other stocks, fwiw. EDIT2 - Getting alot of questions on how one short position in a small cap can do this, and my answer is that GME alone wouldn't cause a financial crisis, but rather what GME represents, which is disproving that hedge funds that a long / short strategy (i.e. taking out additional leverage to short similar companies they long) is unviable; The word from my hedge fund friends is that this type of thing would have been considered a six-sigma event, or one in a billion chance of happening; which is obviously no longer true. Hedge funds seeing Melvin go down will probably start re-consider their short books. This on mass will cause a mass short-covering and also sell-off of their longs. Hedge funds levering up using cheap money has been the basis of the stock market's rise the past year - how do you think money magically goes from Powell's money printer to the stock market?
"I think I've lived long enough to see competitive Counter-Strike as we know it, kill itself." Summary of Richard Lewis' stream (Long)
I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to. Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547 I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can. I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts. Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T
Intro
"The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
"I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
"For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
"We're spread way too thin."
"If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
Widespread match fixing
The Pandemic
"People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
"People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
"To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
"Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
"People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
"It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.
CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association
"Who does this union really fucking serve?"
RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
"and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
"We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
"They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
"I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
"Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
"Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
"That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
He also says their rankings are a joke
"Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
"Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission
"They have been put in an impossible position."
RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
"ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
"Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
"Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
"They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
"They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
Also says more coaches being banned are coming
He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
"I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
"So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
"Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
Stream Sniping
"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"
RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
"Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
"ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
"All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?
Match Fixing
"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."
RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
"Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
"Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
"I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
"Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
"There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
"It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
"It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
"I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
"That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
"All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
"I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."
North America
"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."
RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
"was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."
Talent
"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."
RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."
Valve
"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"
Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
"It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
"Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
"People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."
Closing Statements
"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."
RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
"We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
"There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
"How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
"Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
"The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
"If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
"They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
"Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
"This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
"You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
"Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
"Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
"You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
"I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
"I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
"I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."
Today is the 3rd day of the rest of my life! Retired last week thanks to FIRE
I retired on Friday! Didn't get to posting until today because I was too busy doing whatever the fuck I want.
Quick Stats
Net worth: $1MM + 100K home equity + 20K car equity Budget: 40K per year Age: 27
The career
tl;dr: Software 2016-2021, huge salary and got lucky with stock. I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents for teaching me frugality, to my brother for teaching me how to be a high achiever, and to the internet for filling in the rest of the gaps. This journey really starts in 2007 when I started high school. My local state university had a full-ride scholarship, and I decided I was going get it. In college, I picked a comp sci major because it was the most lucrative option that I was interested in. Leaving college, I had 40K in my pocket thanks to the scholarship, high paying internships, jobs for professors, living with family, and working jobs in high school. I built a strong resume, and practiced interviewing intensely, so I could basically pick whatever company I wanted to work for. I picked a pre-IPO company over a FAANG, which shouldn't have been the right call, but I got very lucky. My interviews went so well that I started out at a Software Eng. II position, which basically means I got a promotion before even starting. My mentomanager there was incredible, and I owe much of my career success to him. Over the next three years, I was promoted once as an engineer and then promoted to management. The company IPO-ed and the stock popped! That's really the peak of my career. I burnt out after that, and moved into a non-management role within the company. This didn't really help, so I jumped to another company where I worked as a engineer for about half a year before going back into management. This too didn't really help, and I never got back onto my A-game. I truly love building software, but I am just so over working for large companies. Between negotiating great salaries, getting big raises, and most importantly my companies' stocks doing incredibly well, I now have $1MM.
My FIRE number was originally 750K, but as I got closer to it, I realized that is was too low. Healthcare costs rise as you get older, and I want to do more travelling than I initially budgeted. I blew past 750K and didn't immediately quit. It gets easier (and I got lucky). The first 500K took me 4.5 years in the workforce. The second 500K took me six months.
Budget
I spent 30K in 2020 and I could have lived leaner, but 30K was a comfortable balance of frugality and splurging. For 2021, I am budgeting 40K. This differs from my 2020 budget by adding $2,820 for health insurance, $1,800 to amortize vehicle purchases, and the rest is for transportation/travel/entertainment that wasn't possible during a pandemic.
Investments
My investment breakdown is roughly:
46% VTI
40% company stocks (from where I worked)
9% VT
5% 401(k) (fairly diverse ETFs, almost all equities)
The goal is 100% VTI, but I can't dot it yet for tax reasons. Why no bonds? What about the sequence-of-returns risk? Well, if the sequence-of-returns is really good, then I am set for life. If it is really bad, then I will go back to work and top up. My career capital is my hedge against that risk. I can also reduce spending during hard times.
Social Security
To qualify for social security, you need 10 years of work. My three weeks of work this month are enough to count as a whole year. This puts me at 9 years, so I will need to make 6K some year in the future. While I am not counting on social security, it would be nice. So I will do a gig or turn a profit on a hobby sometime between now and 65.
About Life...
2020 was great financially, but otherwise terrible for me. I suffered from depression which was fueled by a cycle of stress from being behind at work causing me to get further behind at work. I already feel much better.
Do I tell people I am retired?
A few people who are very familiar with my FIRE plans know that I am retired. Everyone else, I am telling that I am taking a one year break from the corporate world. I want to leave that door open, and one year may change my perspective.
Goals and Hobbies
I need to lose some weight and get in better shape. I have also been single since the start of the pandemic and I do want a long-term partner. But I am not in a hurry. Being retired and single is the pinnacle of freedom. I have two hobbies that might actually make me money. There is a website I am building, and super excited to launch. I am also designing some board games that I want to kickstart. The idea of making money on these is exciting because it would be purely disposable income. There is also a certain thrill of making something valuable enough that others are willing to pay for it. I am not worried at all about being bored. There are places to hike/backpack, board games to play, friends to catch up with, places to visit, code to write, and so much more. For the first time in a long time, I am excited to wake up each morning!
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