An epic battle pitting retailers against hedge funds took place in early 2021 and focused on video game retailers GameStop Corp. GME.

Here’s a recap of what happened, what’s happened since, and what might be next.

What happened: Troubled video game retailer GameStop has been targeted by short sellers betting on further decline or bankruptcy. Community support on the r/Wallstreetbets subreddit and other social media channels led to an epic short press Story that dominated the headlines Early 2021 and all year round.

One of the places where the Short Squeeze Story gained momentum was on Benzingas “Power Hour” show, where Andrew Left of Citron Research joined in to share his thesis on why he bet against GameStop.

Left on January 21st was interviewed live and the video had thousands of messages chatting up defending GameStop’s future growth and why Left was wrong.

The stock rose that day and for the next few days, leading to the Benzinga interview becoming one of the places considered “the room where it happened.”

Two other pivotal figures in GameStop’s history were Ryan Cohen and Keith Patrick Gil.

Cohen is the founder of Chewy Inc CHWY and is now chairman of the video game retailer. Cohen took a 9% stake in GameStop, which was announced in August 2020, and increased his stake to 13% in 2021, making him a hero figure for those flocking to GameStop.

Keith Patrick Gilwho passed the handle roaring cat on YouTube and DeepF***ingValue on Reddit, placed a $56,000 bet on GameStop via call options, and published his research on YouTube and Reddit. Gil’s investment was worth tens of millions of dollars as of January 2021.

Retailers were drawn to GameStop thanks to online research and also as a way to compete against hedge funds and bets against the video game company. News circulated that short interest in GameStop was more than 100% and investors saw an opportunity to squeeze out the shorts.

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