Alright Cosmonaut I have no hate for at all, I used to watch his channel and I just drifted away gradually, for no reason really I just did. I checked out this video because I love Jojo's and my god I didn't like this one. I know its been a while since its release but I just need to get my thoughts out there (I think MangaKamen also did a video about it but I haven't seen it yet). There are so many weird things he says, stuff that's blatantly wrong etc. Remember there's no hate here he seems like a cool dude, he just made a bad video imo. I love this series and I am aware of its flaws but I do feel a lot of his points also is shared with a lot of people and I want to disprove many of the ones I think are unfair and untrue to the series and give Jojos its deserved credit as I feel its a much better series than many think. Like people say its overrated and I disagree, a lot of people just kinda see it as a meme series and even a guilty pleasure, it doesn't really have that prestigious aura around it like series like One Piece and Hunter X Hunter.
Parts 1+2 Section:
"I don't like the way Araki writes his side characters. While I love Joseph, I cant say I feel anything for anybody else." Now I don't really mind this statement and this is during Part 2 (he improved massively with each part eventually getting to the point where in Part 5 the main cast was full of memorable and great characters) and I agree that Araki's character writing especially side characters was pretty weak back then aside from a few notable exceptions like Jonathan, Rio Zeppeli, Dio, Wham, Stroheim and Joseph.
Part 3 Section:
"Part 3 is kinda stinky. Its bloated, its very long for no reason" There is a reason though. Its a monster of the week road trip spanning across 50 days and the timeline is pretty much that. But this I also feel is a pretty popular opinion which I heavily disagree with, so many people call Part 3 repetitive and bloated but its a monster of the week and very episodic, its not really meant to be binged especially the manga and for its time it was very creative as anyone could be a threat like a baby, a doll, a dog, etc where many other shonen where if you werent an alien or a martial artist you were useless. Also Part 3 I feel has so many fun fights that are really different from each other to like Ebony Devil's clash with Polnareff, Hanged Man, Death 13, and most of the Egyptian Gods were fantastic like both Darbys, Pet Shop, Bastet and Geb. I feel Part 3 gets too much flak and not many realise just how many good fights are in there.
"There isn't enough traits or characteristics to get me interested in Jotaro as a main character"
Like ok he isn't the most complex or anything but this is underselling him a bit. He's introduced as a seemingly generic tough guy but then you realize he locked himself up just so he wouldn't hurt anyone else because of his stand, notices when his mum is pale and asks about it, goes on a death defying journey for her and actually develops from being really anti social to opening up a lot more. He really seems to become more comfortable with the crew as he goes on as Araki stated that Jotaro doesn't really express much as he thinks other people will just get it from his body language which could explain social awkwardness. And also for most people that watched the anime they missed all the scenes where Jotaro was really expressive in the manga as Star Platinum is smiling all the damn time and shows how pumped up Jotaro is behind his facade and he usually smiles and laughs a ton with them. I honestly don't get why the anime did this. Also he states he didnt care for the side characters again which...alright but i mean I loved Polnareff who I feel is one of Araki's best characters due to his fun personality, development, exciting fights and creativity and has a really tragic end in the part which is weird that Cosmonaut never mentions as I thought this is what he wanted from the previous side characters.
He calls Polnareff a Funny Coward...yeah. The guy who goes out to the world and fights many battles where he will most likely die just to avenge his sister, is shown to be so honorable he would rather let himself burn than stab himself and fights stand users countless times with no fear like when he instantly knew Anubis was following him and was ready to fight. Also the Vanilla Ice fight. Just that whole fight. Both Iggy and Avdol died and Polnareff was wrecked. But what did he do? He got back up and walked to DIO who to his knowledge is way more powerful than the guy that slaughtered two of his friends and almost beat him and he is all alone while doing it. Yeah sorry Cosmonaut but that was a stupid statement and not true in the slightest.
Also he calls Speedwagon a crazy murderer that turns into a funny coward and this is also hilariously wrong. Speedwagon grew up in the roughest part of London and sees a man who is really honorable and actually spares him and so dedicates himself to protecting Jonathan and helping him on his quest against Dio. You know? The journey full of vampires and monsters that Speedwagon never once opted to get out of?
"Character arcs do not exist in this series"
Dio, Wham, Jotaro, Polnareff, Iggy, Koichi, Yukako, Rohan, Okuyasu, Fungami, Abbachio, Narancia, Mista, Bruno, Trish, Jolyne, Foo Fighters, Weather and Annasui and that's just the parts he read.
"Goku and Luffy stay relatively the same throughout but change little bits whenever they encounter different situations and parts of the story" You mean like when Jonathan tried to be nice and a push over to Dio but eventually couldn't take it and beat the shit out of him? You mean like when Joseph started thinking of others other than himself for once after the Wham fight? You mean like how Jotaro becomes more comfortable and open? Also Goku and Luffy are both from very very long shonen where they have way more time to grow than an average Jojo who just has one part
"the only thing you'll get is an evil character becoming nice" Once again my previous listing of all the characters that developed disprove this.
"Most of the characters die unceremoniously. A lot of Jojo deaths are there for shock value"
Ok this was one of the few points that actually annoyed especially since he played Avdol's death while he said this. Every death in Jojos that's important is well important and means something and just because a lot of them happen quickly isn't a bad thing like he states it is. Danny really saddened Jonathan and showed how far Dio would go, George's and Rio's deaths had a profound impact on Jonathan, Jonathan's death even hit Dio quite hard, Caesar goes without saying, Wham had a nice death showing his kinder side and Joseph's respect, Avdol sacrificed himself for Polnareff directly going against his own orders and in his last moments of life chose to let Polnareff live instead of himself. And you got Iggy. This dog who is so selfish and hates that hes forced along this journey, he barely works with them and constantly acts rudely but after defeating Pet Shop in one of the most brutal fights (he lost a paw) of the series is now determined to fight Dio but as the weakens and loses blood Polnareff a guy he fought with constantly chooses to let Iggy go on without him and accepts his death. Iggy then saves Polnareff using all of his energy and for the first time thinks for someone other than himself and realizes that Polnareff has a much better chance at winning and cant let himself live and selflessly sacrifices himself for Polnareff. He made the mature decision to sacrifice himself for Polnareff.
"Atleast in Parts 1 and 2 the Zeppeli's deaths motivated the characters to keep going while in Part 3 they drop like flies" as I stated Avdol and Iggy had a profound impact on Polnareff and motivated him heavily to keep going even against Dio. And Kakyoin's deaths was very important as Kakyoin in his dying breaths gave Joseph the clue to Dio's power (you know, the ability they've been wondering for and desperately wanted the whole time!?) which helped Jotaro.
"the middle section of Stardust Crusaders is goddamn boring. Most of the stands are lame and too simple"
I don't get this either. In the middle of SC you get stands like Justice a fog like stand that controls people through their wounds, Lovers an insect stand that controls your nerves and attaches your pain to your opponent, The Sun which while comedic definitely wasn't boring, Death 13 which is a dream stand that makes you forget its existence when you wake up and is also controlled by a baby, Judgement a literal corrupt genie, High Priestess a small stand that can turn into any metal object like even minerals in the ocean and then you get great ones like Geb which is one of the best fights in the series, Oingo Boingo which was hilarious, Bastet a plug stand that makes you a giant magnet, Set a shadow stand that makes you way younger in like a second and of course Darby which is a fantastically suspenseful game of poker which is some of Araki's best writing ever. He also states that compared to a lot of the villains the mcs stands weren't that creative which alright fine I guess but how the stands were used is why they are great and fun to watch especially Polnareff's fights.
"The end shows that this part didn't need to be so long."
The length and amount of fights and screen time of the characters makes the Vanilla Ice fight and ending hit way harder though.
"In Part 2 everything was there for a purpose. Nothing wasted your time like Part 3" Once again they are different types of story. Part 2 is a serialized story and Part 3 is a monster of the week road trip story. Part 3 isn't meant to be binged, you're just meant to chill and watch each fight and enjoy spending time with their characters on their fun roadtrip.
Part 4 Section:
"Part 4 is the perfect balance of mundane with the strange which is what Jojo's needs"
...Why?
"Part 4 has the most consistent art up to this point"
Yeah its very consistent. Joking aside I still kinda disagree as I feel Part 2 had the most consistent art. Part 1 started out looking really weird and janky but ended looking really clean (late art style) and Part 3 started out with weird designs for Jotaro, Kakyoin and Avdol and grew to be way more clean, stylish and nice to look at (late stardust crusaders + early diu is probably my favorite era of jojos art).
​
The Golden Wind Section: (oh boy)
"Part 4 is still good with bad translations."
Yeah no. That's blind favoritism because you already read the part's actual translations I'm guessing and Part 5 had extremely bad translations where the story and even characters were changed a lot for the worse and were made way less understandable. There is a reason why people used to be so negative on it and now with the anime making it a lot clearer and with much improved translations why the critical outlook on this part has changed.
He calls Fugo a calm cool guy...the guy who stabbed someone in the face with a fork because of him getting a maths question wrong. The guy who beat a professor half to death with a dictionary. The guy who has so much pent up anger that his stand is literally a demon that kills anything that comes near it.
Also Bruno is so much more than a calm cool guy. Thats a really superficial look at one of Araki's best characters. He's a guy who chose his father to live it even though living with his mum would've been way better but did it anyways because he felt bad for his dad and wanted to be there for him. Almost lost that dad to crime which involved drugs and has for his whole life wanted to stop the drug trade but had to keep his head down. Bruno's kindness later went on to help bring in many social rejects like Narancia, Fugo, Mista and Abbachio a previous cop who is now left suicidal and depressed and Bruno accepts everyone of them and they all grow to care about each other. They all actually feel like real friends even when we see them for the first time. They know each other's quirks, have good chemistry and Fugo stabbing Narancia isnt really seen as a big deal which could also show the abuse they have went though in their daily lives. Anyways Bruno wanted to stop the drug trade as it was killing and ruining many innocent families but couldn't find an opportunity until Giorno came and of course you all know what happened afterwards where the man gave up his own life just so Giorno can finish the job.
Narancia and Mista are funny cowards apparently? Of course this is obviously bull. Narancia had plenty of dangerous fights and he was nowhere near scared. Remember when he stabbed out his own tongue against an enemy? Remember when he was literally shrinking and still fought off an enemy straight away and even bloody fought off a big spider? Also Mista is like the bravest dude ever. Dude constantly puts himself out there like did you even read the White Album fight and Kraftwerk?
"Giorno and Bruno should be merged into one character. Giorno has no traits. He is just a guy."
This makes no sense at all. They both serve completely different things to the story of Golden Wind. Giorno is the guy who comes in and inspires the whole gang to become better people and to become braver and move on against Diavolo and sacrifice themselves for the greater good because of his charisma and coolness. Remind you of anyone? DIO! Bruno is one of those who is inspired as he clearly states after his fight with Giorno, his fight against Diavolo and his second death.
"Araki's writing becomes garbage here. He abandons a character because he is too op."
This is also blatantly false. In Bunko Volume 10, Araki explains that the plot originally had Fugo working as a spy for Diavolo that Giorno would have eventually been forced to kill. Having gone through grim feelings at the time, Araki couldn't handle the thought of betrayal of a dear friend and felt that the readers would have been disappointed had he followed through, thus the goodbye scene at the quay of San Giorgio Maggiore happened. This was just one Google search. Would it kill you to research Marcus? And I like the fact that Fugo stays behind. It makes sense for his character who is very logical and obviously wouldn't wanna go on what was essentially a suicide mission against the boss of many powerful stand users who himself owns one. Also Fugo's stand wouldn't have helped matters and would've been killed off first by Diavolo. Purple Haze is nothing to King Crimson, its not because he was op. Fugo staying behind brought more stakes to the story and made the gang's decision feel like even more of a big deal.
"Why is the main villain introduced halfway through the story? We don't have enough time to develop him. Dio is the best villain because he have the most time dedicated to fleshing him out."
N O. Diavolo's whole point was to be a mystery. His birth, childhood, personality, body, even his stand is full of contradictions and its all meant to be creepy and weird. His name means the devil and there have been many theories on what he is (King Crimson coming to life and taking over Doppio? Diavolo is his evil personality? Diavolo is the devil?) and thats the whole point of Diavolo. To make you think and question his existence. His whole point was that he wanted to hide from society, get all the money, live an isolated and lonely existence with no relationships as he would risk heartbreak and other painful emotions like that which goes against the theme of the gang who through their friendship, comradery and sacrifice win against many obstacles and protect Trish. Also his stand shows how he goes against fate and cheats unlike Giorno who uses his fate to his best advantage and inspires everyone to better themselves to achieve something great and that's why the arrow chooses Giorno at the end. Also man that's cool and all that you like DIO a lot but Yoshikage Kira from Part 4 (the part that you really liked) is widely seen as better and Jojo's best villain next to Pucci and Valentine and we didnt even see him until the second half. Sure he had a lot of screen time but he wasn't meant to be as mysterious or as much as an anomaly as Diavolo.
"How many times does Mista die in Part 5?"
Like twice I think? Not even? First time against Prosciutto which I'll give you. He clearly got shot in the head and was treated as a death scene until Mista was surprise revealed to be alive. I agree with you on that. The second time was against White Album when he got shot lots of the times at the end but this one is fine because we clearly see from the last bullet that Giorno saves him. So yeah. 155 chapters and Mista has one fakeout death and a second close call one. It's nowhere near as bad as you say man.
"Why does Polnareff turn into a turtle?"
It was explained? Chariot Requiem makes you switch bodies. Polnareff and Coco Jumbo were both at the Colosseum and were pretty close to each other and...yeah that's it really.
"Its not cute anymore. It's not a feature to be weird, it is now a bug." I mean if you gave a couple of examples your point would be better. All you mentioned was fake out deaths which Mista only had one and Bruno to but he did die he was just kept as a zombie and that was actually explored and added to as it helped him in his fight with Secco when he blew out his eardrums and Polnareff turning into a turtle which was clearly explained. That's it. Are you not going to mention any of the stands maybe? The users? The turtle that has a small room in him? Giorno making infinite Coco Jumbos? The clothes?
"Araki's art takes a nosedive near the end of the part. I can't understand what the hell is going on most of the time"
I'll agree with this actually. Araki's art in this part especially in black and white is pretty messy near the end but he could have shown off better panels to illustrate this point. Like he showed Mista and Ghiaccio shooting each other but that looks pretty clear to me?
"Why should I care about the fights if I don't care about the characters and the story!?"
I mean tbf you generalized the characters a lot to pretty unfair superficial levels. I already explained why Fugo, Bruno and Giorno didn't deserve that and even Mista, Abbachio and Narancia are pretty great. My favorite thing about Part 5 is the main cast. They all have vastly different personalities, motivations, and backstories that greatly explain them like Narancia being abandoned and lonely, Abbachio's idealism being crushed and loss of trust and Mista just guiding through life and trying to find a purpose. All great stuff and even then the fights are at their best in Part 5 for me. The story is really fast paced and each fight is important to the plot. I don't want to get too in depth so I'll be quick.
Giorno vs Bruno - establishes their characters and gets Giorno closer to Passione
Giorno vs Black Sabbath - Giorno gets into Passione and Polpo dies and we see Giorno's kinder side as he wants to avenge the janitor
Bruno and Abbachio vs Soft Machine - establishes Abbachio's character and issue of trust and Bruno's way of leading and makes them realizes that assassins are after them
Mista vs Kraftwerk - shows off Mista's character and quirks and plays with his stand in really fun ways
Narancia vs Little Feet - Narancia having to prove himself, showing how far he'll go to win and not fail the mission and his sheer bravery and of course introduces La Squadra (best villain group in Jojos btw)
Man in the Mirror - establishes Abbachio and Giorno's dynamic better, gives Fugo some shine and they all work together and grow better as a team
Grateful Dead and Beach Boy - I mean this fight is fantastic on it's own. It develops Pesci well as a villain and shows his growth as an assassin, Prosciutto is a really cool older brother and mentor figure, its on a train so its automatically exciting and of course cements Bruno as the leader of the group and his care for them
Babyface - this one isn't too important but it does give Giorno his own fight and shows him develop his ability more as he learns from Babyface who also grows during the fight
White Album - I mean this is one of the series best fights ever. And it also shows off Giorno and Mista's dynamic and actually perfectly encapsulates Giorno's role in the story as he inspires Mista through his resolve which pushes him on to sacrifice himself and win the day
King Crimson - introduces Diavolo and his ability. And it steers the story in the next direction as everyone turns traitor (except Fugo)
Talking Head and Clash - develops Narancia into a braver figure and helps his trust in Giorno
Notorious B.I.G. - gives Trish much needed development and her own stand and crashes a plane
Metallica - this is my personal favorite Jojo fight possibly ever. The two stands at play, Risotto's character, the strategies used and how the stands are used, I love it so goddamn much. It just works and it finishes off La Squadra, shows off Doppio and Diavolo's deal and kills off Abbachio and gives him some nice development before he dies as trusts Giorno to figure out what he leaves behind and meets his partner in heaven
Green Day - shows off how depraved Diavolo's forces are and gets us the 7 page muda.
Oasis - Bruno uses his new zombie powers to his advantage
The Arrow - this is of course the final battle so its obviously important. Narancia dies young and its very tragic as he deserved a better life, Diavolo gets punished for cheating fate as Bruno leaves this world and GER takes care of business.
Rolling Stones - finishes off the story in a really nicely told and themed story and explains why this story was fated to happen and Giorno's impact.
So yeah. Every fight is indeed important and uses the story and characters well.
"Part 5 is basically Part 3 again." HOW!? The only similarity is that its Jojos and its monster of the week but its executed differently. Part 3 is a massive roadtrip, very comedic and each stand user has little to do with each other and are largely seperate while in Part 5 its one long continuing narrative that's really fast paced and the main villains of the first half are a group of assassins are La Squadra and second half is Diavolo and the story constantly changes to keep fresh and its overall much darker, more character rich and more thematically complex than Part 3.
"It ends with some bull Deux ex Machina."
Except GER isn't a deux ex machina. The arrow was built up and explained to give you the power you wanted and needed. Kira got Bites the Dust to protect his identity, Chariot Requiem was to keep the arrow away from Diavolo and GER was to counter Diavolo's time skip. They all are really powerful and get the user what they most want and need.
Ending Section:
He then goes on to say he binged through the series in two months which is a shame since Jojos isnt really a series thats meant to be binged especially after Part 2. If you get burned out, just take a break man. Don't finish a whole part out of spite man. No wonder it turned you off the series. Which is a shame I feel like he's kinda being unfair because he goes on to say he didn't really care about Part 6 and read it when he's feeling bored and exhausted of the series and of course reading it still would ruin your experience and I feel he should've taken a break for a while. Like I love One Piece but eventually you get a bit worn out from a series and take a break (for me it was Fishman Island. Took a few weeks off and came back and continued to love it again) so it will remain fresh as I feel Part 6 is a pretty fun part to. It has a great Jojo, great main villain and a pretty fun story with some creative as hell stands and my favorite ending of any Jojo part.
He then shows a screenshot of a person not liking an anime because of a weird trope and a guy recommends Jojo as well its a pretty unique series and not all anime are the same but Cosmonaut gets the impression that they're recommending Jojos to newbies to anime and even then I don't get the problem. Anime is weird. Jojos is a pretty fun anime. Watch/read it. You might enjoy it.
And thats about it really. And what I find a massive shame is Cosmonaut quitting the series. I mean he enjoyed Phantom Blood, really enjoyed Battle Tendency, really liked Stardust Crusaders from Pet Shop onwards, loved DIU (which is the longest shonen manga part yet complains about SC and GW being too long) and he might really enjoy SBR and Jojolion. Those two are fantastic imo and Araki has really grown and improved as a writer and artist and SBR is genuinely a fantastic manga full of arcs, a good story, great characters and a good ending which is a lot of the stuff that Cosmonaut felt was missing. And hey Part 8 is set in Morioh and is just as crazy and as fun as Part 4 was so he might actually like Part 8 a lot more than most of the other parts. Like the quality of SBR and Jojolion is pretty high most of the time and much higher than the shonen parts.
It would be nice if Cosmonaut saw this (most likely won't though) and tried out Parts 7 and 8 especially 8 i think he'll like that one a lot and its a shame he got really burned out of it and he got turned off by the fanbase which happens to a lot of popular series. Usually fanbases are really annoying and its usually the vocal minority and you shouldn't judge series based on them and I do feel Parts 7 and 8 are a massive improvement and he did really enjoy parts 1+2+4 like I said before.
So yeah, that's it

The Dude: It's like what Lenin said…you look for the person who will benefit, and, uh, uh...
Donny: I am the walrus.
The Dude: You know what I'm trying to say...
Donny: I am the walrus.
Walter Sobchak: Shut the fuck up, Donny! V.I. Lenin! Vladimir Illanich Uleninov!
Donny:What the fuck is he talking about, Dude?
Hello again, GME Gang. What a fun day we had yesterday! Could it continue today? Only Melvin Capital (and maybe Ryan Cohen) knows!
And an extra special hello today to our newest WSB lookie-loo, Mr. Cramer (Can I call you Jim? I’m gonna call you Jim).
Now Jim, from what I’ve been able to gather, you and your Boomer stocks and your Hot Manic Takes don’t always get a lot of love around here. But that’s not all your fault, Jim. The Paste-Eating Rocket Kids are often good for a solid meme (FYI: it’s pronounced “Mee-Mee.” Feel free to use that on air without verifying). But the Rocket Kids can be a dense bunch and they’re also often one click away from Total Financial Ruin (Quick shout out to SPCE: Pleas fly again). So you have to dig a bit in here to separate the wheat from the chaff, as someone like you actually says in real life. What the fuck even is chaff, Jim? And why do all Boomers seem to think that folksy farm-based idioms are the perfect way to conclude a thought?
Anyway. Those of us who watched your teevee clips last week where you reference your interest in WSB know that you, Jim Cramer, might be one of the Olds, but that you also Think Young(TM). https://www.thestreet.com/jim-cramestock-market-advice-moderna-boeing-fed-ftc-dec-15. So we’re going to do our best to help your young-thinkin’ brain find the Needle In the Haystack here so you can get All Your Ducks In a Row on GME. Because we know that you’re a long way from being Put Out to Pasture, and though you may be an out-of-touch millionaire prone to facile yammering, we now like you here, Jim—simply because you mentioned us and that made us blush a bit since we’re needy Millennials who just want our Boomer mommies and daddies to Tell Us They’re Proud of Us. So even though the Paste-Eating Rocket Kids here are often Buying A Pig in a Poke (Christ, please do not ever say that or the kids’ Mee-Mees are gonna fuck you up), we appreciate you recognizing that, every now and then, there’s something worth paying attention to over in this weird little pocket of the Interwebs. And since you’re actually telling your loyal single-finger-typin’ viewers to check out this WSB shitshow, and “if they’re running GME, then do some work on GME,” we assume you might actually be checking this shit out too, since all true Young Thinkers know that What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander.
Now, is the GME play as solid as your recent recommendation to buy Bed Bath and Beyond? Who knows? That seems pretty stupid, and I would look it up myself this weekend but my nice little Saturday is already pretty full so I don’t know—I don’t know if I’ll have enough time. But I’ll tell you one thing: the GME play is a lot more fucking fun. Life in a pandemic is boring, but here in this weird WSB place, these kids like fun. And for all your Boomer weirdness, you seem like you still like to have a little fun in this Mad, Mad world of ours. So consider joining us here more often. A word of warning, though: if you don’t like all the dern cuss words we use around here, Jim, well that’s just, like, your opinion man, and we’ll have you know that the Supreme Court has roundly rejected Prior Restraint.
First thing’s first: we have a bit of a bone to pick with you (now there I go). The stuff you said last week about GME as the next Blockbuster was D-U-M dumb, Jim. You were a bit out of your fucking element with that. You even made our largest shareholder and conqueror-in-waiting, Mr. Ryan Cohen, send an emoji-only tweet in response, which if you know the super nice-guy Ryan Cohen like all of us do (we actually know nothing), that is pretty much the equivalent of him bringing his dog over to micturate on your and George Sherman’s rug.
Now, I myself have never been into the whole brevity thing, but I wanted to take this opportunity to get you up to speed on the GME movie you’ve wandered into. And I know you’re down with this because you told all your viewers that if WSB is talking about GME, then “make sure you know GME.” So before you say something Absolutely Mad again and Cohen sends a tweet with an even less ambiguous emoji, it’s high time that you start Making the Sure here, Jim. Just consider this to be CPT Hubbard delivering you some Orange Sunshine and turning you on to some of that Sweet, Delicious Non-Chaff Wheat you love so goddamn much.
Part 1: GME’s Bonkers-Ass Short Interest
Now, I’m going to lead with the most crowd-pleasing part of the story here (Get ready, Rocket Kids!), and it’s the one that you did not even seem remotely familiar with in your “Stay out of GameStop, Deadbeat!” rant last week. Maybe that was by design or maybe not. We’ll return to that, Jim. But the point here is: the short interest here is batshit insane. And not just your garden variety Boomer in Rolled Up Sleeves Ranting About Buying Estee Lauder While Hitting Buttons On The Beep-Bop-Boop Machine kind of insanity. Really and truly fucking nuts.
So to TL/DR this shit for you, Jim (to use the parlance of our times): GME is the most shorted stock trading today—by far. https://financhill.com/most-heavily-shorted-stocks-today How shorted? Well, the value of shares short exceeds the market cap of the company; there are currently more shares short than the total number of shares outstanding. And when factoring in the institutional and insider ownership, the total short percentage of float is nearly 300%. https://www.gurufocus.com/term/FloatPercentageOfTSO/GME/Float-Percentage-Of-Total-Shares-Outstanding/GameStop-Corp Even higher, actually, now that Cohen’s interest is over 10%. Now, I’m not a numbers whiz like you, but that level of short interest and the small available float seems pretty fucked up to me. Like: “how is that even legal?” fucked up. And just for a frame of reference, the third most shorted security right now is your beloved Bed Bath and Beyond, with a short percentage of float at a nice and tidy 69%.
Are you starting to gather why some of us in this weird little pocket of the Interwebs are a little excited about GME? You see, as u/Jeffamazon and RodAlzmann u/Uberkikz11 and others have explained in these here corners and on the twitter machine with their top-notch DD, and as I will translate to you in lingo you can dig, the short sellers got way over their skiis on this one expecting a bankruptcy in Spring of 2020 that never came. And yet, amazingly, the short interest has only increased since then—there has effectively been no covering in the aggregate and, in fact, the short percentage has only gone up. And now, on the threshold of 2021, we all sit atop a massive powder keg wondering what is going to be the thing that finally lights this shit up. And at the end of this little missive, I’m going to tell you what I think that thing might be (Spoiler: It’s Ryan Cohen! Better start getting used to seeing his name, Jim, because this dude does not fuck around and he’s not going anywhere).
https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/k4csaa/the_real_greatest_short_burn_of_the_century_part/
https://twitter.com/RodAlzmann
https://thecollective.finance/2020/10/gamestop-gme-a-squeeze-to-44-from-14-can-be-justified-fundamentally-100-of-the-shares-are-short-watch-out/
Part 2: GameStop Isn’t Going Bankrupt and People Actually Want to Buy Shit There
So, you foul mouthed little prick, a bonkers-ass short interest is neat and all, but why is Jim Cramer wrong when Jim Cramer compares GME to Blockbuster you might be asking yourself in the third person. First, the most obvious answer, Jim, which you should fucking know already: Blockbuster was nearly $1 Billion in debt and missing debt payments left and right when it was delisted way back in 2010. That was also when there was a bit of a credit crunch, if you recall, right after that whole Housing Crash Unpleasantness that you saw coming from a mile away and from which you made hundreds of millions of dollars due to your contrarian foresight—I’m sorry, I’m clearly confusing you with Christian Bale starring as Dr. Michael Burry, weirdo head of Scion Asset Management, which also holds about 1.4M shares of GME (You really gotta start looking into this stuff, Jim. This story is made for TV, man—and you Boomers were raised by TV and you turned out TV!). Also, in 2010 when Netflix is ripping and when Blockbuster was about to be delisted and bankrupt, an analyst noted the obvious fact that Blockbuster had “nothing on the horizon that makes it look like Blockbuster is going to be more profitable.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blockbusteblockbuster-wins-debt-reprieve-forced-to-delist-idUSTRE66052720100702
But Jim, if your Blockbuster comparison has any plausibility, GameStop must have a major debt problem then, right? And yet just last month GameStop repaid $125M in debt several months ahead of time. It’s also really weird that over the past year management bought back a ton of shares, taking the OS from 102M down to just under 70M (making a short squeeze even more likely, my Rocket Children). The weirdness continues with a soon-to-be-bankrupt company holding almost $500M in cash on hand. And according to George Sherman’s “Thine Omnichannel Shalt Be The Omni-est Channel of Them All” Conference Call following Q3, by March 2021 GME will have retired a total of $500M in debt and returned $200M to shareholders through stock buy backs. I’m no expert here, and I do not presently own a Beep-Bop-Boop Machine, but that’s all pretty weird shit to be doing if you’re about to go bankrupt.
No, no – I get it: who the fuck actually looks at balance sheets anyway before spouting off about what a stock is going to do? I sure as hell don’t. That’s why I follow my man u/Uberkikz11, since that dude is a GME DD Encyclopedia and was born to crunch numbers. No, when Really Smart People make the Blockbuster comparison, it’s usually just Mouth Sounds for: A B&M Store That Used to Be Popular But Now Is Not Because Technology, QED. But here even the Really Smart People might be missing something as well. They’re right in the sense that GME must use this new console cycle window and cash influx to quickly pivot to a tech-first gaming company (more on that and our boy RC shortly!), but they’re wrong on the timing and relevance of this Super Smart Insight.
So fine, they’re doing ok on debt and cash. But who even goes to that 90s-Ass-Looking Cluttered Mall Geekery anymore anyways? I confess: in my darkest moments, as the short sellers manipulate the fuck out of this stock and I curse the names Bell and Sherman, I too have wondered this. But it turns out that, just like I have no idea why anyone listens to Maroon 5 or eats at Applebee’s, apparently a lot of people in America do shit that I do not. Crazy huh? So here is some pretty neat data showing us how out of touch we might be here, Jim:
First, when a pretty large sample size of people were recently asked the question: which of the following stores or websites do you plan to buy holiday gifts from? The #5 response from United States Americans was none other than GameStop (Ticker, Jim: GME). Only Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Dollar Store (poor people buy gifts too, Jim) were ahead of little old GameStop. That’s higher than Nike, Macy’s, the Apple Store—and double the response of Bed Bath and Fucking Beyond in every category they surveyed. Check it: (h/t to my man u/snowk88)
https://stocktwits.com/snowk88/message/260983915
That’s kinda crazy huh? See Jim, when you Think Young(TM), you really can learn something new every day. And by following our man u/snowk88 (@snowk88 over at stocktwits), I learn lots of cool shit. But guess who already knew that? The guy that wrote this bad-ass letter that identifies GME’s brand and customer data as being one of the most valuable things GME has going for it. https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/RC_Ventures_Letter_to_GameStop.pdf
So now we know that Real Life People actually buy shit at GameStop here in the year of our lord 2020. But like that analyst from 2010 said about Blockbuster, there must not be anything on the horizon for GameStop to be more profitable in 2021, right?
Now, I will admit that being a bit bearish on GME in December of 2020 would make more sense if, say, GameStop were the nation’s largest purveyor of limp and half-lit pumpkin spice-scented candles and we were exiting the apogee of Shitty Candle Season. But as it turns out, GameStop is currently selling basically the most sought-after items that exist in the marketplace right now—where demand for the Xbox and Ps5 is far outpacing supply and is projected to continue well into 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-11-17-microsoft-expects-xbox-series-x-s-shortages-until-q2-2021 I don’t really need to get into the details on that here, because it’s pretty goddamn obvious, but I think 2020 GameStop at the precipice of a new console cycle might be in a bit of a better position than, say, 2010 Blockbuster relying on the latest Adam Sandler release to lift its sagging rental numbers. But I don’t know. Millions of people don’t watch my show looking for Candid Analysis from me and my folksy man-of-the-people-lookin’ rolled-up sleeves.
Part 3: Ryan Cohen is the Sword of Damocles Hanging Over the Short Sellers’ Dumbass Heads
And now we’ve gotten to the best part. It’s my favorite part of all of this, Jim, and if you give this a little time, I think it will be yours too. You see, all that corporate bla bla bla about balance sheets and console cycles and early debt repayment and overleveraged short sellers and brand recognition is neat and all—and definitely worth a second look by itself. Maybe even a little Beep-Bop-Boop on the ol’ sound machine—I don’t know your methods. But the real thing that’s about to rip all our faces off here is the business and investment decisions of a mild-mannered wunderkind named Ryan Cohen.
Now you can revisit my prior epistle if you want to know a bit more about the involvement of Mr. Ryan Cohen in Le Affair GameStop. https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/kakxrm/gme_tribe_a_story_about_how_ryan_cohen_is_about/. My fly-by-night theory of his lawyer’s possible use of the consent solicitation could have probably marinated for another day, but the thrust of my argument there was that Cohen and his attorney have been laying the groundwork to come after GameStop for a while now. And that Cohen was likely emboldened by the humiliating, lame-ass CC performance by some dude with a mid-century comic-strip sounding name that we’ll all soon know only as: The Guy With the Punchable Face Who Used to Be CEO of GameStop.
But here is where things get really interesting. This is a story in the making, Jim, for fucks sake - take notes! This Monday, on December 21, Mr. Ryan Cohen filed a revised 13D showing that last week he started buying a shit-ton of shares—starting on Tuesday December 15th—which is the day after the stock price inexplicably plunged on Monday the 14th and the very same day you were yammering on the teevee about GME being Blockbuster! Instead of listening to you, however, Cohen started buying more GME shares (super-sleuth dark pool watchers u/rgrAi and u/snowk88 noticed in real-time that there was some very large accumulation taking place), which culminated in the big reveal that Cohen purchased a total of 2,501,000 additional shares last week—500,000 of which were purchased on Friday December 18, 2020 at the price of $16.02 a share. Ryan Cohen is still the single largest shareholder of GME with 9,001,000 shares in total, taking his ownership of GME above the 10% threshold from 9.98% to 12.9%. And so he apparently thinks that the floor for his investment is $16.02 per share. Is he still buying? We’ll know soon. But yesterday seemed like a little taste of what it might look like if a large buyer steps in to prevent short sellers from manipulating all of my nervous little Rocket Children here and their delicate little paper hands.
There was another thing we learned from this 13D filing: Ryan Cohen has apparently hired a new attorney and law firm. Instead of the great Christopher Davis of Kline Kaplan, now Ryan Cohen is represented by Ryan P. Nebel, a partner with Olshan Frome Wolosky, LLP. Now, if you’re familiar with my prior ramblings, you might wonder if I was a bit confused, and maybe even a little sad, at this sudden change from my man C. Davis. And you might be a little right. But then the wonder of the internet allowed me to learn a bit about these new lawyers. And holy shit, things are about to get fun.
Now, I liked what I knew about Chris Davis and he seems like a genuine bad ass activist attorney. But the folks at Olshan Frome and Wolosky, LLP are Next Level Players and really seem tailor-made for this exact situation. First off, Olshan is ranked as the top global lawfirm for Activist Attorneys. https://www.olshanlaw.com/assets/htmldocuments/Bloomberg%20Activism%20League%20Tables%20H12020.pdf (H/t @flummoxed at stocktwits). They seem to be the go-to law firm for major proxy battles initiated by activist investors. But possibly even more important is that Olshan is the same firm that represented Hestia and Permit in their successful proxy battle earlier this year to appoint two new directors to the GME Board. I’m not going into the fine details of that, because this is already a bit of a long-form Idiot’s New Yorker article, but GameStop just went through a proxy fight last year with Activist Investors Hestia Capital and Permit Capital, which resulted in two Board seats for our shareholder buds from Hestia and Permit. So, it’s reasonable to assume that the attorneys at Olshan might know their way around GameStop at this point and where the pressure points are here.
http://www.globallegalchronicle.com/hestia-capital-and-permit-capitals-two-new-directors-to-the-gamestop-board/
https://www.olshanlaw.com/resources-mentions-HestiaCapital-PermitCapital-GameStop-BoardofDirectors-ShareholderActivism.html
And if you follow u/snowk88 over at stocktwits (@snowk88)— you’d also find a wealth of DD on how Olshan rolls when entering these activist-investor-replaces-dumbass-boards-and-CEOs type disputes. To bottom line it: they get it fucking done.
https://stocktwits.com/snowk88/message/266158534
https://stocktwits.com/snowk88/message/266155112
https://stocktwits.com/snowk88/message/266153175
But what else did we learn from the 13D? We learned that Ryan Cohen is definitely not going anywhere any time soon. Specifically, the filing notes that RC Ventures intends to continue to engage in discussions with GameStop’s board “regarding means to drive stockholder value, including through changes to the composition of the board and other corporate governance enhancements." And while RC Ventures “desires to come to an amicable resolution with [GameStop, it] will not hesitate to take any actions that it believes are necessary to protect the best interests of all stockholders.”
I really like that last part, don’t you? And although I thought his November 16th letter was pretty goddamn clear, this 13D just ratcheted up the transparency level here. In sum, Ryan Cohen has all of our backs and he’s going to replace this Board and Sherman with people that are on the level and that will help implement his vision.
And now seems like a good time to return to those “Ryan Cohen: Boy Genius” articles that were definitely NOT part of a well-coordinated pre-hostile takeover media campaign initiated earlier this year. I think there might be a few things in those articles that Mr. Cohen wanted all of us shareholders (as well as the short sellers and the Board he’s about to replace) to really and truly understand. Recall also that Cohen is not one for diversification or for playing it safe. So here’s a few choice nuggets for you to ponder:
***
Bloomberg, June 2020: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-05/chewy-founder-cashes-out-bets-on-apple-wells-fargo
· "It's too hard to find, at least for me, what I consider great ideas," he says. "When I find things I have a lot of conviction in, I go all-in."
· Cohen uses the word “conviction” a lot. He says it’s something he learned from his father, who ran a glassware importing business in Montreal where Cohen grew up. “He taught me how to block the noise from the masses,” says Cohen. “To have a point of view and have conviction and not waver.”
· He wouldn’t, however, recommend his [non-diversified] investment approach to everyone. “You need to have the temperament to block the noise,” he says. “Sometimes it feels like a roller coaster.”
· He likens his obsessive focus on building Chewy to his approach to stock picking. "I don't want to swing for a single," he says.
***
You hear that, Jim? Our man Cohen likes idioms too! But fuck those farm idioms, Jim – we’re upgrading to the Sportsball kind now. So what’s the takeaway here? I’d say that Cohen has his Eye On The Ball and that it’s time for all short sellers and the Board to Throw in The Towel because Ryan Goddamn Cohen likes to Take the Bull By The Horns and will ensure that he Hits a Homerun for shareholders that believe in his vision.
Here’s a few more things Mr. Cohen wants all of us to know:
***
Forbes, August 2020: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/08/16/entrepreneur-chewy-founder-ryan-cohen-shares-his-best-advice/?sh=41e1370e5840
· “For me, each no sounded like they just didn’t understand my vision. It was frustrating at times, but never discouraging. Those ‘no’s never made me doubt my strategy – it was the opposite. I was motivated by all the rejections and they just got me fired up.”
· “I understood that thinking big was likely going to be misunderstood along the way. I’m contrarian by nature, so being misunderstood often validates what I’m doing. It wasn’t until Chewy boxes were on doorsteps across the country that the bulk of investors started to recognize our formula.”
· “[M]y biggest risk would have been not taking risk. The risk of going head-to-head against Amazon. The risk of insourcing fulfillment. The risk of building a company in Florida rather than a popular tech hub. The risk of spending $3 million a month on TV ads, more than Home Depot HD -0.1%'s budget. The risk of hiring expensive executives even though we weren’t profitable. These decisions were some of the most controversial and required me being comfortable betting against conventional wisdom, and were often contrary to the advice of my board. Suffice it to say, I was not the most popular board member.”
· “Dad never swayed when he believed in something. I never compromised my vision, regardless how many investors turned me down I was not going to give up on building Chewy into the world’s biggest online pet retailer. I love to be challenged, and I’m flexible on details, but I’m never willing to give up.”
***
Goddamn it, Ryan. I was done having children but now you’ve forced me into getting back on that train just so I can name this future child Ryan Fucking Cohen. Thanks a lot, asshole.
But to return to my point: are those the statements of a man that seems likely to walk away at this point? Or is Cohen trying to tell us all to get ready because he is going All In on this shit?
So where does this leave us? After a huge week where Cohen buys 2.5M more shares and then the SP skyrockets to $20 yesterday on that news? Well, this is where I want to tip my cap to my man Justin Dopierala over at Seeking Alpha and allow him to conclude this section. He, along with his pal Dmitriy Kozin have been pretty clear-eyed on all this shit for a while now and they both deserve some credit. And I know I gave my main man Justin a bit of a hard time in my last novella, but the dude is sharp as hell and helped a lot of us see the forest through the trees here. And you should also definitely invite him to join your poker nights (seriously: check out the dude’s tweet in response to our own Rod Alzmann’s introduction of the #WeWantCohen hashtag right after the Q3 call debacle). https://twitter.com/DOMOCAPITAL/status/1336446055685230592. You have no comment on a potential takeover involving Ryan Cohen, Justin after your hour-long googly-eyed call together? Can’t believe you’re just preemptively leaving the WSJ and Bloomberg hanging like that. Justin, I love you dude, but if I’m holding pocket Kings I’m folding after that tweet because that twinkle in your eye lets me know you’re about to drop two Aces on my ass.
Anyway. Here is what our man Dopierala thinks might happen here soon (and he called this way back on November 17th- and sorry - no links here, per the mods, as apparently no Alpha must ever be Sought from these parts):
I think a very likely outcome at this point is a majority slate next shareholder meeting where Cohen takes over BOD and then makes himself CEO. A majority slate proxy battle would require all institutions to call in shares and would force a squeeze.
We’re intrigued, Justin. Please continue:
If Ryan Cohen successfully negotiates a purchase price with the Board then the shareholders will have to vote on it. Unlike the proxy battle where Hestia and Permit were running a minority slate of directors, an offer to purchase GameStop would force institutions like Vanguard and Blackrock to call in their shares. By doing so, the shorts would be forced to close out their positions and GameStop would finally have the greatest short squeeze of all-time. Ironically, Cohen could use this opportunity to sell all of his shares and use the proceeds to entirely fund the acquisition of GameStop going down as the first person in history to acquire a billion dollar company... for absolutely nothing. In fact, his acquisition price would be less than zero.
And now is when I get to speculate on what I think is going to happen here. But I do not necessarily think Cohen is going to put an offer to buy GME to take private. That would definitely trigger a MOASS, but I’m not sure I see it given the attorneys he’s hired and his recent buys up to $16 and the amount of cash that would take. Like Dopierala’s first comment, though, I think Cohen is going to nominate directors to replace nearly the entire Board of Directors with a vote happening at the annual meeting and once that Board is in place, they’ll appoint Cohen as CEO. And as Justin notes, if he nominates a majority slate of directors, shares will have to be called in to vote. And this vote and proxy battle will make the prior minority slate Hesita/Permit battle, and the tiny short squeeze that took place when that happened, look tame by comparison.
Now everyone: get your calendars out. Because the date to nominate directors here is in Mid-March, and my super-smart corporate lawyer buds inform me that it’s standard practice to file about 7-10 days prior. So, if this actually happening, we should be seeing something on this by early March.
But even though early March is now the mark on the wall, today’s insane price action caused me to think about all of this a bit harder and speculate a bit more. And a major h/t to my buds on the stocktwits board, especially u/rgrAi (@amarbar) for all the sharp analysis on this. But if you were Ryan Cohen and you knew this company was hugely undervalued and you had a high level of CONVICTION here and also knew you needed shareholder votes to sweep out these dumbasses and implement your vision—then how would you play this with the short interest here as crazy as it is? I’d keep buying. Why? Well, lots of reasons, you smart alecks.
First, so I have more guaranteed votes (duh?). Second, so that when the building starts burning and short hedge funds run for the exits they find that a mild-mannered Millennial with super-good ideas has sealed off all the doors and windows. That’s gruesomely delicious, isn’t it? Why else, CPT? Well, finally, and maybe most importantly, because I would want to excite and delight all my fellow shareholders by triggering a slow-burn short squeeze, raising the SP significantly, so that I can once again make the point (as he did in the Nov 16 letter) that the incompetent management that caused a HUGE drop in SP following that utterly incompetent Q3 call and the shelf registration, had nothing to do with the SP increase that again happened once Cohen announced his intent and started buying. Not the console cycle, not the cost containment measures, not the buybacks and not the early debt reduction. Nope: rightly or wrongly, shareholders will see Ryan Cohen buying shares and the corresponding SP increase and everyone—especially all new buyers who are delighted at their good fortune and swept up by Ryan Cohen Fever 2021—will start getting #WeWantCohen tattoos on their ass they’ll be so happy. And all of us, newly enriched by Ryan Cohen’s Big Canadian Balls and tactical brilliance, will crawl over glass to vote for him over The Boomer Artist Formally Known As GameStop’s CEO. I could be very wrong on this last point in particular, but if we start seeing 13Ds drop here shortly, things should get very fun very quickly.
Part 4: A Return to Our Short-Squeeze-to-Da-Moon Discussion: Who’s Side Are You Fucking On, Jim?
Now, Jim, given the fast friendship we’re creating here, and all we’ve been through over the past 5000 words, I hesitate in bringing this up. But we’ve all seen the video, Jim. You know the one I’m talking about. Yes, the one where you actually tell the truth about how short selling hedge funds manipulate the market to knock down the price of perfectly good securities that many hard-working people invest in—many normal-ass people all assuming they wont ever have to Point Where On The Dolly The Invisible Hand of the Economy Touched Them. But that’s not life now is it Jim? And fuck those poor-ass rubes for not knowing how to play the game with you sophisticated Masters of the Universe, amirite?
https://www.reddit.com/dashpay/comments/93evx4/jim_cramer_reveals_dirty_tricks_short_sellers_use/
https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/cramer-market-manipulato
So where are you in this whole GME/Cohen story, Jim? You candidly (gleefully?) acknowledge that a prime strategy that shorts deploy is to spread negative rumors that are then amplified by Big Smart Trustworthy Financial Media Titans like yourself to shake out unsophisticated retail players like my Rocket Kids here—who because of their tiny paper hands and you mean short selling brutes often subsist on paste and paste alone.
So for this particular security, are you the one helping with the manipulation and actively creating the “new truth” or are you just one of the Useful Idiots that these short sellers use to manipulate with an anodyne, TV media-ready comparison like: GameStop Is The Next Blockbuster? And how in the fuck does this fit into your Think Young(TM) project, Jim? Because if there is one thing that we over at WSB fucking hate, it’s a bunch of Manipulative Short Selling Boomer Fuckwads. Why on earth would a hip Young Thinker like you want to be included in that crew, Jim?
And I know we’re all friends here now, Jim, but I need to push back a bit on some of what you said in that video in such a cavalier whatareyagonnado manner. So if I understand you, short and distort and fomenting negative reactions from retail players based on deliberately false narratives is illegal, but still easy as fuck to do "because the SEC doesn't understand it." But you fucking do understand it, Jim! So why are you helping those short and distorters break the law here? Why are you being such an obtuse dumbshit? Just check out what happens to the borrow rate and short selling every time there is any good news for GME:
https://stocktwits.com/Slantedangles/message/264519950 (h/t @slantedangles). This manipulation isn't just happening with GME; it is happening everywhere. It’s baked into the cake. And that is pretty fucked up that we all just accept it because whatareyagonnado.
I think that one thing that those of us who truly do Think Young(TM) have a hard time understanding is at what point in your lives do you Boomers all finally come to realize that it’s maybe time to stop playing the game like you have been? What point do you finally have enough where doing the right thing matters more than getting paid? Maybe start by telling the truth more often—and maybe don’t go out of your way to help those corrupt-ass hedge fund managers who continually fuck over average people merely because they were stupid enough to believe you all. What contempt you Masters of the Universe have for all of them—for all of us. There is a bigger story here on GME and this out-of-control short interest (naked shorting, counterfeit shares) http://counterfeitingstock.com/CS2.0/CounterfeitingStock.html than even Ryan Cohen and the inevitable short squeeze we’re about to witness here. And it begins and ends with people like you and Melvin Capital and Bank of America not giving a fuck about the rules while thinking you’re smarter than the rest of us who do—but who lack power to do anything about it. And you know what? Maybe you are smarter than us. You certainly know how to play this game pretty well, as that video shows. But if I know my old school 1980s movies like I think I do, this is usually the part of the story where the rag-tag kids from across the tracks come over to show you hubristic rich fuckheads what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass.
Now I myself have never dabbled in pacifism, Jim, so this isn’t too much of a stretch for me, but seeing that video of yours and seeing the insane short interest and all the manipulation here makes me want to burn the whole corrupt system to the ground—while barricading the doors to trap in those arrogant-ass short sellers who lie and cheat and distort to profit off average people. And though I’m certain that this larger battle is not driving him, maybe that result is one that Ryan Cohen wouldn’t mind too. Though he’s a polite Canadian and would probably just let everyone know that he’s not really mad, just disappointed. But me? I’m an Angry American and I say: Block the fucking doors and windows and light that shit up.
So maybe this epistle will be useful for your Think Young(TM) project and cause you to reflect a bit more on what’s really going on out there with this whole GME thing and the likely illegal shorting that has driven the short percentage of float to these insane levels, drawing in new retail shorts too stupid to know what’s even happening. Or maybe it wont cause you to reflect in the slightest (count me as one of those cynical types that see your overtures to WSB as a transparent play for greater market share from the Young Crowd since your old-ass audience is dying and/or switching to bonds). But in a few months when all the Billy Ray Valentines and Louis Winthorpes assembled here are toasting each other in stupid shirts on a white-sand beach somewhere, we do not want you to look back on your knee-jerk boomer-ass dismissal of GME and your Useful Idiot blathering with that same tinge of regret and longing you feel when you look at a pre-Client 9 picture of you and your old roomie: warm-toes-and-hosiery-enthusiast E. Spitzer, Esq.
In conclusion: GME = Blockbuster comparisons are for Simps and Corrupt Short-and-Distorters. Don’t be like them, Jim. And to my Rocket Children: the only weapon we wield in this stupid game is Diamond Hands with a float like this. Toughen the fuck up.
And Happy Holidays everyone.
--CPT Hubbard
TL/DR: Jim Cramer likes farm-based idioms and apparently being a useful idiot to scummy short selling hedge funds. DD on the GME turnaround is solid and overleveraged short sellers should be shitting themselves. Ryan Cohen, our polite, hard-working Canadian benefactor is about to rip all our fucking faces off and trigger a MOASS. Probably even by early March, if that time is good for you (he’ll text before he comes). And fuck infinite regress: It’s rockets all the way down here. 🚀🚀🚀 Now: diamond hands, motherfuckers.
**This is a shitpost and is only to be used as investment and life advice for Mr. Jim Cramer, Esq.

EDIT - one week after i posted this, Britain's most successful hedge fund manager Michael Platt has taken a 6.5% stake
tl;dr
At-NAV new SPAC with world-leading expertise in online gambling. Worth a bet on potential to be next DKNG on the hype train
   
+++++++
Hi all - have had a lot of great tips from this sub. Hopefully this pays some of you back. I have been watching and researching this since 23 December when it first filed S1, awaiting the units to be listed - they are available today trading as ADERU
Positions - 500 units @ 10.42 to start. Will be monitoring and building position below $15, especially if attention starts to build ahead of units and warrants splitting and shares coming available to Robinhood.
(My other SPAC positions are OPEN, IPO-E-F, PSTH, FUSE, PIPP, ACTC, CCIV and DMYD, 100 to 1000 shares each mostly around NAV and numerous warrants and options around these.)
As ever, this is not investment advice and do your own research
+++++++
   
26 Capital Acquisition Corp or ADER
is a 240m SPAC with usual terms - 10$ units, 1/2 warrants. Seeking a merger in "gaming and gaming technology, branded consumer, lodging and entertainment, and Internet commerce sectors".
I think this is highly worth a play on the online gambling hype if you can get in at near NAV, based entirely on the management which is unbeatable in its knowledge of the gambling industry
   
CEO Jason Ader
has held director level positions at Las Vegas Sands Corp. ($42bn one of biggest casino groups in world), IGT (£3.72bn multinational gambling firm specialised in software and slot machines) and Playtech (£1.4bn multinational gambling software firm)
Before starting his own fund in 2013 he was regularly ranked Wall Street's top analyst on the gambling and leisure sector
His fund, Spring Owl Capital, is a small activist fund focused on gambling and leisure. They are probably most famous for ousting the CEO of Viacom in 2016 and a crusade against Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer in 2015.
Ader knows the gambling - and online gambling - industry inside out. He drove bWin to a £1.1bn takeover by gambling giant GVC (now Entain) in 2016, and has been driving similar change and demands for improvement at board level at Playtech
The fund mostly manages money for a select group of wealthy families, which could be a positive sign for the SPAC (although I don't know how much skin in the SPAC the fund has, if any)
Here is a video of Ader from November talking about how he's excited about SPACs. He talks about how he has been advising certain States about legalising sports betting and how to maximise value and liquidity by linking up with European companies in the space (Playtech e.g.??).
Ader is extremely bullish on US legalising online casino and more sports betting options, accelerated by need for revenue because of pandemic
   
Rafi Ashkenazi
One of the most highly respected names in the online gambling world, including COO and CEO positions at major online gambling firms such as Playtech and Stars Group (a world leader in online poker and casino). At Stars he led the $4.7bn takeover of Sky Betting to create the world's largest publicly listed online betting firm in 2018. Most recently he led the £10bn merger between Flutter (biggest gambling company in world by revenue, market cap £26bn), and Stars Group (Ader also involved). Also has connections into the booming Israel tech space which is interesting
   
Joseph Kaminkow
Special Advisor to the Chief Product Officer at Aristocrat, a leading gambling software provider and games publisher, previously Vice President of Game Design at Zynga Inc. This guy is a former video game / pinball designer who is credited with revolutionising the slots industry after moving into gambling software from video games in 1999. Regarded as a "legend" and "hall of famer" in this niche. At Zynga he designed so-called 'social casino games' which don't involve real-money gambling but are otherwise basically gambling apps (revenue from microtransactions etc). 130 patents on gambling/gaming design inventions
   
Greg Lyss
This is a very interesting but extremely low profile person. He was Bill Ackman a.k.a SPACman's right hand man at Gotham Capital. Ackman respected him so much that when Ackman set up a personal hedge fund to invest the Ackman family's money, he put Lyss in charge of it. To repeat - Bill Ackman thinks this guy is such a good investor and trustworthy that he put him in charge of investing his family's money. Don't know anything more about him, but I like this association with Ackman, which suggests to me some integrity around management of this SPAC, especially as the gambling world can be very murky.
The other member of the team is the CFO of SpringOwl with 20+ years' hedge fund experience and not notable (although clearly competent)
   
Thesis / potential targets
Based on the above experience and many public comments by Ader over the past year, I would be very surprised if ADER is not looking to merge with an online gambling technology provider / existing online betting website / social casino app / possibly a supporting technology provider
They are activist inventors, and specifically say in the IPO prospectus that they could look for businesses that can benefit from turnaround or are not being run well. I speculate that their deep knowledge of the European / global online gambling industry means they have a target in mind that they think would benefit from their expertise and US liberalisation of gambling legislation.
   
1) Ader believes the listing of UK-listed gambling companies in US is immediately big in terms of market cap because of the premium on online gambling stocks in US. He has pitched DraftKings to takeover Playtech and called on Playtech to spin off non-core business. This makes me wonder if he would spin off some element of Playtech to list in US to cash in on gambling hype.
This might be Finalto.com / TradeTech which is an online financial platform owned by Playtech. Playtech has been trying to sell this for 200 - 240m since August so it fits. This company provides liquidity and trading to brokerages and runs markets.com a trading site. I wouldn't be that excited although apparently the business has been booming during COVID and there could be a decent pop just on fintech hype.
   
2) This could be a 'picks and shovel' type data/B2B betting software play a la DMYD, or something like e.g. Israel based CRM software Optimove which works with some of biggest online gambling cos and has links to Ashkenazi. This would be interesting but probably not a huge pop
   
3) Possibly - given Ader's links to Sands - an online gambling tie-up with one of the big Vegas casinos who are desperate to get into the online betting space (see MGM's attempt to buy Entain for $8bn last week). Interestingly, Sands' owner Sheldon Adelson, previously a major opponent of online betting, has just died. Ader predicted a few months ago that Sands would be moving in this direction.

“There’s no stopping online gaming,” Ader said [before Adelson's death]. “(Las Vegas Sands’) initiatives to stop online gaming, at this stage, are largely historic. There hasn’t been a lot of spending recently to do that, especially post-pandemic.”
“I think the company will see the value created by DraftKings and FanDuel and Penn (National) Gaming and others. They’re not foolish,” Ader added. source

   
4) Ader is very confident that Macau will legalise online gambling in next year or two. Sands is big in Macau, the biggest gambling market in the world. A SaaS-type product positioned to capitalise on Asian gambling would be MASSIVE - at present however, China's attitude to gambling and local regulations mean this is unlikely
   
5) I also wonder if they might try to take legitimate one of the offshore bookmakers with big customer databases and brand recognition but which have been grey-area/illegal under US gaming legislation. For example, Five Dimes recently announced a settlement with the FBI to attempt to transition into newly legalised US markets. This might have the most hype potential
   
Potential upside
This is entirely a play on management experience and the meme factor / hype around online gambling in the US. I think if they pick a good target - which given their experience and connections seems likely - and get the right publicity and attention from retail investors looking for the next DKNG this could easily 3x and maybe 5-6x if on DKNG-type hype levels.
There is currently little spotlight on this and it is a good time to get in at NAV
   
Potential Downside

• Ader has been vocal that he thinks US online betting is overvalued and in a bubble - why is he starting his own SPAC in the space then? Does he just want to cash in while the hype is at all-time high or does he have a legitimate business goal?
  
• If he just wants to dump a part of Playtech which he does not like onto retail investors, this is a bad deal.
  
• Other targets could be e.g. hotel industry or other leisure sector which would be zero sexiness to retail. Given Ashkenazi and Kaminkow's background this seems unlikely though
  
• Usual SPAC caveats apply about potential difficulty finding a target, locking up your money for unspecified period of time, and the fact I may have completely misread the potential and my above thesis might be totally wrong
  

Warning: long rambling stories ahead. I am bored and waiting to get through my first day back at work since before Christmas. You've been warned!
I've been going to the casino pretty regularly for the past few years. Before that, I played occasionally. I exclusively play slots. I view it as a night out - first with friends back when I brought $50 and played penny denom minimum bet spins and prayed to win $20, and then eventually shifting my mindset to playing higher bets and denominations. I hit my first jackpot handpay a couple of years ago. I hit $3700 on a $27 bet on a Geisha machine. I've hit a few other jackpots here and there, culminating with my biggest jackpot ever this past summer. I hit $12K on a $50 bet on a Pompeii slot machine.
Well, the long story short is that I have fallen out of love with gambling. I have somehow managed to have a positive ROI on gambling. I track my withdrawls and win on a spreadsheet. To put it bluntly: I have been extremely lucky over the past few years. I know that slots are not a viable way to win money in the long run, so I made a decision a few months ago to "retire" from gambling at the end of 2020.
I went to my local casino last Wednesday. It just so happens when I hit a jackpot that I usually do it within the first half hour or so I'm at the casino. Well, it happened again. After going up $600 or so on another slot machine (I don't remember the name), I went to one of my most hated/favorite old school slots - Zeus dollar denomination. One of my worst moments in all of gambling was a few years ago. I got a bonus round on the Zeus dollar denomination on max bet of $45 a spin. I was BEYOND excited. I've seen Youtube videos where people have won tens of thousands of dollars in that exact scenario. Much to my shock, I won nothing. In that game, you don't win anything for triggering the bonus. So I actually *lost* $45 on getting the bonus. I cashed out and left immediately.
Anyway, last week I hit a modest $4500. It was exciting...but not as exciting as I thought it should be. I was cool, calm, and...detached. The wins didn't mean much to me, and the losses mean absolutely nothing. My wife and I are in the EXTREMELY fortunate position that losing $500 or so every week or two at the casino is affordable. I'm not ignorant to how lucky we are to be in this position.
After getting paid out, I played a bit longer. But that hand pay drove home the realization that I had a few months ago: it was time to stop gambling. If I can't get pumped about a big win like that, and if I'm not even phased a little bit by losing, it's just not worth gambling any more. I used to go for entertainment, but even now gambling doesn't provide that much.
As I sit now, I am up roughly $18K over three years of slots. Not bad, but not life changing. Enough that I bought my wife a Burberry and Louis Vuitton handbag on separate occasions. The rest if stashed in savings or in an investment account somewhere. But I am 100% committed to being done. At least for 2021, and probably longer.
If anyone is interested in hearing my thoughts on how to win...I don't have any insight to share. It's luck. I got lucky. I know I got lucky. The usual tropes about setting win and loss thresholds is good advice. Sometimes I chased payouts and hit them. Sometimes I chased and lost. But I managed to hit more than miss, and for that I'm lucky. And thankful.
Anyway. I don't have a major takeaway or anything. I don't have many people I can talk about this with in my personal life, so I figured I'd share a bit of my story here.
If you do gamble, please do so responsibly. Good luck, and try to have fun. If you're not having fun, it's probably not the right way to spend your time or money.
EDIT:
I just wanted to say to anyone who reads this in the future that I appreciate the nice responses and PMs from people. It's nice to share a positive experience with others! I sincerely hope that if any of you choose to play in the future, you choose to do so responsibly. Gambling can be a hugely problematic lifestyle for some people. Stay safe. (end of preaching here).
I also want to take a second to address some comments from some people about slots being skill based. This is 100% false. The concept of slots being skill based in any way is demonstrably untrue with three seconds of reasonable thinking. If we accept that there is a hypothetical slot game which is based on skill and not pure luck, what are the consequences of that? First of all, this information would leak out. There would be no way to contain it. If one person can solve the system, another an as well. Subsequently, someone would write a book on the subject. Think about all the poker and blackjack strategy books out there. These are games where skillful play can increase your odds of winning. Last I checked, there aren't any books or Supersytem-level analyses from prominent individuals willing to stake their names and reputations on publishing a "slot technique" book. There's a reason for this. And also - think about this: casinos still carry blackjack tables for a reason: they still have an edge to win. If there is a surefire way for individuals to win when playing slots, casinos would 100% for sure take these games out of circulation. Casinos are not in the business of giving away money. Any claim there is a foolproof way to win money playing slots does not make sense when critical thinking is applied to the circumstances.
Slots are not like card games. Finding and playing only games where there is a "must win by" progressive is not the same thing as skillful play. That's more akin to something like card counting in blackjack. Many people who design slot machines and engineer the software behind the scenes have posted on Reddit and elsewhere that wins are based on random number generators running behind every spin. There is literally no skill involved - you win or lose each spin based on pure random luck.
I am saying this because there are a number of people who come to this subreddit to look for ways to cheat the system and get easy money. I see posts like this fairly often, and I'm only browsing this subreddit occasionally. Gambling is not, and should not, be a way for anyone looking to make a quick buck. If you're looking to get an edge playing slots because you need to pay bills or make a quick buck, you are already in serious trouble. Do not buy into the delusion that you can get an edge or guarantee a win. People saying this are snake oil salesmen who do not care for you or your well-being.
Anyway. I'm going to stop monitoring this post. I'm still open to receiving PMs or messages, but I've had my fun with this so far. I could do with fewer trolls, but this is the internet. I knew what to expect. Bon chance, everyone!

Alright Cosmonaut I have no hate for at all, I used to watch his channel and I just drifted away gradually, for no reason really I just did. I checked out this video because I love Jojo's and my god I didn't like this one. I know its been a while since its release but I just need to get my thoughts out there (I think MangaKamen also did a video about it but I haven't seen it yet). There are so many weird things he says, stuff that's blatantly wrong etc. Remember there's no hate here he seems like a cool dude, he just made a bad video imo. I love this series and I am aware of its flaws but I do feel a lot of his points also is shared with a lot of people and I want to disprove many of the ones I think are unfair and untrue to the series and give Jojos its deserved credit as I feel its a much better series than many think. Like people say its overrated and I disagree, a lot of people just kinda see it as a meme series and even a guilty pleasure, it doesn't really have that prestigious aura around it like series like One Piece and Hunter X Hunter.
Parts 1+2 Section:
"I don't like the way Araki writes his side characters. While I love Joseph, I cant say I feel anything for anybody else." Now I don't really mind this statement and this is during Part 2 (he improved massively with each part eventually getting to the point where in Part 5 the main cast was full of memorable and great characters) and I agree that Araki's character writing especially side characters was pretty weak back then aside from a few notable exceptions like Jonathan, Rio Zeppeli, Dio, Wham, Stroheim and Joseph.
Part 3 Section:
"Part 3 is kinda stinky. Its bloated, its very long for no reason" There is a reason though. Its a monster of the week road trip spanning across 50 days and the timeline is pretty much that. But this I also feel is a pretty popular opinion which I heavily disagree with, so many people call Part 3 repetitive and bloated but its a monster of the week and very episodic, its not really meant to be binged especially the manga and for its time it was very creative as anyone could be a threat like a baby, a doll, a dog, etc where many other shonen where if you werent an alien or a martial artist you were useless. Also Part 3 I feel has so many fun fights that are really different from each other to like Ebony Devil's clash with Polnareff, Hanged Man, Death 13, and most of the Egyptian Gods were fantastic like both Darbys, Pet Shop, Bastet and Geb. I feel Part 3 gets too much flak and not many realise just how many good fights are in there.
"There isn't enough traits or characteristics to get me interested in Jotaro as a main character"
Like ok he isn't the most complex or anything but this is underselling him a bit. He's introduced as a seemingly generic tough guy but then you realize he locked himself up just so he wouldn't hurt anyone else because of his stand, notices when his mum is pale and asks about it, goes on a death defying journey for her and actually develops from being really anti social to opening up a lot more. He really seems to become more comfortable with the crew as he goes on as Araki stated that Jotaro doesn't really express much as he thinks other people will just get it from his body language which could explain social awkwardness. And also for most people that watched the anime they missed all the scenes where Jotaro was really expressive in the manga as Star Platinum is smiling all the damn time and shows how pumped up Jotaro is behind his facade and he usually smiles and laughs a ton with them. I honestly don't get why the anime did this. Also he states he didnt care for the side characters again which...alright but i mean I loved Polnareff who I feel is one of Araki's best characters due to his fun personality, development, exciting fights and creativity and has a really tragic end in the part which is weird that Cosmonaut never mentions as I thought this is what he wanted from the previous side characters.
He calls Polnareff a Funny Coward...yeah. The guy who goes out to the world and fights many battles where he will most likely die just to avenge his sister, is shown to be so honorable he would rather let himself burn than stab himself and fights stand users countless times with no fear like when he instantly knew Anubis was following him and was ready to fight. Also the Vanilla Ice fight. Just that whole fight. Both Iggy and Avdol died and Polnareff was wrecked. But what did he do? He got back up and walked to DIO who to his knowledge is way more powerful than the guy that slaughtered two of his friends and almost beat him and he is all alone while doing it. Yeah sorry Cosmonaut but that was a stupid statement and not true in the slightest.
Also he calls Speedwagon a crazy murderer that turns into a funny coward and this is also hilariously wrong. Speedwagon grew up in the roughest part of London and sees a man who is really honorable and actually spares him and so dedicates himself to protecting Jonathan and helping him on his quest against Dio. You know? The journey full of vampires and monsters that Speedwagon never once opted to get out of?
"Character arcs do not exist in this series"
Dio, Wham, Jotaro, Polnareff, Iggy, Koichi, Yukako, Rohan, Okuyasu, Fungami, Abbachio, Narancia, Mista, Bruno, Trish, Jolyne, Foo Fighters, Weather and Annasui and that's just the parts he read.
"Goku and Luffy stay relatively the same throughout but change little bits whenever they encounter different situations and parts of the story" You mean like when Jonathan tried to be nice and a push over to Dio but eventually couldn't take it and beat the shit out of him? You mean like when Joseph started thinking of others other than himself for once after the Wham fight? You mean like how Jotaro becomes more comfortable and open? Also Goku and Luffy are both from very very long shonen where they have way more time to grow than an average Jojo who just has one part
"the only thing you'll get is an evil character becoming nice" Once again my previous listing of all the characters that developed disprove this.
"Most of the characters die unceremoniously. A lot of Jojo deaths are there for shock value"
Ok this was one of the few points that actually annoyed especially since he played Avdol's death while he said this. Every death in Jojos that's important is well important and means something and just because a lot of them happen quickly isn't a bad thing like he states it is. Danny really saddened Jonathan and showed how far Dio would go, George's and Rio's deaths had a profound impact on Jonathan, Jonathan's death even hit Dio quite hard, Caesar goes without saying, Wham had a nice death showing his kinder side and Joseph's respect, Avdol sacrificed himself for Polnareff directly going against his own orders and in his last moments of life chose to let Polnareff live instead of himself. And you got Iggy. This dog who is so selfish and hates that hes forced along this journey, he barely works with them and constantly acts rudely but after defeating Pet Shop in one of the most brutal fights (he lost a paw) of the series is now determined to fight Dio but as the weakens and loses blood Polnareff a guy he fought with constantly chooses to let Iggy go on without him and accepts his death. Iggy then saves Polnareff using all of his energy and for the first time thinks for someone other than himself and realizes that Polnareff has a much better chance at winning and cant let himself live and selflessly sacrifices himself for Polnareff. He made the mature decision to sacrifice himself for Polnareff.
"Atleast in Parts 1 and 2 the Zeppeli's deaths motivated the characters to keep going while in Part 3 they drop like flies" as I stated Avdol and Iggy had a profound impact on Polnareff and motivated him heavily to keep going even against Dio. And Kakyoin's deaths was very important as Kakyoin in his dying breaths gave Joseph the clue to Dio's power (you know, the ability they've been wondering for and desperately wanted the whole time!?) which helped Jotaro.
"the middle section of Stardust Crusaders is goddamn boring. Most of the stands are lame and too simple"
I don't get this either. In the middle of SC you get stands like Justice a fog like stand that controls people through their wounds, Lovers an insect stand that controls your nerves and attaches your pain to your opponent, The Sun which while comedic definitely wasn't boring, Death 13 which is a dream stand that makes you forget its existence when you wake up and is also controlled by a baby, Judgement a literal corrupt genie, High Priestess a small stand that can turn into any metal object like even minerals in the ocean and then you get great ones like Geb which is one of the best fights in the series, Oingo Boingo which was hilarious, Bastet a plug stand that makes you a giant magnet, Set a shadow stand that makes you way younger in like a second and of course Darby which is a fantastically suspenseful game of poker which is some of Araki's best writing ever. He also states that compared to a lot of the villains the mcs stands weren't that creative which alright fine I guess but how the stands were used is why they are great and fun to watch especially Polnareff's fights.
"The end shows that this part didn't need to be so long."
The length and amount of fights and screen time of the characters makes the Vanilla Ice fight and ending hit way harder though.
"In Part 2 everything was there for a purpose. Nothing wasted your time like Part 3" Once again they are different types of story. Part 2 is a serialized story and Part 3 is a monster of the week road trip story. Part 3 isn't meant to be binged, you're just meant to chill and watch each fight and enjoy spending time with their characters on their fun roadtrip.
Part 4 Section:
"Part 4 is the perfect balance of mundane with the strange which is what Jojo's needs"
...Why?
"Part 4 has the most consistent art up to this point"
Yeah its very consistent. Joking aside I still kinda disagree as I feel Part 2 had the most consistent art. Part 1 started out looking really weird and janky but ended looking really clean (late art style) and Part 3 started out with weird designs for Jotaro, Kakyoin and Avdol and grew to be way more clean, stylish and nice to look at (late stardust crusaders + early diu is probably my favorite era of jojos art).
The Golden Wind Section: (oh boy)
"Part 4 is still good with bad translations."
Yeah no. That's blind favoritism because you already read the part's actual translations I'm guessing and Part 5 had extremely bad translations where the story and even characters were changed a lot for the worse and were made way less understandable. There is a reason why people used to be so negative on it and now with the anime making it a lot clearer and with much improved translations why the critical outlook on this part has changed.
He calls Fugo a calm cool guy...the guy who stabbed someone in the face with a fork because of him getting a maths question wrong. The guy who beat a professor half to death with a dictionary. The guy who has so much pent up anger that his stand is literally a demon that kills anything that comes near it.
Also Bruno is so much more than a calm cool guy. Thats a really superficial look at one of Araki's best characters. He's a guy who chose his father to live it even though living with his mum would've been way better but did it anyways because he felt bad for his dad and wanted to be there for him. Almost lost that dad to crime which involved drugs and has for his whole life wanted to stop the drug trade but had to keep his head down. Bruno's kindness later went on to help bring in many social rejects like Narancia, Fugo, Mista and Abbachio a previous cop who is now left suicidal and depressed and Bruno accepts everyone of them and they all grow to care about each other. They all actually feel like real friends even when we see them for the first time. They know each other's quirks, have good chemistry and Fugo stabbing Narancia isnt really seen as a big deal which could also show the abuse they have went though in their daily lives. Anyways Bruno wanted to stop the drug trade as it was killing and ruining many innocent families but couldn't find an opportunity until Giorno came and of course you all know what happened afterwards where the man gave up his own life just so Giorno can finish the job.
Narancia and Mista are funny cowards apparently? Of course this is obviously bull. Narancia had plenty of dangerous fights and he was nowhere near scared. Remember when he stabbed out his own tongue against an enemy? Remember when he was literally shrinking and still fought off an enemy straight away and even bloody fought off a big spider? Also Mista is like the bravest dude ever. Dude constantly puts himself out there like did you even read the White Album fight and Kraftwerk?
"Giorno and Bruno should be merged into one character. Giorno has no traits. He is just a guy."
This makes no sense at all. They both serve completely different things to the story of Golden Wind. Giorno is the guy who comes in and inspires the whole gang to become better people and to become braver and move on against Diavolo and sacrifice themselves for the greater good because of his charisma and coolness. Remind you of anyone? DIO! Bruno is one of those who is inspired as he clearly states after his fight with Giorno, his fight against Diavolo and his second death.
"Araki's writing becomes garbage here. He abandons a character because he is too op."
This is also blatantly false. In Bunko Volume 10, Araki explains that the plot originally had Fugo working as a spy for Diavolo that Giorno would have eventually been forced to kill. Having gone through grim feelings at the time, Araki couldn't handle the thought of betrayal of a dear friend and felt that the readers would have been disappointed had he followed through, thus the goodbye scene at the quay of San Giorgio Maggiore happened. This was just one Google search. Would it kill you to research Marcus? And I like the fact that Fugo stays behind. It makes sense for his character who is very logical and obviously wouldn't wanna go on what was essentially a suicide mission against the boss of many powerful stand users who himself owns one. Also Fugo's stand wouldn't have helped matters and would've been killed off first by Diavolo. Purple Haze is nothing to King Crimson, its not because he was op. Fugo staying behind brought more stakes to the story and made the gang's decision feel like even more of a big deal.
"Why is the main villain introduced halfway through the story? We don't have enough time to develop him. Dio is the best villain because he have the most time dedicated to fleshing him out."
N O. Diavolo's whole point was to be a mystery. His birth, childhood, personality, body, even his stand is full of contradictions and its all meant to be creepy and weird. His name means the devil and there have been many theories on what he is (King Crimson coming to life and taking over Doppio? Diavolo is his evil personality? Diavolo is the devil?) and thats the whole point of Diavolo. To make you think and question his existence. His whole point was that he wanted to hide from society, get all the money, live an isolated and lonely existence with no relationships as he would risk heartbreak and other painful emotions like that which goes against the theme of the gang who through their friendship, comradery and sacrifice win against many obstacles and protect Trish. Also his stand shows how he goes against fate and cheats unlike Giorno who uses his fate to his best advantage and inspires everyone to better themselves to achieve something great and that's why the arrow chooses Giorno at the end. Also man that's cool and all that you like DIO a lot but Yoshikage Kira from Part 4 (the part that you really liked) is widely seen as better and Jojo's best villain next to Pucci and Valentine and we didnt even see him until the second half. Sure he had a lot of screen time but he wasn't meant to be as mysterious or as much as an anomaly as Diavolo.
"How many times does Mista die in Part 5?"
Like twice I think? Not even? First time against Prosciutto which I'll give you. He clearly got shot in the head and was treated as a death scene until Mista was surprise revealed to be alive. I agree with you on that. The second time was against White Album when he got shot lots of the times at the end but this one is fine because we clearly see from the last bullet that Giorno saves him. So yeah. 155 chapters and Mista has one fakeout death and a second close call one. It's nowhere near as bad as you say man.
"Why does Polnareff turn into a turtle?"
It was explained? Chariot Requiem makes you switch bodies. Polnareff and Coco Jumbo were both at the Colosseum and were pretty close to each other and...yeah that's it really.
"Its not cute anymore. It's not a feature to be weird, it is now a bug." I mean if you gave a couple of examples your point would be better. All you mentioned was fake out deaths which Mista only had one and Bruno to but he did die he was just kept as a zombie and that was actually explored and added to as it helped him in his fight with Secco when he blew out his eardrums and Polnareff turning into a turtle which was clearly explained. That's it. Are you not going to mention any of the stands maybe? The users? The turtle that has a small room in him? Giorno making infinite Coco Jumbos? The clothes?
"Araki's art takes a nosedive near the end of the part. I can't understand what the hell is going on most of the time"
I'll agree with this actually. Araki's art in this part especially in black and white is pretty messy near the end but he could have shown off better panels to illustrate this point. Like he showed Mista and Ghiaccio shooting each other but that looks pretty clear to me?
"Why should I care about the fights if I don't care about the characters and the story!?"
I mean tbf you generalized the characters a lot to pretty unfair superficial levels. I already explained why Fugo, Bruno and Giorno didn't deserve that and even Mista, Abbachio and Narancia are pretty great. My favorite thing about Part 5 is the main cast. They all have vastly different personalities, motivations, and backstories that greatly explain them like Narancia being abandoned and lonely, Abbachio's idealism being crushed and loss of trust and Mista just guiding through life and trying to find a purpose. All great stuff and even then the fights are at their best in Part 5 for me. The story is really fast paced and each fight is important to the plot. I don't want to get too in depth so I'll be quick.
Giorno vs Bruno - establishes their characters and gets Giorno closer to Passione
Giorno vs Black Sabbath - Giorno gets into Passione and Polpo dies and we see Giorno's kinder side as he wants to avenge the janitor
Bruno and Abbachio vs Soft Machine - establishes Abbachio's character and issue of trust and Bruno's way of leading and makes them realizes that assassins are after them
Mista vs Kraftwerk - shows off Mista's character and quirks and plays with his stand in really fun ways
Narancia vs Little Feet - Narancia having to prove himself, showing how far he'll go to win and not fail the mission and his sheer bravery and of course introduces La Squadra (best villain group in Jojos btw)
Man in the Mirror - establishes Abbachio and Giorno's dynamic better, gives Fugo some shine and they all work together and grow better as a team
Grateful Dead and Beach Boy - I mean this fight is fantastic on it's own. It develops Pesci well as a villain and shows his growth as an assassin, Prosciutto is a really cool older brother and mentor figure, its on a train so its automatically exciting and of course cements Bruno as the leader of the group and his care for them
Babyface - this one isn't too important but it does give Giorno his own fight and shows him develop his ability more as he learns from Babyface who also grows during the fight
White Album - I mean this is one of the series best fights ever. And it also shows off Giorno and Mista's dynamic and actually perfectly encapsulates Giorno's role in the story as he inspires Mista through his resolve which pushes him on to sacrifice himself and win the day
King Crimson - introduces Diavolo and his ability. And it steers the story in the next direction as everyone turns traitor (except Fugo)
Talking Head and Clash - develops Narancia into a braver figure and helps his trust in Giorno
Notorious B.I.G. - gives Trish much needed development and her own stand and crashes a plane
Metallica - this is my personal favorite Jojo fight possibly ever. The two stands at play, Risotto's character, the strategies used and how the stands are used, I love it so goddamn much. It just works and it finishes off La Squadra, shows off Doppio and Diavolo's deal and kills off Abbachio and gives him some nice development before he dies as trusts Giorno to figure out what he leaves behind and meets his partner in heaven
Green Day - shows off how depraved Diavolo's forces are and gets us the 7 page muda.
Oasis - Bruno uses his new zombie powers to his advantage
The Arrow - this is of course the final battle so its obviously important. Narancia dies young and its very tragic as he deserved a better life, Diavolo gets punished for cheating fate as Bruno leaves this world and GER takes care of business.
Rolling Stones - finishes off the story in a really nicely told and themed story and explains why this story was fated to happen and Giorno's impact.
So yeah. Every fight is indeed important and uses the story and characters well.
"Part 5 is basically Part 3 again." HOW!? The only similarity is that its Jojos and its monster of the week but its executed differently. Part 3 is a massive roadtrip, very comedic and each stand user has little to do with each other and are largely seperate while in Part 5 its one long continuing narrative that's really fast paced and the main villains of the first half are a group of assassins are La Squadra and second half is Diavolo and the story constantly changes to keep fresh and its overall much darker, more character rich and more thematically complex than Part 3.
"It ends with some bull Deux ex Machina."
Except GER isn't a deux ex machina. The arrow was built up and explained to give you the power you wanted and needed. Kira got Bites the Dust to protect his identity, Chariot Requiem was to keep the arrow away from Diavolo and GER was to counter Diavolo's time skip. They all are really powerful and get the user what they most want and need.
Ending Section:
He then goes on to say he binged through the series in two months which is a shame since Jojos isnt really a series thats meant to be binged especially after Part 2. If you get burned out, just take a break man. Don't finish a whole part out of spite man. No wonder it turned you off the series. Which is a shame I feel like he's kinda being unfair because he goes on to say he didn't really care about Part 6 and read it when he's feeling bored and exhausted of the series and of course reading it still would ruin your experience and I feel he should've taken a break for a while. Like I love One Piece but eventually you get a bit worn out from a series and take a break (for me it was Fishman Island. Took a few weeks off and came back and continued to love it again) so it will remain fresh as I feel Part 6 is a pretty fun part to. It has a great Jojo, great main villain and a pretty fun story with some creative as hell stands and my favorite ending of any Jojo part.
He then shows a screenshot of a person not liking an anime because of a weird trope and a guy recommends Jojo as well its a pretty unique series and not all anime are the same but Cosmonaut gets the impression that they're recommending Jojos to newbies to anime and even then I don't get the problem. Anime is weird. Jojos is a pretty fun anime. Watch/read it. You might enjoy it.
And thats about it really. And what I find a massive shame is Cosmonaut quitting the series. I mean he enjoyed Phantom Blood, really enjoyed Battle Tendency, really liked Stardust Crusaders from Pet Shop onwards, loved DIU (which is the longest shonen manga part yet complains about SC and GW being too long) and he might really enjoy SBR and Jojolion. Those two are fantastic imo and Araki has really grown and improved as a writer and artist and SBR is genuinely a fantastic manga full of arcs, a good story, great characters and a good ending which is a lot of the stuff that Cosmonaut felt was missing. And hey Part 8 is set in Morioh and is just as crazy and as fun as Part 4 was so he might actually like Part 8 a lot more than most of the other parts. Like the quality of SBR and Jojolion is pretty high most of the time and much higher than the shonen parts.
It would be nice if Cosmonaut saw this (most likely won't though) and tried out Parts 7 and 8 especially 8 i think he'll like that one a lot and its a shame he got really burned out of it and he got turned off by the fanbase which happens to a lot of popular series. Usually fanbases are really annoying and its usually the vocal minority and you shouldn't judge series based on them and I do feel Parts 7 and 8 are a massive improvement and he did really enjoy parts 1+2+4 like I said before.
So yeah, that's it

It really helps me if you check the original article & more similar at https://jb-dev.net/ !!!
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In January 2019, Drodo Studio’s Dota Auto Chess mod became insanely popular. Many companies (including household names like Valve, Riot, Ubisoft and Blizzard) rushed to release their own versions.
It seemed like the beginning of something big like MOBA or Battle Royale. But it has been more than a year now and the hype seems to have vanished completely. As quickly as it rose, it went away…
This is the first on a series of articles where we will analyze the autochess genre. Here we will be exploring the genre’s history, its current market situation and its audience. And also, what are the core design issues that autochess suffers and that no one has been able to solve yet.
u/JB: For this article I’m teaming up with my mate Victor Freso, one of my most talented folks at Pixel Noire Games, who helped me review all the games.
We also had feedback of ~300 highly engaged players from the different autochess reddit communities, which participated in an online poll whose results are available here. They’re especially thanked at the end of the article.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

This wasn’t the first time that a mod got the spotlight and ended up becoming the foundation of a genre. It happened in several major, industry-defining cases before (some of which are Team Shooters, MOBAs, Battle Royale…). But on some of these cases events unfolded differently. So we identify 3 distinctive eras related to the evolution of the industry:

1st Era (2000s): Assimilation

The company whose original software had been modded (or had a close enough game, like Valve) moved quickly to absorb the successful mods and turn them into even more successful products.
Since at that point creating a major game release was very complex (required an expensive development, publishing deals and an infrastructure to distribute the product), the deal was profitable for both sides. But it meant the dissolution of the identity of the original creator team, which became embedded in the bigger company culture.
Team Fortress (1999) was originally a Quake mod. And Counter-Strike (2000) started out as a fan-made mod on the Half Life engine. Both games (and creators) were quickly absorbed by Valve.
2nd Era (2010s): Integration
By this time, the previous era model still was going on… but the gaming industry had significatively grown a lot and it was also possible for smaller or even new companies to lure the original developers, and use the mod as a proof for commercial success in order to secure funding and develop it as a full title.
The main characteristic of this era is that the original developers were able to keep a bigger share of control and relevance, rather than being integrated as just another gear on a bigger machine, because the companies they joined built their own identity around that key product.
This was the case of Riot Games: They were able to raise enough money for the creation of their company through family and angel investors, and then hire some of the original creators of DOTA, and then created League of Legends.
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A similar case happened with battle royale, which also started in 2013 as a successful DayZ mod created by the modder nicknamed PlayerUnknown. Later, it was transformed into a full product through the acquisition of the developer by a korean company (which would later be renamed as the PUBG Corporation, again showing how the company grew around the game rather than assimilating it).
Interestingly, this genre already hints what would happen with Auto Chess, since Fortnite wasn’t involved in any way with the original creators. They just copied the concept. Fortnite was a product stuck in a kind of development hell (had been 6 years in the works). As the game was getting close to the release, the developers became impressed by PUBG’s success, so they created a quick Battle Royale spin-off which became insanely popular and eventually ate the rest of the game.

3rd Era (2020s): Fragmentation

In all the cases presented previously, the newborn genre ended up in the release of one or two titles which accumulated most of the business. But this hasn’t been the case here.
In Autochess, the newborn genre has been quickly fragmented into a big list of competitors. Some are standalone games (like DOTA Underlords or Autochess: Origins), but there’s also several service-model games which released their autochess mode as well (like Hearthstone’s Battlegrounds or TeamFight Tactics, which at the end of the day is a side-game mode of League of Legends).
This creates an interesting precedent, which I believe will define future cases where an innovative new game concept appears: The hot idea will be cloned very fast because today the main bottleneck in the industry is having an innovative design that generates player interest and engagement.
By 2020, it’s way easier to create and distribute a game, there are way more developers hungry for a hit than ever before, and a lot of service-model games with short development cycles always looking for something juicy for their next update… so new ideas becoming red oceans fast will be the norm.
For sure, this won’t affect the ability of small developers and modders to innovate, but it will affect their ability to leverage that to become successful on an independant level, before they get cloned.
Dota Auto Chess, was a Dota 2 mod which obtained massive popularity. After a failed acquisition from Valve (owners of Dota), the mod developers (Drodo Studios) went to create the mobile standalone Auto Chess: Origins, while still maintaining the PC version linked to Valve. Meanwhile, Riot, Valve, Ubisoft and many other companies developed and released their own autobattlers at a record time, downgrading the genre creators to just another competitor.
And ultimately, they haven’t fixed the core issues of the original game, which separates it from a true hyper-successful product like MOBA.

MARKET STATUS

Because of the rain of clones, it’s hard to map all the autochess games on the market. It doesn’t help that some of them are available in both PC and Mobile (playable in PC, Mac, Android and iOS), and also they’re exclusive to different PC stores (Dota Underlords is only on Steam, TFT is on Riot’s LoL launcher, and Autochess Origins is only at the Epic Store…).
And if that wasn’t enough, the Auto Chess mod in DOTA2 is still very active and has no signs that it’s going to be dying soon. It’s still being regularly updated, and presumably still profitable: Some months ago they added a battle pass system, with its revenue shared between Valve and Drodo.
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What’s interesting is that none of the contenders has been able to become massively successful in terms of monetization, at least not in terms comparable to even a second or third tier MOBA. And while there are definitively different tiers of following among these titles (led by Riot Games’ TeamFight Tactics), it seems that none of them has been able to gather under its banner a significant amount of players, mobile downloads or Twitch Views…
Sources: AppAnnie (mobile metrics), TwitchMetrics (twitch)
So ultimately, we’re dividing the autochess market into 3 categories: Squires, Would-be Kings and Peasants.

• Squires: Rather than standalone games, these are side-modes of already successful products. Under this category we would list the Battlegrounds mode in Hearthstone, or League of Legends’ TFT, and maybe even the original DOTA Autochess mod. While for sure they’ll have their own dedicated audience that only plays those modes, for most players it’s just a nice and fresh activity integrated within a broader game experience. The squires are the ones that have achieved the biggest success among the autochess genre because they don’t suffer as much backlash from the lack of gameplay depth inherent to the genre, which is harmful for the long term retention: Even if the mode eventually becomes a bit shallow, players have many other things to play, and thus are retained. As a consequence, these games can still monetize significatively by selling renewals of their Battle Passes every new season. Not enough to make them successful on the degree that was expected… but at least it’s something. Other than bringing an additional source of revenue, these modes were useful to their core games: They generated player interest by providing innovative gameplay. Hearthstone’s Battlegrounds was an amazing addition to the CCG genre, and made a lot of people come back to the game to discover the new mode and reengage.

The gameplay of TeamFight Tactics (slow tempo, no team coordination, decreased attention requirement…) makes it a nice relief mode to play between LOL matches, which is its purpose in the foreseeable future. If there ever was an intention to make it a standalone game, it vanished together with the player interest on autochess…

• Would-be Kings: These are the other two top dogs of the category. They were supposed to rule… but that looking at the numbers they don’t really seem to have ever lifted off. Under this category we would list Auto Chess: Origins and DOTA Underlords. The problem is that their standalone approach means that they suffer the most of the design issues of the genre that we’ve presented in the last section of this article (i.e. flat complexity, lack of mastery depth, lack of progression and rotative meta…). That means that they lost a lot of population over time, and therefore their Battle Pass renewal isn’t as effective at generating revenue : (

DOTA Underlords is an extremely polished product in terms of graphics, character design and UX, and yet another proof that Valve devs really know how to do great games. Too bad they aren’t as good at releasing third installments...

• Peasants: Here we would list the myriad of other autochess follower titles that entered the battlefield, each achieving a different degree of success. While some may actually be profitable, what we can be sure about is that none of them has reached any significant numbers or anything close to the reach that brought industry attention.

THE AUDIENCE

We are of the belief that you can’t talk about a game and not talk about who plays it, and that players say more about a game than analyzing all its features and mechanics. So with this in mind we collected answers from ~300 autochess players (check the raw data here). After examining their responses, we’ve identified 3 main player profiles (the comments on each profile are literal):
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• Patricks, gamers looking for a competitive-but-idle experience that doesn’t require full attention and it’s easily reconcilable with their functional adult life.
• Grizzlies, competitive players that struggle with fast paced games that demand a high actions per minute ratio and quick reflexes (like MOBAs or competitive shooters).
• Warmasters, highly competitive players that enjoy more the area of strategy (setting up goals and planning how to achieve them) rather than tactics (skillful execution of actions and micromanagement).

What these profiles have in common, other than being hardcore gamers and having a big interest in competitive games, is the fact that they enjoy the lack of micromanagement, and the demand of reflexes and dexterity of autochess.
This is quite interesting, considering that the genre foundation is so close to MOBAs, which are extremely demanding on those aspects. Overall it seems that they belong to audiences below the MOBA umbrella which are currently being alienated by the bulk of ‘younger and dexterity focused’ players.
And when it comes to platforms, it seems that even though the barrier between the classic gaming platforms and mobile is progressively disappearing, the genre is still mainly focused on PC: Out of the ~300 players that answered, 50% said that they play exclusively on PC, 25% played primarily on Mobile, and the remaining 25% played in both.
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Players said that they enjoy the focus of the game in planification, as opposed to the focus on execution and performance of MOBAs. And when asked about their main points of frustration, they pointed out 2 main topics: 1.- The strong luck factor that has a strong impact on making you win or lose regardless on how well you played. 2.- The fact that the game eventually becomes shallow and repetitive, fueled by the fact updates were unexciting and not rotating the meta.
Surprised by the fact that players mention randomness as a factor of both enjoyment and frustration? Don’t be! Competitive players tend to have a love-and-hate relationship with luck, because they tend to consider that external factors outside of skills (money spent, better draw…) stole their well deserved victory.
And it’s even more frustrating in autochess, because there’s a strong snowball effect: Players that obtain a big advantage early on in the game become hard to catch later on. Which means that a few bad or good draws early on can decide the rest of the match.
There hasn’t been a single feature more criticised in Magic: The Gathering than the randomness of drawing mana. And yet, luck it’s part of what makes MTG stand out compared to other CCGs: For experienced players, it introduces uncertainty and the need to take risks and gamble, like they’d do in poker. And for rookies, it allows beating someone that has better skills and has a better deck, if Lady Luck is on their side. Won’t happen often, but it will feel awesome when it does. Like a friend likes to say: The best feeling in MTG is to draw a mana when you really need it. And the worst? To draw it when you didn’t.
This goes to say that in autochess, perhaps the power of luck needs to be reviewed, but it would be a bad decision to completely remove luck from the equation.
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DESIGN CHALLENGES

In this awesome DoF article, Giovanni Ducati already pointed out the two main problems that the games in this genre need to solve to achieve real success: Bad long term retention and low monetization.
To these issues we would add a third one, which is bad marketability: Contrary to their big brothers League of Legends and DOTA2, these games haven’t been able to achieve high organic downloads (at least not to be able to generate significant revenue through soft monetization mechanics). What’s even worse is that all these games, their themes and target audience are quite close to RPG and Strategy, which are genres with some of the highest CPIs on the market. So they need top-of-the-class retention and monetization to get a high enough LTV to scale up.
But why do these games fail at keeping players entertained for a long time? And why don’t they monetize enough? Here’s what we think:
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Flat Complexity & Progression

You have some games out there which have a strong entry barrier due to being quite complicated to grasp. But for those that can deal with the numbers and stats, the depth will keep them entertained for months and years. This is the case in most RPGs and 4X strategy games. And then you have hypercasual games, which are simple and plug and play. So they generate a great early engagement, but are too shallow to keep users hooked for a long time.
As a genre, Autochess games are in the middle ground: they have a high entry barrier, but also lack the complexity to keep players engaged for a long time…
As a general rule, games with long retention tend to follow Bushnell’s Law of being easy to learn and difficult to master. They achieve that by having what we call an unfolding experience: They appear simpler at the beginning (not necessarily easy), but require thousands of hours of practice to master.
An example of this are games that level lock most of the game complexity, so the player understands and masters only a set starter mechanics. And then, progressively unlock new modes and demand more specialized builds and gameplay, repeating the cycle several times to keep the game always interesting while attempting to avoid being overwhelming.
In World of Warcraft, character depth is huge. But this complexity is unfolded progressively, forcing the player to spend time mastering each skill and activity as they level up, before moving further.
Another approach to the same idea are competitive games focused on mechanical ability, dexterity or micromanagement. Like CS:GO or Rocket League. They may unlock all the mechanics from the beginning, but a newbie player will only be able to focus and manage some of them, and then progressively discover and master the rest in an organic way.
Rocket League hides its complexity by matchmaking early players with others of a similar skill. This makes beginner players viable even if they grasp only the basic mechanics. But, as they climb further, they’ll face rivals that take those basic skills for granted and the player will need to master more challenging techniques to keep up.
League of Legends and Overwatch are actually a combination of both: The game first introduces the player to a small selection of heroes which progressively gets expanded, while at the same time having an insane mastery depth that requires a high APM and reflexes, team coordination and thousands of hours of practice.
Contrary to any of those examples, Autochess games throw everything at you from the beginning: Character Skills, Synergies, Unit Upgrade, Gold Management, Items… It’s a lot to swallow. And there’s not even enough time to read what each thing does before the timer runs out. This creates a complex, overwhelming first impression that drives many players out.
But that’s quantity, not depth. Once you’ve gone through that traumatic starting phase, you’ve grasped all the mechanics and you know which team builds are dominating on the meta, it’s just a matter of making it happen by taking the right decisions and adapting to a few key draws.
Eventually, unless luck is really against you, your skills won’t be challenged and you won’t have new mechanics to master. At that point, winning will be based more on the knowledge of the content database and luck rather than your planning and strategic ability. And that’s boring.
So ultimately, these games are hard to grasp for a newbie, but also lack the ability to keep players interested for a very long time since they eventually run out of new features and mechanics to discover and master.

Unexciting Updates, Lack of Collection

On top of that, autochess games seem to have a hard time adding content which reawakens player interest and makes churned ones come back.
The DAU trend that we expect on a long term retention game: A decreasing trend of players until reaching a stagnation stage. At that point, a big update (or new season) is required to attract and reengage users back with new content. This is the model we would see on Fortnite or Hearthstone, but it’s not what we see in most autochesses.
On this topic, perhaps the one that has put the most effort is Riot’s TFT. Each season update, the game releases a new series of heroes, synergies, items and rebalances, as well as a big bunch of cosmetics. This generates a short lived boost on revenue (due primarily to players buying the pass) and downloads, but ultimately nothing that really moves the needle in a relevant way.
‘Why seasonal updates don’t work?‘, you may be asking. Part of the reason is that TFT, as well as every major contender do not include elements of content progression or collection. Instead, they all stick to the roguelike approach of the original mod: Players have access to the same set of units, and build their inventory exclusively during the match.
While at first this seems a good idea, since it keeps the game fair in a similar way to MOBAs, it’s oblivious to the fact that new units do not offer the same amount of gameplay depth as in League of Legends. In LoL, a new unit means weeks or even months of practice until mastering timing, range and usage of the skills, how they interact with every other champion, etc… In comparison, in TFT the new content can be fully explored in just a bunch of matches, both because the new content doesn’t offer that much depth to start with and because it’s available from the moment the player gets the update.
By lacking content progression and collection, autochesses miss the opportunity to create long term objectives after an update, more innovative mechanics and less repetitiveness. As a consequence, they have it really hard to hype players on updates.

Big ‘Snowball Effect’

In game design, the snowball effect refers to the situation where obtaining an advantage or dominance generates further conditions that almost invariably means winning the match. As you can guess, on competitive games this effect can generate a bad experience, especially when the divergence starts early on: The player that obtained the early advantage will keep on increasing the advantage and curbstomp the rest.
For example, this can happen on a Civilization game if a player gets ahead of the rest acquiring key resource territories, and uses them to achieve a greater progress in tech and income at a faster pace than the rest. Or in League of Legends if a team scores a bunch of early kills and levels up, becoming more able at scoring even more kills…
In this match of Age of Empires 2, the red player (Aztecs) managed to decimate the blue player (Turks) military units early on. Since without an army it was impossible for the blue player to secure enough resources to perform a comeback, for the next 2 hours the blue player was in a pointless, hopeless match. Kudos for not abandoning, though!
Autochess games suffer greatly from this effect, due to the following reasons:

• Resources lead to victories, victories lead to resources As you know, in autochess each player builds a team based on successive battles. Better battle performance will grant more gold, which is the resource used to buy units, perform shop rolls, etc… Similar to the cases we’ve already explained, this means that players that achieve early dominance will be able to to obtain more gold, use it to get better units and get more victories and gold, therefore increasing their team power faster than the rest. ‘But players can be lucky or unlucky, generating a factor that compensates for the advantage of having more resources early on‘, you may be considering. Unfortunately, this is a flawed logic, because of 2 main reasons: (1) Having more resources means more adaptability: The dominant players will be able to leverage on them to re-adapt their team, therefore outperforming the rest on a randomness-driven scenario. (2) Resources allow to buy more rolls, which diminishes the deviation generated by each individual roll.


• Luck factor. The previous point goes into maintaining and increasing dominance once it has been achieved early on, but another source of frustration is that luck is a huge factor in achieving early dominance. This means that your strategic skills and smarts can be completely invalidated by a couple of bad rolls at the beginning of the match. And there’s nothing that competitive players hate more than having their match stolen by factors outside the pure clash of abilities.

As an antithesis, Poker also has resource management, and luck factor determines the victory (on a specific round). But unlike Autochess, resources can’t override luck, and early victories don’t affect the later chance of winning.

Excessive Match Length

Compared to PC, on mobile is much harder to keep the player focused for a long period of time on a single session. And having a very long minimum session kind of goes against the premise of being able to play anywhere which is a primary strength of mobile as a gaming platform. This is a problem for autochess games since a single match can last for 30-45 minutes of synchronous, nonstop gameplay.
‘Isn’t the solution just make the match shorter?’, you’re probably wondering. Unfortunately, there are several reasons that make this more challenging to the core design than what it seems:

• Because in autochess the player builds its team from scratch, at the beginning of each match there are several turns to setup team foundations. Removing these early decisions severely decreases the teambuilding possibilities, decreasing overall depth.
  
• Also, each setup phase between clashes requires a minimum time to think and perform the actions. In the last turns of a match, the game can become quite demanding on thinking and input speed.
  
• Matches require a minimum amount of turns to compensate the weight of a single lucky/unlucky roll over the chances to win. Because the possible units for teambuilding appear on random rolls, the less turns there are the more luck factor the game will suffer, and as a consequence the less important the player’s strategic skills will be.
  
• And if there are few turns, there are also less chances for comebacks. Because it means that players will have less setup phases to adapt and catch a player that has obtained an early advantage.
  
• Finally, since the match involves 8 players, it requires a minimum of turns so that they all can fight between each other… Nevertheless, I don’t consider this a critical issue because Dota has been able to change this specific point on the knockout mode without sacrificing too much in terms of depth.
  

Soft Approach to Monetization

PC/Console approach to free-to-play is generally soft (i.e. primarily based on cosmetics, avoid pay-to-win…), while mobile tends to be quite hardcore in comparison. The softness of PC monetization is even more core to companies such as Valve and especially Riot Games, to which the “no monetization bs” is part of the brand values. This would be very hard to change without harming their reputation.
Same as in most autochess games, in TeamFight Tactics the players can only pay for different cosmetics and for a Battle Pass. Without the massively huge and engaged audience of League of Legends, this monetization approach isn’t able to generate meaningful revenue.
This is not exclusively because we mobile-first devs are a ruthless wallstreet folk which will use every dirty trick in the book to get a bit extra money… but also because mobile games are locked in competition for paid installs. This requires us to get as much revenue as possible from users, as fast as possible, in order to reinvest into players to keep on growing or avoid withering.
The business model of League of Legends or Fortnite is based on their extreme popularity: They already have massive amounts of highly engaged active users, so their strategy is to keep them playing and have a monetization system that, while doesn’t make as much money from the players as it could do on the short term, generates a decent amount of revenue over a longer period of time.
Games that have this soft f2p approach have it very hard to reach enough ARPPU to make paid users profitable, given the insanely high mobile CPIs. This may not be an issue to big IPs and games that are able to bring many organic players (Fortnite, League of Legends…), but it is a big issue for those that can’t attract such a big number of players due to their organic appeal.
Due to its core characteristics (strategic, number-based, complex…), Autochess is unlikely to be a massive appeal product, and therefore won’t fit into the cosmetics model. It’s a game that will have a smaller audience of highly engaged players, and therefore will require a more aggressive monetization to reach similar results.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The history of the autochess genre serves as an example of the risks of design endogamy: The devsphere rushed to clone Auto Chess, and before a year all the major contenders were in the board. But that speed came at a cost: None of these projects has brought the concept much further than its original conception, and in doing so they haven’t solved any of the core issues.
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The folks at Riot games developed the TeamFight Tactics in less than 5 months. This allowed them to release while the hype was still at its peak… but it also meant it added just a couple of improvements, and it’s otherwise very similar to the original Auto Chess mod.
After seeing all these projects fail to meet the big expectations that were placed on them, the question is if perhaps the best approach was to avoid rushing, and instead tackle the genre with a title that is not a clone, but rather a more groomed, accessible and innovative successor of the original idea.
In our next article on this series will make an attempt to see how such a game could be, rethinking the spirit and fresh design ideas of autochess to solve the issues mentioned above. (May take a while though, I want to focus on smaller articles for a couple of months…)
Meanwhile, if you want to read more about this genre, we suggest you these awesome articles from the folks at DoF: Why Auto-Chess can’t monetize – and how to fix that and How Riot can turn TFT into a billion dollar game

Special Thanks to…

These articles wouldn’t have been possible with the collaboration of ~300 members of the reddit communities of the different auto chess games who provided us with feedback and data. You folks have been incredible solving all our doubts. One thing that this genre has is some of the most awesome players around.
So big kudos for Brxm1, Erfinder Steve, Xinth, Zofia the Fierce, STRK1911, LontongSinga22, bezacho, hete, NeroVingian, marling2305, NOVA9INE , asidcabeJ, Eidallor, Rhai, Lozarian, bwdm, Toxic, Ruala, Papa Shango, MrMkay, Dread0, L7, kilmerluiz, Amikals, Sworith, Tankull, B., hete, Bour, Denzel, DeCeddy, Diaa, hamoudaxp, Benjamin “ManiaK” Depinois, Katunopolis, DanTheMan, MikelKDAplayer, 0nid, Tobocto, Tiny Rick, phuwin, Alcibiades, triceps, d20diceman, shadebedlam, stinky binky, Tutu, Myuura, suds, Kapo, Hearthstoned, Engagex, Pietrovosky, Daydreamer, Doctor Heckle, Ignis, ShawnE, NastierNate, LeCJ, Nene Thomas, Chris, trinitus_minibus, Nah, Kaubenjunge1337, Mudhutter, Asurakap, Nicky V, shinsplintshurts, bobknows27, Willem (Larry David Official on Steam), Jonathan, Dinomit24, Monstertaco, GangGreen69, Veshral Amadeus Salieri (…lol!), Kuscomem, Cmacu, Pioplu, Dilemily, qulhuae, Ilmo, MarvMind, facu1ty, crayzieap, Saint Expedite, Lobbyse, Lukino , tomes, Blitzy24, Mcmooserton, magicmerl, i4got2putsumpantzon, radicalminusone, Pipoxo, Kharambit, Bricklebrah, Rbagderp, Merforga, Superzuhong, Mo2gon, MoS.Tetu, MeBigBwainy, Zokus, CoyoteSandstorm, Stehnis, Noctis, Fkdn, Ray, Fairs1912, Fairs1912, Krakowski, HolyKrapp, Damadud, Pentium, Mach, Mudak, CaptSteffo, jwsw1990, Omaivapanda, Inquisitor Binks, Jack, yggdranix, GoodLuckM8, Centy, Prabuddha (aka Walla), dtan, Philosokitteh, Doms, ZEDD, Calloween, Synsane, Kaluma, GordonTremeshko , Djouni, DOGE, haveitall, ANIM4SSO, Task Manager, Submersed, BAKE, Viniv, La Tortuga Zorroberto, BixLe, Rafabeen, Blzane, bdlck666, FatCockNinja86, R.U.Sty, Yopsif, blesk, Quaest0r, FanOfTaylor, StaunchDruid, Rushkoski and everyone else that took some minutes to help us out on the article.