Black Ops Cold War is finally about to get a new Zombies map, but the leak of 2 additional maps might confirm a Season 2 launch.
Since launch, Black Ops Cold War Zombies fans have been a little lacking in content. Besides the Cranked and Jingle Hells modes, Treyarch’s latest Zombies mode has been somewhat neglected this time around.
But all that is about to change, as Firebase Z joins Die Maschine in the Cold War roster in a few days’ time. The second map looks like an incredibly interesting location, with a lot of new content to explore.
(Source: Activision)
And what’s more, there may actually be 2 more Cold War Zombies maps coming soon, as fans speculate about a new leak.
These maps were first teased in the Firebase Z official trailer, but you’ll have to look closely to spot them.
Leaked Black Ops Cold War Zombies Map Set in the USA?
Thanks to new information revealed in Firebase Z, we know the location of 2 new Zombies maps. One is a previously leaked Cold War location, Berlin, and the other Zombies map may well be set in the USA.
During the trailer, right when the Aether Reactor goes off, a map is visible on the wall monitors. And as YouTuber TheGamingRevolution points out, there are a couple of blinking lights to see.
These locations are both labeled as ‘Identified Outbreak Zones’ which appears to confirm that they are upcoming map locations.
(Source: TheGamingRevolution)
We’ve actually seen teases like this before, as a similar map in the Die Maschine intro and the Cold War Zombies menu also indicates an outbreak in Berlin.
Read More: New Firebase Z Gameplay Leaks for Black Ops Cold War Zombies
Given the location of the Berlin red dot, fans actually believe we know what’s coming to Cold War soon. Many users are predicting that Black Ops Cold War Zombies is getting a Kino Der Toten remake as DLC.
Of course, this Kino der Toten will likely use the old location and expand upon it, much like Die Maschine did with Nacht der Untoten. Regardless, we’re excited to see what comes of this leak.
Hopefully, this new map will come with yet another new Wonder Weapon like Firebase Z’s R.A.I. K-84.
Black Ops Cold War Zombies Alcatraz Leak?
However, the other map location is definitely set in North America, with fans believing it to be set in San Francisco. This could confirm that Cold War Zombies is heading to Alcatraz in a future update.
This location has already appeared in Blackout, Treyarch’s attempt at a battle royale mode. It wouldn’t be farfetched to imagine that the location could return, in the undead survival mode.
As for when these 2 new Zombies maps could release, TheGamingRevolution points out something interesting. At the end of a recent blog post, Treyarch indicated big plans for Zombies in Season 2.
“Before we go, we’ll leave you with this: what we’ve talked about today is just a glimpse of what’s planned for Zombies in 2021. If you think you know what to expect in Season Two… thing again.”
With that in mind, we could well see both maps release in the coming season. After all, Cold War Season 1 brought us multiple Zombies locations, and Season 2 appears to be ramping up dramatically.
However, with one Cold War Zombies player recently crashing at Round 506, we hope the new maps are more stable than Die Maschine.
In the past, Treyarch confirmed a new Zombies map in Cold War Season 2. However, it’s also possible that the developer was talking about Firebase Z, which was pushed forward.
In the meantime, check out the full Firebase Z map layout ahead of the new update. It helps to prepare when dealing with the undead, after all.
GameStop’s and AMC’s stocks have spiked in recent days. Here’s what’s going on.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Wall Street investors have been betting that struggling video game retailer GameStop would fail for a long time. But over the past few months, a bunch of Reddit users have been pushing up the value of GameStop shares instead. At first, it was because they believed the company was better off than the Wall Street doubters believed. But as GameStop value has soared, Wall Street’s bad bets have cost the investors billions of dollars.
Now, the Reddit users are in it to win an epic battle against Wall Street too.
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At one point, the Reddit users from the forum r/WallStreetBets have sent the stock up more than 14,300% (you read that right), though it’s gone through wild fluctuations. They’ve spread their strategy to struggling movie chain AMC, too. In their wake, these online market players have upended Wall Street, creating a drama filled with memes, app trading disasters and weird internet lingo as big-time investors have lost billions of dollars.
It’s a crazy story, complete with cameos by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and CNBC financial commentator and former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer. There’s even Michael Burry, one of the subjects of the book and movie The Big Short, who happens to be a prominent investor in GameStop.
Even Silicon Valley found a way to get in the middle of this mess. It’s wild.
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Despite the move being characterized as “insane” and a “Ponzi scheme,” GameStop’s stock has become the battleground of a war between Wall Street and internet traders, with nearly all of them expecting it to fail. The questions are when, and who will be on the losing end.
“We’re seeing a phenomenon that I have never seen,” Jim Cramer, a Wall Street commentator on CNBC and a former hedge fund manager, said during a segment Monday. And GameStop could be just the start. “It’s insane.”
It all started last week, when posters on the Reddit stock trading chat community r/WallStreetBets pushed up shares in the struggling game retailer. With much of Wall Street betting against GameStop’s success, WallStreetBets investors believed they could force a market rally by creating demand where there had been little before.
As a result, GameStop stock jumped more than 822%, from $17.25 per share at the beginning of the year to a high of $159.18 on Monday. Then it dropped by nearly half, only to rise back up to $147.98 on Tuesday. And then Musk tweeted about it to his 43 million followers (using that weird internet vocabulary, of course), and the price jumped 40% in after-hours trading. On Wednesday, it closed at $347.51 per share, before dropping again in after-hours trading.
On Thursday, it jumped even higher, to $483 per share, before halving again. Amid all the chaos, the New York Stock Exchange temporarily halted GameStop share trading more than a dozen times before midday Thursday. It ended the normal trading day down 44% to $193.60, only to jump back
The Reddit community has also turned its eyes on BlackBerry, attempting to pull the same trick. So far, they’ve pushed shares up more than double from $6.58 per share, where they started at the beginning of the year. On Tuesday, the stock closed at $18.92. On Wednesday, it closed regular trading at $25.10, though it’s fallen since then to $14.65.
There’s also AMC. Reddit targeted that one, spawning the hashtag #SaveAMC on Twitter too. Its stock jumped from $2 per share last week to close trading at $19.90 on Wednesday. It too fell in after-hours trades, and after jumping on Thursday, fell again to close at $8.63.
App-based traders Robinhood, TD Ameritrade and WeBull responded to the fluctuations by restricting trades of GameStop, AMC and other fast-moving stocks on their services.
Robinhood drew particular ire, leading US Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Sen. Ted Cruz, to criticize its decision. At least one class action lawsuit has been filed already too.
It’s a lot to take in. So, here’s what you really need to know about GameStop, AMC and Wall Street.
How’d this happen?
GameStop is one of the largest video game retailers in the world, but it’s struggled to remain relevant in the age of online sales.
Effectively, the WallStreetBets crowd realized Wall Street made a huge mistake. People known as short sellers who were betting GameStop stock would fall had been too aggressive.
The WallStreetBets crowd understood that if they could create artificial demand for GameStop shares with their own money, they could force Wall Street to recalibrate its bets, pushing prices even higher. And some investors who couldn’t even back up their bets against GameStop, would have to pay even more.
As of Wednesday, there were 3.8 million members of the WallStreetBets community, though it’s nearly impossible to determine how many people are involved in the GameStop, AMC and BlackBerry schemes.
What we do know is that all this activity appears to have created a “short squeeze,” where the short sellers betting against GameStop are being forced to buy more GameStop stock to cover their losses. That pushed the price up even more, which forces more short sellers to cover their losses, which pushes the price up even more. Some of the Reddit crowd believe that GameStop stock could reach into the thousands of dollars just because of this mechanism.
And that’s why we’re suddenly seeing GameStop’s value jump.
See also: GameStop’s stock spike fueled by slang from Reddit’s WallStreetBets community. Here’s what it means
How does this short selling work?
When people buy a stock normally, they’re betting it’ll rise or share enough profits that they’ll make more money than they put in.
Short sellers, or “shorts,” do the opposite. Shorts trade with borrowed shares and sell them, with hopes they can make money if the stock falls in the future.
Imagine Ian Corp. is a public company, and its shares are worth $10. A “short” would borrow shares of Ian Corp. and sell them for $10. Their bet is that Ian Corp. stock will actually drop below that — maybe to $4. If it does, then, they can buy the shares at $4 and pocket the other $6.
If Ian Corp. stock jumps to $25, then the lender who made this bet possible may push the short to cover their bet. That would mean the short effectively has to buy the shares at the new, higher price.
When a short is right, betting against a company, they can make a lot of money. But if they’re wrong, they can lose a lot more money too.
There are other options and tools to bet against a company’s future as well.
GameStop stock from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25.
Google Finance
How much money did the GameStop shorts lose?
The losses appear to be tremendous. As of Wednesday, shorts seemed to have lost $5 billion betting against GameStop this year, according to Investopedia. About $1.6 billion, or about half, of those losses happened on Friday when the stock jumped 51%.
It’s also worth noting that GameStop began the year as one of the most shorted companies on the market.
That seems like a lot of money
It is, but what’s perhaps an even bigger indication of how dramatic these moves were, GameStop share sales were halted during Monday’s trading because they were moving too fast.
See also:How to choose a credit card
These wild swings won’t continue forever, will they?
Part of what’s driven this behavior is the popularity of retail investing, or when traders who aren’t Wall Street professionals buy and sell stocks. Stock trading apps, often with no fees, have made it easy for people to jump into the market. And social media has helped people to rally together, egging one another on to buy more and more of a stock.
“GameStop’s rally is one in a series of eye-catching market moves to stir concerns among fund managers, some of whom say trading by individual investors is pushing stock prices out of whack with fundamentals,” the Wall Street Journal wrote Monday.
How’s Wall Street responding?
Big name trading apps like Robinhood, ETrade and others have reportedly struggled to remain online amid all the hysteria. TD Ameritrade on Wednesday acted to restrict the sudden spikes in demand, “out of an abundance of caution amid unprecedented market conditions.”
Robinhood has also come under particular scrutiny for appearing to severely restrict trades of some stocks while the market was wildly fluctuating Thursday. Politicians on both sides of the aisle in the US have called for an investigation into the app maker. Meanwhile, many angry Redditors say they’ll stop using Robinhood. Some have even threatened to join a class action lawsuit.
Nasdaq said it will halt trading on a stock if it finds a link to unusual activity on social media. The company said it sees its role as a “self-regulatory organization” is to make sure its markets act in a “legitimate” way. “Regulators kind of have to catch up with the technology that’s now available,” Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman told CNBC on Wednesday.
Throughout the past week, the markets have temporarily halted trades of GameStop and AMC stocks in particular because of the wide price swings and heavy volume.
What do the companies think of all this?
GameStop didn’t respond to a request for comment. BlackBerry executives told MarketWatch it was “not aware” of any reason for the recent trading activity. BlackBerry did reach a settlement with Facebook earlier this month over a patent fight, though the terms were not disclosed.
Why are the Redditors doing this?
There’s the seeming easy money aspect, which is compelling in and of itself if you’re that comfortable with risk. But some of them are also framing this as a crusade against Wall Street. “We’re in a war,” one Redditor posted Wednesday. “A war for the redistribution of wealth.”
You promised me Elon Musk, how’s he involved?
Aside from being a prolific Twitter user, Musk has also recently learned he can drive people to various companies’ stocks. He tweeted about how much he enjoyed buying something for his dog off Etsy, and the stock jumped. Now he’s tweeted about GameStop, stirring up more frenzy.
This sounds nuts
It is. And just watching it is enough to make your head spin. For example, on Wednesday evening, the popular chat app Discord banned the WallStreetBets community from its service for violating its rules against hate speech and glorification of violence. Apparently, some of the nastier elements of the community had repeatedly broken Discord’s rules.
Around the same time, the group in charge of the WallStreetBets Reddit community locked out anyone else who might be interested in joining, effectively making it all private.
That appeared to spook investors, who suddenly sent GameStop and AMC stock diving more than 30% each in after-hours trading.
A little over an hour later, the Reddit community was publicly available again, denizens had created a new Discord chat group, and GameStop and AMC stocks were recovering from their sudden slumps. If you’d put down your phone to watch a movie before it happened, you might never have noticed by the time it was done.
Except you may have seen Elon Musk tweeted about how Discord wasn’t cool anymore.
OK, and what about The Big Short guy?
Michael Burry is an interesting subject himself. He became famous for betting against the housing market before the great recession kicked in around 2007 and 2008. He’d invested in GameStop, but also said he believed all this behavior was “unnatural, insane and dangerous.”
Of course, some of the Reddit members say they see this battle over GameStop as their Michael Burry moment, making it all that much more interesting.
Should I try to get in on the frenzy?
It’s always smart to consult a financial professional before making investing decisions.
Correction Jan. 25 at 5:52 p.m. PT: Fixed the explanation of short selling to make clear how the process works and that there are different ways to bet against a company’s stock price rising.
Conor McGregor still has a Khabib Nurmagomedov rematch on his mind, though he acknowledges that the chances of it happening have greatly diminished.
The former UFC double champion said Thursday at the UFC 257 news conference that he considers there to be a great deal of unfinished business between himself and Nurmagomedov. But if Nurmagomedov wants to retire, McGregor said he’ll have no choice but to move forward.
Nurmagomedov’s father and head coach, Abdulmanap, died last summer due to complications from COVID-19. Nurmagomedov, the current UFC lightweight champion, announced his retirement following a title defense over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 in October. He has mostly stuck to the position that he has retired in interviews since then, though he has left a small window open for a return.
“It’s a tough business,” McGregor said. “Things have gone on in his personal life. I don’t wish him any harm. Like I said, it was in 2018. A lot of time has passed. The world knows this fight is not over. This war is not over. The sport needs it to happen; the people need it to happen. I’m not gonna chase it if he doesn’t want it. And that’s it. I’ll keep my calm and move on. And that’s what I’m doing. I’m back here in the 155-pound division. I’ll show the world what’s what over time.”
Nurmagomedov beat McGregor via fourth-round submission at UFC 229 in October 2018. The lead-up to that fight was ugly, with McGregor getting arrested for throwing a dolly through a bus window in search of Nurmagomedov, who slapped McGregor teammate Artem Lobov days earlier. After Nurmagomedov’s win over McGregor, he climbed out of the Octagon and ignited a brawl with McGregor’s team. Inside the cage, McGregor was attacked by Nurmagomedov training partners. There were multiple suspensions handed down by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
McGregor and Nurmagomedov are in the same hotel this week in Abu Dhabi. McGregor fights Dustin Poirier in the UFC 257 main event Saturday. Nurmagomedov is in town to work the corner of his cousin Umar, who won Wednesday on the UFC Fight Night card. The two have not encountered each other, and UFC security is aware of the threat.
“What I will say is, as long as we fight again, there’ll be no issue,” McGregor said. “That’s it. If he continues to run, I’m not sure. We’ll see what happens.”
Nurmagomedov remains the UFC lightweight champion, but McGregor does not think that will last much longer.
“I would make the case, if that man is continuing to dodge this and dodge the commitment of competing again, the title should be stripped and [Poirier and I] should be engaging in a title fight,” McGregor said. “But I’m sure it will happen after this bout. I’m interested to hear the excuses or what will be said after the fight. But I predict a title strip.”
