(Note the connections)
CargoMetrics Cracks the Code on Shipping Data
Scott Borgerson and his team of quants at hedge fund firm CargoMetrics are using satellite intel on ships to identify mispriced securities.
By Fred R. Bleakley February 04, 2016
Link to article
One late afternoon last November, as a ping-pong game echoed through the floor at CargoMetrics Technologies’ Boston office, CEO Scott Borgerson was watching over the shoulder of Arturo Ramos, who’s responsible for developing investment strategies with astrophysicist Ronnie Hoogerwerf. At Ramos’s feet sat Helios, his brindle pit-bull-and-­greyhound mix. All three men were staring at a computer screen, tracking satellite signals from oil tankers sailing through the Strait of Malacca, the choke point between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea where 40 percent of the world’s cargo trade moves by ship.
CargoMetrics, a start-up investment firm, is not your typical money manager or hedge fund. It was originally set up to supply information on cargo shipping to commodities traders, among others. Now it links satellite signals, historical shipping data and proprietary analytics for its own trading in commodities, currencies and equity index futures. There was an air of excitement in the office that day because the signals were continuing to show a slowdown in shipping that had earlier triggered the firm’s automated trading system to short West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil futures. Two days later the U.S. Department of Energy’s official report came out, confirming the firm’s hunch, and the oil futures market reacted accordingly.
“We nailed it for our biggest return of the year,” says Borgerson, who had reason to breathe more easily. His backers were watching closely. They include Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), the world’s largest hedge fund allocator, and seven wealthy tech and business leaders. Among them: former Lotus Development Corp. CEO Jim Manzi, who also had a long career at IBM Corp.
Compelling these investors and Borgerson to pursue the shipping slice of the economy is the simple fact that in this era of globalization 50,000 ships carry 90 percent of the $18.5 trillion in annual world trade.
That’s no secret, of course, but Borgerson and CargoMetrics’ backers maintain that the firm is well ahead of any other investment manager in harnessing such information for a potential big advantage. It’s why Borgerson has kept the firm in stealth mode for years. In its earlier iteration, from 2011 to 2014, CargoMetrics was hidden in a back alley, above a restaurant. Now that he’s running an investment firm, Borgerson declines to name his investors unless, like Manzi and BAAM, they are willing to be identified.
“My vision is to map historically and in real time what’s really going on in economic supply and demand across the planet,” says the U.S. Coast Guard veteran, who prides himself and the CargoMetrics team on not being prototypical Wall Streeters. “The problem is enormous, but the potential reward is huge.”
According to Borgerson, CargoMetrics is building a “learning machine” that will be able to automatically profit from spotting any publicly traded security that is mispriced, using what he refers to as systematic fundamental macro strategies. He calls the firm a new breed of quantitative investment manager. In unguarded moments he sees himself as the Steve Jobs or Elon Musk of portfolio management.
Though his ambitions may sound audacious, one thing is certain: Borgerson doesn’t lack in self-confidence. Over the past six years, he has secretly and painstakingly built a firm heavy in Ph.D.s that can manage a database of hundreds of billions of historical shipping records, conduct trillions of calculations on hundreds of computer servers and systematically execute trades in 28 different commodities and currencies.
For his part, Borgerson seems an unlikely architect of such a serious, ambitious endeavor. Easygoing and fond of joking with his colleagues, he is a hands-off manager who credits CargoMetrics’ investment prowess to his team. His brand of humor comes through even when he’s detailing the series of challenges he had starting the firm. After using the phrase “It was hard” several times, he pauses and adds, “Did I mention it was hard?” Although Borgerson declines to provide any specifics about Cargo­Metrics’ portfolio, citing the advice of his lawyers, performance during the three years of live trading apparently has been strong enough to keep his backers confident and his team of physicists, software engineers and mathematicians in place. “Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we can make a more significant investment,” says BAAM CEO J. Tomilson Hill. Former Lotus CEO Manzi is optimistic about the firm’s prospects: “It has an unbelievable edge with its historical data.”
CargoMetrics was one of the first maritime data analytics companies to seize the potential of the global Automatic Identification System. Ships transmit AIS signals via very high frequency (VHF) radio to receiver devices on other ships or land. Since 2004, large vessels with gross tonnage of 300 or more are required to flash AIS positioning signals every few seconds to avoid collisions. That allows Cargo­Metrics to pay satellite companies for access to the signals gleaned from 500 miles above the water. The firm uses historical data to identify cargo and aggregation of cargo flow, and then applies sophisticated analysis of financial market correlations to identify buying and selling opportunities.
“We’re big-data junkies who could not have founded CargoMetrics without the radical breakthroughs of this golden age of technology,” Borgerson says. The revolution in cloud computing has been instrumental. CargoMetrics leverages the Amazon Web Services platform to run its analytics and algorithms on hundreds of computer servers at a fraction of the cost of owning and maintaining the hardware itself.
At his firm’s headquarters — where the lobby displays a series of colored semaphore signal flags that spell out the mathematical equation for the surface area of the earth —Borgerson leads the way to his server room. It’s the size of a closet; inside, a thick pipe carries all the data traffic and analytic formulas CargoMetrics needs. That computing power alone would have cost $30 million to $40 million, Manzi says.
CargoMetrics is pursuing a modern version of an age-old quest. Think of the Rothschild family’s use in the 19th century of carrier pigeons and couriers on horseback to bring news from the Napoleonic Wars to their traders in London, or, in the 1980s, oil trader Marc Rich’s use of satellite phones and binoculars for relaying oil tanker flow.
Other quant-focused Wall Street firms are latching onto the satellite ship-tracking data. But, Borgerson says, “I would bet my life on a stack of Bibles that no one in the world has the shipping database and analytics we have.” The reason he’s so convinced is that from late 2008 he was an early client of the satellite companies that had begun collecting data received from space and on land to build a large database of all the world’s vessel movements in one place.
That’s what caught Hill’s eye at Blackstone when he learned of Cargo­Metrics a few years ago. BAAM now has a managed account with the firm. “If anyone else tries to replicate what CargoMetrics has, they will be years behind [Borgerson] on data analytics,” Hill says. “We know that a number of hedge fund data scientists want his data.”
But too much reliance on big data can go wrong, say many academicians. “There is a huge amount of hype around big data,” observes Willy Shih, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. “Many people are saying, ‘Let the data speak; we don’t need theory or modeling.’ I argue that even with using new, massively parallel computing systems for modeling and simulation, some forces in nature and the economy are still too big and complex for computers to handle.”
Shih’s skepticism doesn’t go as far as to say the data challenge on global trade is too big a puzzle to solve. When informed of the Cargo­Metrics approach, he called it “very valid and creative. They just have to be careful not to throw away efforts to understand causality.”
Another big-data scholar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of electrical engineering and computer science Samuel Madden, also urges caution. “What worries me is that models become trusted but then fail,” he explains. “You have to validate and revalidate.”
Borgerson grew up in Southeast Missouri, in a home on Rural Route 5 between Festus and Hematite. His father was a former Marine infantry officer and police official, and his mother a high school French and Spanish teacher. The family traveled 15 miles to Crystal City to attend Grace Presbyterian Church, which was central to young Borgerson’s upbringing: There he was a youth elder, became an Eagle Scout and received a God and Country Award. The church was across the street from the former home of NBA all-star and U.S. senator Bill Bradley, whose backboard Borgerson used for basketball practice.
When it came to choosing what to do after high school, Borgerson was torn between becoming a Presbyterian minister and accepting an appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy or West Point. He went with the Coast Guard because, he says, “the humanitarian mission really appealed to me, and I had never been on a boat before.”
At the academy, in New London, Connecticut, Borgerson played NCAA tennis and was also a cutup, racking up demerits for such antics as placing a sailboat on the commandant of cadets’ front lawn and leading bar patrons in a rendition of “Semper Paratus,” the school’s theme song. Still, he graduated with honors and spent the next four years piloting a 367-foot cutter — which seized five tons of cocaine in the Caribbean — then captaining a patrol boat that saved 30 lives on search-and-rescue missions. From 2001 to 2003 the Coast Guard sent Borgerson to the Fletcher School at Tufts University to earn his master’s of arts in law and diplomacy. While at Tufts he volunteered at a Boston homeless shelter for military veterans and founded a Pet Pals therapy program for senior citizens.
Following graduation, from 2003 to 2006, Borgerson taught U.S. history, foreign policy, political geography and maritime studies at the Coast Guard Academy, and co-founded its Institute for Leadership. While there he would get up at 4:00 each morning to work on his Ph.D. thesis exploring U.S. port cities’ approaches to foreign policy. He would also travel to Boston to complete his course work at Tufts and meet with his adviser, John Curtis Perry.
Borgerson’s military allegiance runs deep. One weekend last fall he played football in a service academy alumni game. On another he attended the Army-Navy game. Still militarily fit at age 40, the 6-foot-5 Borgerson works out regularly at an inner-city gym aimed at helping youths find an alternative to gang violence; a few weeks ago he was there boxing with ex-convicts and lifting weights.
Leaving the Coast Guard was a hard decision for Borgerson, resulting in part from his frustration with the military bureaucracy’s stymieing of his bid to get back to sea for security missions. With his degrees in hand, he applied for a fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations. During the application process he met Edward Morse, now global head of commodities research at Citigroup. Morse was on the CFR selection committee in 2007 and recommended Borgerson as a fellow.
Morse introduced Borgerson to commodities, and to trading terms like “contango” and “backwardation.” Morse himself had, earlier in career, gotten the jump on official oil supply data by hiring planes to take photos of the lid heights of oil tanks in Oklahoma’s Cushing field.
Working for the CFR in New York reconnected Borgerson with his Missouri roots. Bill Bradley’s aunt called the former senator to say: “The son of a family who went to our church in Crystal City is in New York. Would you welcome him?” Bradley did — and would later play a part in Borgerson’s career development.
While at the CFR, Borgerson became an expert on the melting of the North Pole ice cap, writing numerous published articles on its implications; this led him to co-found, with the president of Iceland, the Arctic Circle, a nonprofit designed to encourage discussion of the future of that region. Borgerson recently spoke to 50 international generals and admirals about the Arctic and is co-drafting a proposal for a treaty between the U.S. and Canada that would help resolve the differences the two countries have in allowing international ship and aircraft travel through the Northwest Passage.
His Arctic research led to an aha moment early in 2008, while he was still with the CFR, on a visit to Singapore and the Strait of Malacca with his Fletcher School classmate Rockford Weitz and their former Ph.D. adviser, Perry. Seeing the mass of ships sailing through the strait, Borgerson and Weitz decided to build a data analytics firm using satellite tracking of ships.
Like many successful entrepreneurs, the two struggled to find financing before reaching out to a network of friends and their contacts. One was Randy Beardsworth, who had sat with Borgerson at a 2007 Coast Guard Academy dinner, where Beards­worth, then the Coast Guard’s chief of law enforcement in Miami, was the guest speaker. Borgerson “made references to history and literature, and I thought, ‘Here is a sharp guy,’” recalls Beards­worth. “We have been friends ever since.”
But Borgerson didn’t turn to his new friend in his initial fund-raising. “He came to me in 2009, after he had been turned down by 17 VCs, was maxed out on his credit card, was married and had a newborn son,” says Beardsworth, who was reviewing the Department of Homeland Security as part of the Obama administration’s transition team. Beardsworth came to the rescue, not only committing to invest a small amount but introducing his friend to Doug Doan. A West Point graduate and Washington-­based angel investor, Doan took to Borgerson right away. “To be honest, it wasn’t his idea, it was Scott I invested in,” says Doan, who provided $100,000 in capital and introduced Borgerson to a few friends, who added $75,000. Manzi came on board as an investor in 2009, having been asked by Bradley to check out Borgerson’s plan for a data metrics firm. (Manzi knew Bradley from the late 1990s, when the latter was considering a run for U.S. president.)
With Doan, Doan’s friends and Manzi as investors, CargoMetrics was finally able to garner its first venture capital commitment in early 2010, from Boston-based Ascent Venture Partners. That gave the start-up the capital it needed to hire a bevy of data scientists to build an analytics platform that it could sell to commodity-trading houses and other commercial users. In 2011, CargoMetrics added Summerhill Venture Partners, a Toronto-based firm with a Boston office, to its investor roster, raising roughly $18 million from venture capital and angels for its data business.
By then Borgerson had already begun to contemplate converting CargoMetrics from an information provider into a money manager; he saw the potential to extract powerful trade signals from its technology rather than share it with other market participants for a fee. Among those he consulted was serial entrepreneur Peter Platzer, a friend of one of CargoMetrics’ original investors. Platzer, a physicist by training, had spent eight years as a quantitative hedge fund manager at Rohatyn Group and Deutsche Bank before co-founding Spire Global, a San Francisco–­based company that uses its own fleet of low-orbit satellites to track shipping, in 2012. “We had lengthy conversations on how to set up quant trading systems and how [commodities giant] Cargill had made a similar decision to set up its own in-house hedge fund to trade on the information it was gathering,” recalls Platzer. So Borgerson reset his course. Doan describes the decision as a “transformative moment” for the CargoMetrics co-founder. “The military trains you to be a strategic thinker,” Doan explains. “Scott had been tactical until then, making small pivots, and like a general who sees the theater of war, he moved into strategic mode.”
Borgerson’s ambition to succeed was in no small part fueled by the early turndowns by many venture capital firms and a fierce determination to best the Wall Street bunch at their own game. “There’s a lot that motivates me, including — if I’m honest — I have a big chip on my shoulder to beat the prep school, Ivy League, MBA crowd,” he says. “They’re bred to make money, but they’re not smarter than everyone else; they just have more patina and connections.” (Bred differently, he spent last Thanksgiving visiting his parents in rural Missouri. After breakfast he and his father were in the woods, shooting assault guns at posters of terrorists, with Gunny, his father’s Anatolian shepherd dog.)
Borgerson’s plan was not met with enthusiasm from the company’s then co-CEO, Weitz. CargoMetrics had been gaining clients and meeting its goals, and was on its way to becoming a successful data service provider. Weitz, who now is president of the Gloucester, Massachusetts–based Institute for Global Maritime Studies and an entrepreneur coach at Tufts’ Fletcher School, did not return e-mails or phone calls asking for comment. For his part, Borgerson says: “A ship cannot have two captains. The company simply matured and evolved into a streamlined management structure with one CEO instead of two.”
Eventually, Doan went along with Borgerson’s plan. “We believe in Scott and that shipping holds the no-shit, honest truth of what the economy is doing,” he says. But buying out the venture capital firms several years ahead of the usual exit time would require a hefty premium over what they had invested.
Once again Borgerson’s early supporters played a key role. Manzi, a fellow Fletcher School grad who had mentored Borgerson since the company’s early days, put up more money (making CargoMetrics one of his single largest investments) and introduced him to a powerful group of wealthy investors. Separately, the CFR’s Morse suggested that Borgerson meet with Daniel Freifeld, founder of Washington-based Callaway Capital Management and a former senior adviser on Eurasian energy at the U.S. Department of State. Impressed by Borgerson’s “intellectual honesty, vigor and more than four years of historical data,” Freifeld brought the idea to a billionaire third-party investor, who took his advice and became one of CargoMetrics’ largest backers. “I would not have suggested the investment if CargoMetrics had not done the hard part first,” adds Freifeld, declining to name the investor.
A chance encounter in the fall of 2012 gave the CargoMetrics team its first taste of real Wall Street trading. Attending an Arctic Imperative conference in Alaska, Borgerson met the CIO of a large investment firm, whom he declines to name. When Borgerson confided his ambition and that CargoMetrics had developed algorithms to trade on its shipping data once it was legally structured to do so, the CIO suggested CargoMetrics provide the analytical models for a separate portfolio the money manager would trade. Live trading using CargoMetrics’ models began in December 2012. Manzi brought in longtime banker Gerald Rosenfeld in 2013 to craft and negotiate the move to make CargoMetrics a limited liability investment firm. Rosenfeld acted in a personal role rather than in his position as vice chairman of Lazard and full-time professor and trustee of the New York University School of Law. The whole process took a year and a half. During that time Blackstone checked in as an investor.
Bradley, now an investment banker, has yet to invest in CargoMetrics, explaining that he is unfamiliar with quantitative investing. But he may eventually invest in Borgerson’s firm, he says, because “we are homeboys. I believe in him and that things are going to work out ” — pausing to add with a smile, “based on my vast quant experience, of course.”
Borgerson has been in stealth mode since CargoMetrics’ early days, when he moved the firm from an innovation lab near MIT because the shared space was too open. He is much more forthcoming when boasting of the firm’s “world-class talent.” The team includes astrophysicists, mathematicians, former hedge fund quants, electrical engineers, a trade lawyer and software developers. Hoogerwerf, who has a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the Netherlands’ Leiden University, built distributed technical environments for scientists and engineers at Microsoft Corp. Solomon Todesse, who works on quant investment strategies, was head of asset allocation at State Street Global Advisors. Aquil Abdullah, a team leader in the engineering group, was a software engineer in the high-performance-computing group at Microsoft. And senior investment strategist Charles Freifeld (Daniel’s father) has 40 years’ experience in futures and commodities markets, including nine with Boston-based commodity trading adviser firm AlphaMetrics Capital Management.
“All were self-made people; none were born with a silver spoon,” Borgerson notes. One of his blue-collar-­background hires was James (Jess) Scully, who joined as chief operating officer in 2011, after his employer Interactive Supercomputing was acquired by Microsoft.
“The team we built treasures team success, which is Scott’s motto,” Scully says. “We want shared resources, one P&L, not ‘How much money did my unit make?’” Both Scully and Borgerson say Cargo­Metrics is like the Golden State Warriors, a leading NBA basketball team known for putting aside personal glory and playing as a band of brothers having fun.
Borgerson says he fosters a no-ego policy with “lots of play because investment teams are built on trust, and playing together builds trust.” Team building at CargoMetrics includes pub crawls, picnics at Borgerson’s house, poker nights, volunteer work in a soup kitchen for the homeless, Red Sox games and visits to museums.
Trips to the Boston docks or Coast Guard base are intended to remind the CargoMetrics team of the real economy. There are also occasional “touch a tanker” days. On one visit to a tanker, everyone was amazed that the ship was the size of a city building, Borgerson says. “They could smell the salt on the deck,” he recalls. “Wall Street can lose sight of the real fundamentals in the world. I don’t want that to happen here.”
Unlike the Rothschilds 200 years ago, only a small percentage of the trades that CargoMetrics makes relate to beating official government data. Most simply are aimed at identifying mispricings in the market, using the firm’s real-time shipping data and proprietary algorithms.
At a whiteboard in his conference room, Borgerson sketches out CargoMetrics’ general formula. He draws a “maritime matrix” of three dynamic data sets: geography (Malacca, Brazil, Australia, China, Europe and the U.S.), metrics (ship counts, cargo mass and volume, ship speed and port congestion) and tradable factors (Brent crude versus WTI, as well as mining equities, commodity macro and Asian economic activity). Using satellite data with hundreds of millions of ship positions, CargoMetrics makes trillions of calculations to determine individual cargoes onboard the ships and then to aggregate the cargo flows and compare them with historical shipping data. All that leads to the final comparisons with historical financial market data to find mispricings. If CargoMetrics observes an appreciable decline in export shipping activity in South Africa, for example, its trading models will determine whether that is a significant early-warning sign by considering that information alongside other factors, such as interest rates. If Cargo­Metrics believes a decline in the rand is forthcoming, it might short it against a basket of other currencies. “This is like a heat map showing opportunity,” Borgerson says, noting that CargoMetrics is not trading physical commodities. “We are agnostic on whether to be long or short, and let the computers spot where there is a mispricing and liquidity in the markets.” He sums up his simple, but still less than revealing, process by writing on the whiteboard “Collect, Compute, Trade.”
Borgerson says CargoMetrics is building a systematic approach that will work even when cargo cannot be identified — on containerships, for instance. It already knows a large percentage of the daily imports and exports into and out of China and island economies such as Japan and Australia. And although the firm cannot glean from its calculations on satellite AIS data the type of cargo, such as iPhones from China, it can measure total flow, which shows present economic activity. Cargo­Metrics’ data scientists are working on linking such activity to the firm’s data set of the past seven years to measure the evolving global economy. That will lead, Borgerson maintains, to more trades on currencies and equity index futures and, eventually, trades on individual equities. “Uncorrelated” is a mantra of Borgerson and his team. Well aware that correlated assets sent the performance of most asset managers, including hedge funds, plunging in the financial crisis, CargoMetrics is determined to come up with an antidote. Careful not to say too much, Borgerson lays out the simple principle that the process starts with placing many bets among uncorrelated strategies in different asset classes, like commodities, currencies and equities.
The goal is diversification, staying as market neutral as possible and remaining sensitive to tail risk in different scenarios. CargoMetrics’ analytic models help find asset classes that are outliers. Those may include a publicly traded instrument such as oil, another commodity or an equity for which shipping information was a leading indicator during times when other asset classes marched in lockstep. The historical ship data is then blended with this new information to seek opportunities. Identifying mispriced spreads among different trades within an asset class is another way of avoiding the calamity of correlation. Borgerson says the firm’s models will find instances where one type of oil should be a short trade and another a long one. The same goes for whole asset classes — shorting one that will benefit if virtually all asset prices plunge and buying another that will rise when oil prices gain. “We’re counting cards with the goal of being right maybe 3 percent more than we are wrong, as a way of making profits during good times and staying afloat during times of sudden, unpredictable but far-reaching events,” Borgerson says. The key, he adds, “is to know your edge and spread your risk.” CargoMetrics’ uncorrelated approach worked during the dismal first three weeks of this year, says Borgerson. Dialing down risk as volatility in the markets soared, the firm was on track in January to have its best month since it began trading.
To improve the firm’s models, eight of its data scientists hold a weekly strategy meeting, nicknamed “the Shackleton Group” after the band of sailors shipwrecked in the Antarctic from 1914 to 1917. Hoogerwerf and Ramos co-lead the group. At one recent meeting they were deciding how much risk, including how much liquidity, there was in a possible strategy; reviewing whether to keep previous strategies; and assigning who would research new ones.
The Shackleton Group’s meetings are free-form, with a lot of “I’ve got an idea” interjections that disregard official roles. “We hit the restart button a lot,” says Ramos, a former director of business intelligence and a quantitative economist at law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf who joined CargoMetrics in late 2010. “That’s why our motto is ‘Never lose hope.’” A bet on oil, related to Russia’s production, was stopped at the last minute in 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Some currency-trading strategies have been abandoned in theory or after failing. Strategies the Shackleton Group likes are passed on to the firm’s investment committee of Borgerson, Scully and Ramos for a final decision. CargoMetrics has a unique set of big-data challenges. Historical shipping patterns may not be as useful in the new global economy now that shipping freight prices are plunging, a sign that trade growth rates may be changing. And analysts point out how hard identifying oil cargo can be in certain locations and instances, even in more-­predictable economic times. “While it may be easy to say that ships leaving the Middle East Gulf are typically carrying crude oil, knowing the type of crude is sometimes quite difficult,” says Paulo Nery, senior director of Europe, Middle East and Asia oil for Genscape, a Louisville, Kentucky–based company that analyzes satellite tracking of ships. Borgerson maintains his team is well aware of the dangers of data mining and getting swamped by noise. “If you run computers hard enough, you can convince yourself of anything,” he says. To make sure CargoMetrics’ algorithms for identifying cargo are valid, the firm spot-checks manifest data filed at ports and imposes statistical confidence checks to guard against spurious correlations.
Getting the jump on official government statistics is likely to become tougher too thanks to the recently formed High-Level Group for the Modernization of Official Statistics. Although the U.S. is not a member, Canada is a key player helping to lead the mostly European nation group (including South Korea) in coming up with a global blueprint for measuring and reporting economic activity.
Reflecting on his journey to Wall Street — raising money, hiring employees with different skill sets, making changes to Cargo­Metrics’ culture, overcoming legal and regulatory hurdles — almost gives Borgerson second thoughts about whether he would do it again. “I’ve sailed ships through tropical storms, captured cocaine smugglers and testified before Congress [on his Arctic research],” he says, “but this was the hardest.”

DISCLAIMER - it's hard to convey tone when I'm typing out what they say. There were a lot of tongue-in-cheek comments and jokes thrown around with both of them laughing while talking about these things so please don't take what is typed here in a literal sense. Not everything is word for word but I tried to keep it as accurate as possible when summarizing some of the things they talked about.
link: https://twitter.com/ringerpodcasts/status/1283937369586978816
Using B for Bill Simmons and J for Johnny Bananas
B: My next guest came on after he won his 6th title on the Challenge, we compared it to Michael Jordan who had also won 6 titles. Only he had something up his sleeve, a 7th title this week on the Challenge! They said it couldn’t happen, they said he was cursed after he backstabbed Sarah - not really, I defended you.. thought it was in the spirit of the game.
J: Agreed
B: You finally did it! People said you were too old… etc. you won!
J: I was one of those people, not saying I completely counted myself out. To say I had the faith it would happen for sure.. I didn’t. I thought at first curses didn’t exist and I was a victim of my own success which I think I said last time I was here
B: Yeah cause everyone’s gunning for you!
J: Yeah and that’s what I had to deal with, I figure I’ll keep throwing crap against the wall every season and something would stick but it never did - it almost got worst every season. After the last two seasons (WOTW1/2) getting eliminated early, I started to doubt more and wonder if curses were real. But it took this season, living in an underground bunker -
B: One of my least fav seasons, bunker was dark and depressing. Guess what’s fun, when you guys are in a nice house with a pool, there’s bars, etc, I don’t wanna see you guys in a bunker
J: Yeah you and I both my friend
B: The last few episodes it really kicked in - I don’t know if you know this but Cory has some kids back home? Did he mention that to you?
J: I had no idea!, first I’ve heard of it. Is that what Cory was playing for?
B: Apparently he was keeping it on the low but he was playing for his kid back home and the baby on the way
J: I would have never known (both laughing)
B: You were just playing for you
J: I was playing for you too - the motivation wasn’t the 7th win, 20th season, not being the top earner, it was coming back on this podcast because I know the only way I would come back is if I won again
B: Not true - I texted you this because I’ve been watching a lot of Challenge. It’s replaced real sports for me - I think I’ve watched 12 or 13 of the last 20 seasons. Amazon has this MTV hits package that gives you all the old episodes. It’s fun going back and watching because you vaguely remember stuff. It’s really fun to have on in the background
J: It’s not like Ridiculousness that MTV plays every waking moment of every single day. I’ve always said why not play - instead of 87 episodes of Ridiculousness a day, maybe play 80 and 7 episodes of the Challenge. I thought Pluto TV was the only place to watch it but its cool that Amazon has it.
B: That’s what sucked me in, Pluto but it had commercials and eventually I was like how do I not get commercials and that lead me to the Amazon thing. The reason I bring this up, they go all the way back to like ’06.
J: I have the DVD’s man you could have asked and I could have sent you the originals
B: Well there’s some early bananas in there including the Ruins which is arguably the greatest season, you have this, it’s just a chin? It’s like a chin thing and a soul patch but no mustache? What was going on?
J: laughing, oh gosh I don’t know man - listen, I am so glad, not just with the mistakes as far as the way I behaved, but the fashion faux pas that I was making back in the day with the fedora hat and the bandanna, that was back in the day when I thought it was cool to go to the gym and just throw on as many plates on bench as possible and eat cheeseburgers after cause all I cared about was what the scale said, and I saw myself on TV and I looked like a hippopotamus. Listen, I’m glad I made all of my mistakes before the advent of social media because lord knows I wouldn’t be sitting here if that was the case. But I agree ruins was a great season and very underrated
B: It was action packed, you weren’t the guy yet - as the years passed around ’13, ’14 when you won a few times is when people wanted to get you out. You became the guy at the poker table that everyone is just going all in on trying to get you the fuck out of the game
J: I became the patriots man, I became the team that got everyone’s best shot every week and that’s what most people don’t factor in. Rivals 3, I think it was, after Rivals 3 when I won my 6th title, I got the notoriety for my 6th win, but then the notoriety I got from betraying Sarah, I just think that put me into a whole new dimension where people did not want to see me win in the literal and figurative sense anymore
B: Sounds like the Pats! (Bill is from Boston and a die hard Patriots fan and this is an understatement lol)
J: Exactly, like they say, the higher up the ladder you get the bigger the target on your ass gets and that’s just made me public enemy #1 in the house. When we did War of the Worlds 1, I didn’t know 50% of the people but Wes had all of them convinced I needed to be gone and that’s what I’ve been dealing with the past few seasons. I still don’t think it was a curse, just getting everyone’s best shot every week - putting that difference aside and that rivalry bullshit aside with Wes this season went a long way to neutralize other enemies I might have had in the house. I could go back more to my old game and be a little more cunning and manipulative and I was able to sit back and strike when the time was right and not lash out at everyone because they were lashing out at me.
(Going to start just summarizing more from here on out.)
B says if they pick the 6’5” dude - Fessy, in the last challenge, you’re done since he can just walk up and touch the bell without thinking and Rogan did the volunteer thing which is lame when you know you’re getting voted in anyways
J: “It’s better to be lucky than to be good” I say this every season. Even with best strategy and allies you still need luck like Wes voting himself in this season. Race car challenge this season at the end. Final math equation was 9 parts and I wouldn’t be able to do it right now with a pen and paper but I got lucky. If I didn’t solve it before Cory or Kyle things could have been different. This was a fairy tale season that felt like it was meant to be.
B compares Cory to the Houston Texans - always in the playoffs but we know he won’t win a super bowl
J: I forgot what it was but he had something motivating him this season
B laughs
J: As much shit as people talk about Kyle for not being that intelligent and snaking around through challenges, he has no quit in him. I’ve seen him do things, come out of nowhere, carrying crates on his back. This is a funny story - Kyle is diabetic, first season he did was Vendettas we had to run up the Rock of Gibraltar. He thought if he told production he was diabetic and about the syringes they would kick him off. He ran up the Rock of Gibraltar with a syringe - it was capped - up his ass, he keister’d a syringe up the entire Rock of Gibraltar and beat half the guys. Stood up in the cave - in the Rock of Gibraltar for 8 hours and ran up the hill the rest of the way. This guy has a motor in him most people don’t give him credit for. Fessy - for his size, the stamina he has is incredible. Rogan - just won last season, every guy in the final were tough competitors.
B thought Fessy was a favorite but the final played to non of his strengths. Endurance, he doesn’t get to use his strength. He’s like a bigger CT
J: Yeah he’s got a very high ceiling and everyone was like “why didn’t you throw Fessy in hall brawl” - because he was coming back 100% and this is not someone I need coming after me in future seasons if I return.
B: My daughter asked me that and I told her Bananas is too smart, he knows that guy’s gonna win and he doesn’t want him to be mad at him. Like when Bill Russell was always friendly with Wilt Chamberlain, taking him out to dinners to make him like him.
J: Yeah, biggest mistake people make is not considering what you do now will impact the future one way or another. It would be great TV to see him there but he would just demolish Rogan.
B: If PTI (Pardon the Interruption on ESPN) covered this, the 2nd segment would be about how Fessy choked -
J: It’s the altitude. Fessy says the highest he’s been is like Florida which is sea level. I’ve spent a lot of time throughout my life in the mountains. Grew up skiing, snowboarding, dated a professional snowboarder so spent a lot of time in Tahoe… If you’ve never been at altitude and tried to breathe and go to the bathroom at 10,000 feet, it’s like your body doesn’t function. Why can’t I catch my breath. If you’ve been there you kinda know how to deal with it and not panic. But the guy his size, it’s the same reason that CT died in Battle of the Exes 2, on that glacier. You can be the longest distance runner at sea level but when you go up to altitude - that was the great equalizer. The bunker was our biggest competition. Everyone in the house vs the bunker -
B: It was the biggest competition for entertainment too, you guys were all miserable how is this fun. Everyone hates being there
J: exactly, how are we going to be entertaining when we are all depressed, they didn’t show most of it. We were breathing in artificial air being pumped in by some old machine from the Cold War era, all the light we had was artificial, had to walk 5 min to go to the port-a-potty because the plumbing was messed up in the bunker, when we go on the bus to go to challenges, all the windows are blacked out - the whole thing was like “let’s prevent them from getting vitamin D” all the bars we went to were underground at night so we were like vampires. We’d come out every once in a while in the daylight and it almost felt like your skin is going to burn off. The bunker was the biggest competition, the mountain and altitude was the great equalizer and the hardest part of the final. It wasn’t the longest final, I think this was 12 miles beginning to end. But 12 miles in knee deep snow at 10,000 ft is no joke.
B: Do you think your 7th title will finally make people forget that you thought the Australian language was Dutch, or is that still going on your gravestone?
J: I’ll never live that down. What’s funny is that one of my closest friends on the Challenge, her name is Sky and she Is from Australia and will never let me live it down. That and the backpack - the CT backpack, I know you are going to bring it up so I’ll just get it out of the way.
B: CT is the greatest elimination guy and he was at his peak, that was like being on an island with Randy Moss in 2007 - you’re getting torched. No way around it. And you had fat Tyler after you -
J laughs
B: CT had to drag him to the bell too but Tyler - all he was doing was eating for 2 weeks before that
J: He ran out of his meds so he said he was eating his emotions (both laugh)
J: Like I said earlier, that was luck of the draw - a coin flip. Going against CT first was determined by the flip of a coin. If the coin flipped the other way, he would have had to deal with Lunchbox first and then me after and who knows. Either way, I wouldn’t change anything in the past since I’m here today.
B: Even though the Australia Dutch thing was bad, it doesn’t match Brad spelling Throne as Thron without the E - that is the #1 oh my god Challenge trivia spelling moment
J: Laughs - TJ gave him both options. Cause Brad said “thrown like a baseball? Or a throne like a king sits on?” And TJ was like I’ll take either one. And he got them both wrong.
B: laughs - can we talk conspiracy theories
J: I love conspiracy theories
B: There’s one that you and Wes hatched this whole thing to be friends but Wes couldn’t stay the whole show so he was going to go in the elimination and go home, not true?
J: No, no. There’s a few conspiracies going around and one of those - that’s just Wes trying to somehow come to terms with the fact that and make an excuse for what is arguably the most boneheaded decision in the history of Challenge and especially in alliances. Wes and I had a stranglehold on that house. He was sitting prettier than I was. More people owed him favors and he was in a better position. He was like a dam holding back this force against me and I was holding a force against him but his was a lot bigger. Had he not sent himself into elimination against me, he would have had 2-3 more cracks at it. It would have been against Cory or Fessy in a run-across-a-barrel competition or untie a knot in a car against Josh competition. He would have won either one. Wes knew that when I nominated myself - which he knows I was going to - I told TJ that his mom had the most world cups - I told Wes before that this was my plan I don’t want to be here, if I’m going to be here I need a reason. I want to have a purpose/red skull. He ended up winning that day and I think he didn’t like the idea of me coming back into he house with a red skull while he didn’t have one yet. I think he made an ill-advised move. I think pride and ego got in the way and he was worried about what fans would think if he didn’t vote himself in against me. Alliance with Wes was out of necessity. We looked at each other and realized that we are making it easier for everyone else. They knew as long as both of us were in the game they were safe since we would be going at each other non stop. That’s what happened the last 2 seasons. WOTW 1&2 we paved the way for some people that did not deserve to be in the position they got to. After WOTW 2, we were in an SUV to the MTV movie awards. We both looked at each other and said “what are we doing” - for 2 guys that consider themselves as the brightest and most strategic players - this is just dumb to do season after season. Let’s do this out of necessity this season because if we don’t we’re just screwing ourselves. It worked better than I had ever thought it would.
B: I’ll never root for Wes so it didn’t work for me
J: Yeah me neither even his parents don’t root for him (both laughing)
B: Does Wes still have 30 companies and 40 cars like he said that year?
J: Oh he’s got more, he’s got like 70 companies I think. He’s got SwaggyC’s business - Wes is taking full credit for everything that Swaggy is doing as well and he’s got all of his cars. But somehow he’s still managed to find time to film this midlife crisis of a show he’s doing (both laughing)
B: Brits are cool but will we ever go back to the heyday of the Challenge, the Real World was the feeder system bringing in great competitors now they are doing Are you the one? I don’t even know these shows.
J: Until Real World comes back and recapture the magic of Real World and the dynamic characters - here’s my biggest problem I might get in trouble for saying this but the casting now - there’ s a reason why the vets - the OG’s - we’re cut from a different cloth. The CT’s, the Derricks, Kenny’s, Evan’s, Coral’s, Tina’s, etc. These characters were multi dimensional, all unique, most of them mentally off the reservation but back then, back in my season of Real World Key West, I was one of 200,000 applicants. Only the most dynamic, charismatic people got casted. Now it’s almost like - OK you’re hot and you like to get drunk and hookup, good. We don’t care about personality, if you wanna go on and be a complete train wreck, you’re cast. I think you’re seeing that.
B: There’s no actual characters
J: Yeah and the UK brings that - there is no-one on earth like Bear or Melissa or Jenny or Rogan or Georgia - you see these people and you’re like these people really exist? They are a whole different breed. Love or hate them they are some characters.
B: Answer seems to be to do another fresh meats season
J: Guess where fresh meat characters came from - people that didn’t make it to real world. Laurel, Kenny, Cara, all of them were at like the final round of casting at Real World. I think this new generation - I sound so old saying that - the youth nowadays there just isn’t a whole lot there.
B: You’re saying there’s no next generation Camila and Nany
J: You’re a long time fan, what characters do you see right now where you say this person has a very high ceiling? Not just when it comes to athletic abilities. To be a very well rounded Challenge competitor which there are very few - you have to be intelligent, haver a sense of humor, be able to win, and be able to strategize. There are lots of people who have one of these characteristics but not the other. It’s hard to find that competitor that covers all those bases.
B: You also had one-of-a-kinds like CT - there won’t be another CT.
J: God broke the mold after he made that guy.
B: Was it the free agents season? Camila was mad at somebody and Nany tries to break it up and they get mad at each other and have like an hour long thing going and the next day they are just like hey sorry about that wanna have breakfast? There’s nobody else like that
J: Deadly combination
B: I was always team Nany in those situations
J: Me too - Nany goes crazy because she’s emotional. Camila goes crazy because she’s unstable. She would flip a switch and go to a different dimension. Nany would get drunk and get emotional and stuff. When Camila does one of her things, it was like the gates of hell opening.
B: She committed the unforgivable sin which is why she hasn’t been back - she was mean to Leroy my favorite other than you.
J: You don’t do that for any reason - Leroy is a gem. He’s such a good soul, such a loyal - when you talk about someone and you say the phrase “real” - it gets thrown around too causally but Leroy is one of the realest people you will meet. Everyone comes on and talks about their history and why they are here and stuff and if there was anyone to have a sort of free pass to get a little wild sometimes it would be him.- but he is literally the most down to earth guy. I call him on a regular bases and he sees things in a simple and clear way that I can’t see a lot of times when I overthink.
B: Leroy is unlucky too the year he could have won, he was in the final with Nia and hurricane Nia was unleashed - they were the best team but she got kicked off
J: That was when Sarah threw me in - that’s what started the whole “I stole the money -“ that’s what people forget. Everyone remembers me stealing the money from Sarah but nobody remembers why I did it.
B: I remember - you guys were really close and she completely stabbed your back - but that opened the door for Leroy and Nia to be favorites but Nia self destructs - and then Jordan and Sarah end up winning even though I thought they weren’t the best team. This goes back to the luck stuff.
B: I’m watching some old challenges and see someone like Derrick - how much does he weight like 150-165
J: Yeah probably around 165 he’s a middleweight
B: I see him doing these pull the rope type challenges against these guys that are 235 and it takes them like 20 minutes to finally put him away - that dude was unlike anybody.
J: Derrick pound for pound - I will say this, a lot of people are like CT is the most dominant guy - pound for pound, in a physical elimination/competition, Derrick I think is the best most tenacious, most scrappy guy I’ve seen
B: He’s the guy you would have to kill to stop
J: You would need like a baseball bat to beat this guy down and this guy would still - the elimination with Joss that he came in as a mercenary - he had no skin in the game, he was leaving one way or another, it’s not like he’s been fighting to stay in the house, he was getting paid, and he was going against a guy that was trying to stay in the game. For 2 hours, Derrick got his ass beat, stepped on, Joss is a big dude - he just did not give up. Going back to cut throat, after I was eliminated - one of the best eliminations ever. I think it was called Riot Gear or something like that. Derrick was on my team but I was already gone, I think he was by himself - he took on Tyler, Brad, and Dunbar with a riot shield and almost walked out of that. They don’t make them like that anymore. He was cut from a different cloth.
Both reminisce about past seasons like Ruins where there were more crazy fights and about how Derricks losses were mostly flukes, CT eliminations and how he tried to replicate how he beat Darrell when he went against Jay this season which was ill advised.
Johnny talks about how one of CT’s biggest mistake in the Challenge (and that he’ll say this too) was in Gauntlet 3, sending Johnny in and keeping Big Easy who weight 160 lbs and he ended up dying in the final costing him his potential first final win.
Bill asks who is the best female of all time in your opinion?
J: Top 3 would be Laurel, Emily Schromm, and uhh.
B: Would you put Jenny in there? J:Jenny has a very high ceiling. But we’ve seen Laurel have the entire house against her, Jenny - I told her this I did a live with her last night - Jenny you’re going to experience the Bananas treatment where you show up to the house and every girl is going to be against you. She’s very sweet and nice, she doesn’t have that killer instinct like Laurel does - that intimidating terrifying nature about her. It’ll be interesting to see how she does when everyone is against her which is for sure going to happen
B: I have Emily up there too, pound for pound she’s up there - but Laurel had an edge to her that I don’t know Emily has
J: nobody has that - you want her peeing out of your tent, not into it for sure
Reminiscing about Emily winning with Paula who was Johnny’s Key West castmate
Slight teasers for next season - Johnny says he’s not sure what it is but the next season is in motion already. Don’t know what it’s about until they get there, can only guess.
Talks about ideas for future seasons - Battle of the Seasons was good.
Johnny gives credit to Bill about how he was the first person to call the Challenge the 5th major American sport -
J: before we even met, we connected on Twitter and you asked me to go to dinner if I was ever in LA and I told Derrick and he was like yeah he’s the dude that calls the Challenge the 5th major sport in America - you’ve been referring it that way forever now and it’s funny because this season, the fact that all sports are shut down, this was the first time that the Challenge got to step up and fill in the gap that some people had for sports. Every interview I did, US Weekly, E News, it was so funny, everyone is like “the Challenge is the 5th major American sport” and I’m like do you even know where that came from?
B: Soccer fans like to think that they are the 5th but no I don’t think so (laughing)
B: The producer for this podcast - he’s in his mid 20’s, he says he doesn’t watch the Challenge because he doesn’t have cable.
J: What??
B: Yeah they just.. don’t have cable they stream everything. The Challenge needs to get their seasons on Hulu or wherever so we can get the 25 and under - I don’t want it to be what happened to baseball where they were just like “screw young people, we’ll have our World Series games end at 12:30 at night” and those kids grow up and they don’t care about baseball - we have to protect the 25 and under.
J: Yeah that’s incredibly important. Funny thing that happened to the Challenge over the past few seasons - MTV like most networks were really honed in on the 18-24 demographic. As long as those numbers were good, that’s all that mattered. What’s unique about the Challenge, from any other show on MTV is the fanbase. The majority of the viewers of the Challenge are from like 34 to like 54. It’s because we’re the only show that has taken cast members re-cast season after season. Majority of my fans are people that are around my age that have been watching since my original season of the Real World. I think after a while MTV is just like we gotta embrace these fans because they are the most loyal - MTV has the most loyal fans. Rabid and they can be downright nasty at the same time but there are people that come from other shows - Big Brother, Love Island, the first season they do the Challenge, they are like I’ve never seen a fanbase this supportive and this rabid ever in my life.
B: best challenge season ever?
J: personally, favorite season beginning to end was Rivals 1 because it was the first challenge where we had to relocate. First overnight challenge. I will say this til the day I die - the hardest final in Challenge history. That final vicious. Elimination against Adam and CT was terrifying. And winning that final - it was the most difficult. Free agents is right up there too. And this season goes without saying, the internal and external pressure, my legacy, it was all on the line and I can’t say that I’ll make another final or I’ll win again - your guess is as good as mine. Just based on the level of competition and I’m not as spry as I used to be - it’s just getting harder. This one was special
B: last question - who are your 3 people if there was a challenge bff season?
J: Leroy 100%, Laurel- love her
B: Laurel? Because she’s good or because she’s your friend?
J: I love her - both - we have a very tight relationship. I think the 4th would have to be Nany
B: that’s a fun team!
J: not sure how we would perform in daily challenges but we would have a lot of fun

I put this here for my own reference. If you would like something from this list, offer a trade.

Game	Platform	Available	Price
11-11 Memories Retold	Steam	Available
140	Steam	Available
2064: Read Only Memories	Steam	Available
40% Off Resident Evil 7 Gold Edition	Playstation	Available
40% Off Valkyria Revolution (PS4)	Playstation	Available
50% Off Dead Rising 4: Frank's Big Package	Playstation	Available
50% Off Yakuza 0 (PS4)	Playstation	Available
60 Parsecs!	Steam	Available
7 Days to Die	Steam	Available
7 Grand Steps	Steam	Available
911 Operator - Special Resources DLC	Steam	Available
911 Operator	Steam	Available
>observer_	Steam	Available
A Hat in Time	Steam	Available
A New Beginning - Final Cut	Steam	Available
A Story About My Uncle	Steam	Available
A Virus Named Tom	Steam	Available
A Wizard's Lizard	Steam	Available
AER Memories of Old	Steam	Available
AI War: Fleet Command	Steam	Available
Aaero	Steam	Available
Absolver	Steam	Available
Abyss Odyssey	Steam	Available
Abyss Odyssey	Steam	Available
Acceleration of SUGURI 2	Steam	Available
Acronis True Image 2017 (One Year Subscription)	Acronis	Available
Age of Wonders III	Steam	Available
All You Can Eat	Steam	Available
Always Sometimes Monsters	Steam	Available
American Truck Simulator	Steam	Available
Anodyne	Steam	Available
Anodyne	Steam	Available
Anomaly 2	Steam	Available
Anomaly Korea	Steam	Available
App Game Kit 2	Steam	Available
Armello	Steam	Available
Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation	Steam	Available
Aveyond: Lord of Twilight	Steam	Available
Aviary Attorney	Steam	Available
Axis Game Factory: AGFPRO Premium DLC	Steam	Available
Axis Game Factory: AGFPRO Voxelsculpt	Steam	Available
Axis Game Factory: AGFPRO Zombie FPS	Steam	Available
Axis Game Factory: AGFPRO Zombie Survival Pack	Steam	Available
Axis Game Factory: AGFPRO v3.0	Steam	Available
Axis Game Factory: Drone Kombat	Steam	Available
BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien	Steam	Available
BIT.TRIP RUNNER	Steam	Available
Baba Is You	Steam	Available
Ballistick	Steam	Available
Banner Saga 2	Steam	Available
Bastion	Steam	Available
Batman: Arkham Knight - Season Pass	Steam	Available
Batman™: Arkham Origins DLC	Steam	Available
Bear With Me - Collector's Edition	Steam	Available
Beat Cop	Steam	Available
Beat Cop	Steam	Available
Beat Hazard Ultra	Steam	Available
Beat Hazard Ultra	Steam	Available
Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians	Steam	Available
Bejeweled™ 3	Steam	Available
BioShock™ Remastered	Steam	Available
Bionic Commando: Rearmed	Steam	Available
Black Mirror I	Steam	Available
Black the Fall	Steam	Available
Blackguards 2	Steam	Available
Blackguards	Steam	Available
Blackwake	Steam	Available
Blade Symphony + Soundtrack	Steam	Available
BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend	Steam	Available
Bleed 2	Steam	Available
BloodRealm: Battlegrounds "Gaul" Campaign (Early Access)	BloodRealm	Available
BloodRealm: Battlegrounds Debut Champion "Lora" + 3 Elite Packs (Early Access)	BloodRealm	Available
Borderlands 2 DLCs: Headhunter 1: Bloody Harvest, Headhunter 2: Wattle Gobbler, Headhunter 3: Mercenary Day, Headhunter 4: Wedding Day MassacreBorderlands DLC: Claptrap's Robot Revolution	Steam	Available
Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 2 DLCs:Mechromancer Pack, Psycho Pack, & Creature Slaughterdome	Steam	Available
Breevy	16 Software	Available
Bridge Constructor	Steam	Available
Brigador: Up-Armored Edition	Steam	Available
Broken Age	Steam	Available
Broken Sword 2	Steam	Available
Broken Sword: Director's Cut Steam key	Steam	Available
Call of Duty®: WWII - Call of Duty Endowment Bravery Pack	Steam	Available
Call of Duty®: WWII - Call of Duty Endowment Fear Not Pack	Steam	Available
Card City Nights	Steam	Available
Caveblazers	Steam	Available
Cities: Skylines + After Dark DLC	Steam	Available
Citizens of Earth	Steam	Available
Civilization VI - Australia Civilization & Scenario Pack	Steam	Available
Civilization VI - Vikings Scenario Pack	Steam	Available
Closure	Steam	Available
Colin McRae Rally	Steam	Available
Company of Heroes 2	Steam	Available
Company of Heroes™ 2: German Commander - Storm Doctrine	Steam	Available
Company of Heroes™ 2: German Skin - Four Color Disruptive Pattern	Steam	Available
Company of Heroes™ 2: Soviet Commander - Conscripts Support Tactics	Steam	Available
Company of Heroes™ 2: Soviet Skin - Four Color Belorussian	Steam	Available
Conan Exiles	Steam	Available
Contagion	Steam	Available
Contagion	Steam	Available
Contagion	Steam	Available
Contagion	Steam	Available
Contraption Maker	Spotkin	Available
Contraption Maker	Steam	Available
Cook, Serve, Delicious!	Steam	Available
Costume Quest	Steam	Available
Crazy Machines 3	Steam	Available
Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION	Steam	Available
Critical Mass	Steam	Available
Crowntakers	Steam	Available
Cursed Castilla (Maldita Castilla EX)	Steam	Available
Dandara	Steam	Available
Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble	Steam	Available
Darkest Dungeon Shieldbreaker DLC	Steam	Available
Day of the Tentacle	Steam	Available
Dead Island Definitive Edition	Steam	Available
Dead Rising 2	Steam	Available
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record	Steam	Available
Dead Rising 3 - Apocalypse Edition	Steam	Available
Dead Rising 4	Steam	Available
Deadfall Adventures	Steam	Available
Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten	GOG	Available
DeskScapes	Stardock	Available
Destiny 2 Planet of Peace Exclusive Emblem	Destiny 2 Emblem	Available
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut	Steam	Available
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided	Steam	Available
DiRT 4 Hyundai R5 Rally Car DLC	Steam	Available
DiRT 4 Team Booster Pack DLC	Steam	Available
DiRT Rally	Steam	Available
DisplayFusion	Binary Fortress	Available
Divinity: Dragon Commander	Steam	Available
DmC: Devil May Cry	Steam	Available
Do Not Feed the Monkeys	Steam	Available
Dominion Online — Seaside Expansion	Dominion Online	Available
Dominique Pamplemousse	Steam	Available
Double Fine Adventure Documentary	Steam	Available
Downwell	Steam	Available
Dragon Age™: Origins	Steam	Available
Dungeon Souls	Steam	Available
Dungeons 3	Steam	Available
Duskers	Steam	Available
Dustforce DX	Steam	Available
Dusty Revenge: Co-Op Edition	Steam	Available
ESO Vanity pet: Bristlegut Piglet and 15 days of ESO Plus	BAM	Available
EVE Online: Rifter Ship Skin	E3 Digital Ticket	Available
EVE Online: Trial Key	E3 Digital Ticket	Available
EarthNight	Steam	Available
Eastside Hockey Manager	Steam	Available
Emily is Away Too	Steam	Available
Endless Space® - Collection	Steam	Available
Escape Goat 2	Steam	Available
Escape Goat 2	Steam	Available
Eterium	Steam	Available
Euro Truck Simulator 2	Steam	Available
Event[0]	Steam	Available
Evergarden	Steam	Available
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin	Steam	Available
F1 2018 Headline Content Pack DLC	Steam	Available
F1 2018	Steam	Available
F1 2019	Steam	Available
FRAMED Collection	Steam	Available
FTL	Steam	Available
Fastcut Plus Edition	Magix	Available
Fences	Stardock	Available
Finding Paradise	Steam	Available
Flat Heroes	Steam	Available
Football Manager 2020	Steam	Available
Forged Battalion	Steam	Available
Forts	Steam	Available
Full Metal Furies	Steam	Available
GET EVEN	Steam	Available
GOD EATER 2 Rage Burst	Steam	Available
GRAV (Early Access)	Steam	Available
GRID 2 Drift Pack	Steam	Available
GRID 2	Steam	Available
GRID Autosport Drag Pack	Steam	Available
GRID Autosport Road & Track Car Pack	Steam	Available
GRID Autosport	Steam	Available
GRID Autosport	Steam	Available
GRID™	Steam	Available
Galactic Civilizations® III	Steam	Available
Game Character Hub	Steam	Available
Game Guru: Buildings Pack	Steam	Available
Game Guru: Death Valley Pack	Steam	Available
Game Guru: Fantasy Pack	Steam	Available
Game Guru: Mega Pack 1	Steam	Available
Game Guru: Megapack 2	Steam	Available
Game Guru: Megapack 3	Steam	Available
Gato Roboto	Steam	Available
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams	Steam	Available
Girls Like Robots	Steam	Available
GoD Factory: Wingmen	Steam	Available
GoNNER - Press Jump To Die Edition	Steam	Available
Goats On A Bridge	Steam	Available
God Mode	Steam	Available
Gone Home With Soundtrack	Steam	Available
Gonner	Steam	Available
Gotham City Impostors: Professional Kit	Steam	Available
Greed Corp	Steam	Available
Gremlins, Inc.	Steam	Available
Grid 2 Spa- Francorchamps Track Pack	Steam	Available
Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition	Steam	Available
Guacamelee! Gold Edition	Steam	Available
Guardians of Middle-earth	Steam	Available
Guardians of Middle-earth: Smaug's Treasure DLC	Steam	Available
Guns of Icarus Online	Steam	Available
Gunscape	Steam	Available
H1Z1 Trickster Crate	H1Z1 Trickster Crate	Available
H1Z1	Steam	Available
HIVESWAP: Act 1	Steam	Available
HackyZack	Steam	Available
Half Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy	Steam	Available
Hand of Fate	Steam	Available
Hard Reset Redux	Steam	Available
Hearts of Iron IV	Steam	Available
Heroes of Might & Magic 3 - HD Edition	Steam	Available
Heroes of Might & Magic IV: Complete Edition	Uplay	Available
Heroes of Might & Magic V: Hammers of Fate DLC	Uplay	Available
Heroes of Might & Magic V: Tribes of the East	Uplay	Available
Hidden Folks	Steam	Available
HitFilm Movie Essentials	Magix	Available
Hollow Knight	Steam	Available
Holy Potatoes! We're in Space?!	Steam	Available
Hospital Tycoon	Steam	Available
Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora Deluxe	Steam	Available
Humble Indie Bundle 12 Entertainment System	Merchandise Voucher	Available
Humble Origin Bundle 2	Origin	Available
Husk	Steam	Available
Hyper Light Drifter	Steam	Available
I'm not a Monster	Steam	Available
INK	Steam	Available
In Between	Steam	Available
Incredipede	Steam	Available
Incredipede	Steam	Available
Infested Planet - Trickster's Arsenal DLC	Steam	Available
Infested Planet	Steam	Available
Inner Sea World Guide, Strategy Guide, Bestiary, Ultimate Equipment, Pathfinder Society Scenario 7-01: Between the Lines, Adventure Path: Turn of the Torrent (Hell's Rebels 2 of 6), Advanced Player's Guide	Paizo	Available
Insurgency	Steam	Available
Interplanetary: Enhanced Edition	Steam	Available
Invisible, Inc.	Steam	Available
Jalopy	Steam	Available
Joe Danger 2: The Movie	Steam	Available
JumpJet Rex	Steam	Available
Kane & Lynch Collection	Steam	Available
Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth	Steam	Available
Kerbal Space Program	Steam	Available
Kero Blaster	Steam	Available
KickBeat Steam Edition	Steam	Available
Killing Floor 2	Steam	Available
Kingdom Classic	Steam	Available
Kingdom Rush	Steam	Available
Kingdom: New Lands Royal Edition	Steam	Available
Knights of Pen & Paper +1 Edition	Steam	Available
Knights of Pen and Paper 2	Steam	Available
Kona	Steam	Available
LOST PLANET® 3	Steam	Available
La-Mulana	Steam	Available
Labyrinthine Dreams	Steam	Available
Landmark 1-Week Closed Beta Key	Landmark 1-Week Beta	Available
Lara Croft GO	Steam	Available
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light	Steam	Available
Laser League	Steam	Available
Last Day of June	Steam	Available
Last Word	Steam	Available
Layers of Fear: Masterpiece Edition	Steam	Available
Life is Strange Complete Season (Episodes 1-5)	Steam	Available
Lost Castle	Steam	Available
Love is Dead	Steam	Available
Luna's Wandering Stars	Steam	Available
MAGIX Audio Cleaning Lab	Magix	Available
METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES	Steam	Available
METAL GEAR SOLID V: The Definitive Experience DLC	Steam	Available
MX vs ATV Reflex	Steam	Available
Mad Max	Steam	Available
Mafia III	Steam	Available
Mafia III: Sign of the Times	Steam	Available
Magical Diary	Steam	Available
Maize	Steam	Available
Marooners	Steam	Available
Massive Chalice	Steam	Available
Mega Man Legacy Collection	Steam	Available
Men of War: Assault Squad GOTY	Steam	Available
Mercenary Kings	Steam	Available
Metrico+	Steam	Available
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor GOTY	Steam	Available
Might & Magic Heroes VI - Gold Edition	Uplay	Available
Might & Magic Heroes VI - Shades of Darkness	Uplay	Available
Might & Magic VI-Pack	Uplay	Available
Might & Magic X Legacy - The Falcon & The Unicorn DLC	Uplay	Available
Might & Magic X Legacy	Uplay	Available
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes - I Am the Boss DLC	Steam	Available
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes	Steam	Available
Mini Metro	Steam	Available
MirrorMoon EP	Steam	Available
MirrorMoon EP	Steam	Available
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight	Steam	Available
Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine	Steam	Available
Monster Loves You	Steam	Available
Monster Prom	Steam	Available
Moon Hunters	Steam	Available
Moonlighter	Steam	Available
Moonlighter	Steam	Available
Morphblade	Steam	Available
Mr. Shifty	Steam	Available
Murdered: Soul Suspect	Steam	Available
My Memory of Us	Steam	Available
NAIRI: Tower of Shirin	Steam	Available
NBA 2K20	Steam	Available
NBA Playgrounds	Steam	Available
NaissanceE	Steam	Available
Neo Cab	Steam	Available
Neon Chrome	Steam	Available
NeuroVoider	Steam	Available
Newt One	Steam	Available
Nex Machina	Steam	Available
Ninja Pizza Girl	Steam	Available
No Time to Explain Remastered	Steam	Available
No Time to Explain	Steam	Available
Nongünz	Steam	Available
ONE PIECE BURNING BLOOD	Steam	Available
Octodad Dadliest Catch	Steam	Available
Offspring Fling	Steam	Available
Okhlos	Steam	Available
Old Man's Journey	Steam	Available
OlliOlli	Steam	Available
OlliOlli	Steam	Available
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3	Steam	Available
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising	Steam	Available
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising	Steam	Available
Operation Flashpoint: Red River	Steam	Available
Orcs Must Die! 2: Complete Pack	Steam	Available
Orcs Must Die! GOTY	Steam	Available
Outfox	Outfox	Available
Outlast 2	Steam	Available
Overcooked	Steam	Available
Overgrowth	Steam	Available
Overgrowth	Steam	Available
Overlord II	Steam	Available
Overlord II	Steam	Available
Overlord II	Steam	Available
Overlord Raising Hell (Expansion)	Steam	Available
Overlord™	Steam	Available
Owlboy	Steam	Available
Oxenfree	Steam	Available
Pac-Man 256	Steam	Available
Paratopic	Steam	Available
Passpartout: The Starving Artist	Steam	Available
Pathfinder Player Companion: Inner Sea Primer & Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide	Paizo	Available
Pathfinder Player Companion: Inner Sea Primer & Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide	Paizo	Available
Pathologic Classic HD	Steam	Available
Pesterquest	Steam	Available
Pixel Piracy	Steam	Available
PixelJunk Eden	Steam	Available
Plague Inc: Evolved	Steam	Available
Planet Stronghold DLC Key	Steam	Available
Planet Stronghold	Steam	Available
Planet of the Eyes	Steam	Available
PlayCanvas + TANX	PlayCanvas	Available
Plunge	Steam	Available
Poker Night at the Inventory	Steam	Available
Poly Bridge	Steam	Available
Pool Panic	Steam	Available
Portal Knights	Steam	Available
Potatoman Seeks the Troof	Steam	Available
Primal Carnage	Steam	Available
Project Highrise	Steam	Available
Psychonauts	Steam	Available
Purrfect Date - Visual Novel/Dating Simulator	Steam	Available
Puzzle Agent 2	Steam	Available
Puzzle Agent	Steam	Available
Quantum Break	Steam	Available
Qvadriga	Steam	Available
RIVE: Wreck, Hack, Die, Retry	Steam	Available
RIVE: Wreck, Hack, Die, Retry	Steam	Available
RPG Maker: Luna Engine	Steam	Available
RUINER	Steam	Available
Rapture Rejects - Humble Exclusive "Safari Outfit" DLC	Steam	Available
Rapture Rejects	Steam	Available
Ravensword: Shadowlands	Steam	Available
Realpolitiks	Steam	Available
Red Faction: Armageddon	Steam	Available
Reflector 3	Reflector 3 Promo	Available
Regular Human Basketball	Steam	Available
Remember Me	Steam	Available
Remnants of Isolation	Steam	Available
Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition	Steam	Available
Resident Evil 5 UNTOLD STORIES BUNDLE DLC	Steam	Available
Resident Evil 6	Steam	Available
Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Episode 1: Penal Colony	Steam	Available
Resident Evil Revelations	Steam	Available
Retro Game Crunch	Steam	Available
Retro/Grade	Steam	Available
Rise of the Argonauts	Steam	Available
Rituals	Steam	Available
Rivals of Aether	Steam	Available
Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball	Steam	Available
Rock of Ages 2: Bigger & Boulder™	Steam	Available
Rocket Birds: Hardboiled Chicken	Steam	Available
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken	Steam	Available
Running with Rifles	Steam	Available
Ryse: Son of Rome	Steam	Available
SMITE - Almighty Zeus	E3 Digital Ticket	Available
SOUND FORGE Audio Studio 12	Magix	Available
STRIDER™	Steam	Available
STRIDER™	Steam	Available
SUPERHOT	Steam	Available
SYNTHETIK: Legion Rising	Steam	Available
Sam & Max: Devil's Playhouse	Steam	Available
Samorost 3	Steam	Available
Sanctum: Collection	Steam	Available
Savant - Ascent	Steam	Available
Scanner Sombre	Steam	Available
Screencheat Holiday Bonus	Steam	Available
Screencheat Humble Deluxe Upgrade	Steam	Available
Screencheat Humble Store Bindle Weapon	Steam	Available
Scribblenauts Unlimited	Steam	Available
Scrolls Exclusive Avatar Heads	Scrolls	Available
Secrets of Raetikon	Steam	Available
Sequence	Steam	Available
Serial Cleaner	Steam	Available
Seven: The Days Long Gone	Steam	Available
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun	Steam	Available
Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut	Steam	Available
She Remembered Caterpillars	Steam	Available
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter	Steam	Available
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom	Steam	Available
Shoppe Keep	Steam	Available
Sid Meier's Civilization® III: Complete	Steam	Available
Sid Meier's Civilization® VI	Steam	Available
Silence	Steam	Available
SimplePlanes	Steam	Available
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition	Steam	Available
Slime-san	Steam	Available
Sniper Elite V2	Steam	Available
Sniper Elite	Steam	Available
Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing	Steam	Available
Space Run Galaxy	Steam	Available
SpeedRunners YouTuber Pack 1	Steam	Available
SpeedRunners YouTuber Pack 2	Steam	Available
SpeedRunners	Steam	Available
SpellForce 2: Demon of the Past	Steam	Available
Spirits	Steam	Available
Splasher	Steam	Available
Sportsfriends	Steam	Available
Sprite Lamp	Steam	Available
Spriter Pro	Steam	Available
Sproggiwood	Steam	Available
Star Wars™ Battlefront™ II (Classic, 2005)	Steam	Available
Star Wars™ Jedi Knight Dark Forces II	Steam	Available
Star Wars™ Jedi Knight™ II: Jedi Outcast™	Steam	Available
Star Wars™ The Force Unleashed™: Ultimate Sith Edition	Steam	Available
Star Wars™: The Force Unleashed™ II	Steam	Available
StarCrossed	Steam	Available
Starfinder Core Rulebook	Paizo	Available
Starseed Pilgrim	Steam	Available
Startopia	Steam	Available
Steamworld Heist	Steam	Available
Steel Rats	Steam	Available
Stellaris	Steam	Available
Stencyl: Indie Edition 1-Year License	Stencyl	Available
Stories Untold	Steam	Available
Streamline Early Access	Steam	Available
Subterrain	Steam	Available
Sudden Strike 4	Steam	Available
Summoner	Steam	Available
Super Daryl Deluxe	Steam	Available
Super Galaxy Squadron EX	Steam	Available
Super Hexagon	Steam	Available
Super Rude Bear Resurrection	Steam	Available
Super Splatters	Steam	Available
Super Time Force Ultra	Steam	Available
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP	Steam	Available
Superfrog HD	Steam	Available
Superposition Benchmark (Advanced Edition)	Superposition Benchmark	Available
Supreme Commander 2	Steam	Available
Surviving Mars	Steam	Available
Syder Arcade	Steam	Available
Symphony	Steam	Available
System Shock 2	Steam	Available
System Shock: Enhanced Edition	Steam	Available
THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII STEAM EDITION	Steam	Available
TIMEframe	Steam	Available
Tacoma	Steam	Available
Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack	Steam	Available
Talisman: Digital Edition	Steam	Available
Talisman: Digital Edition: Gambler Character Packs	Steam	Available
Talisman: Digital Edition: Martyr Character Packs	Steam	Available
Tannenberg	Steam	Available
Team Indie	Steam	Available
Terraria	Steam	Available
Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure	Steam	Available
Teslagrad	Steam	Available
The Ball	Steam	Available
The Bard's Tale	Steam	Available
The Bridge	Steam	Available
The Dwarves	Steam	Available
The Elder Scrolls: Legends: 2 Card Packs (Skyrim) 1 Event Ticket 100 Gold 100 Souls	Bethesda	Available
The Escapists 2	Steam	Available
The Flame in the Flood	Steam	Available
The Journey Down: Chapter Three	Steam	Available
The Long Dark	Steam	Available
The Lord of the Rings Online: Steely Dawn Starter Pack	Steam	Available
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North	Steam	Available
The Nightmare Cooperative	Steam	Available
The Norwood Suite	Steam	Available
The Sexy Brutale	Steam	Available
The Shrouded Isle	Steam	Available
The Stanley Parable	Steam	Available
The Swapper	Steam	Available
The Turing Test	Steam	Available
The Witness	Steam	Available
Thirty Flights of Loving	Steam	Available
This is the Police	Steam	Available
Ticket to Ride 1910 USA DLC	Steam	Available
Ticket to Ride Europe DLC	Steam	Available
Ticket to Ride	Steam	Available
Tiny Echo	Steam	Available
Titan Quest Anniversary Edition	Steam	Available
Titan Quest Gold	Steam	Available
Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition + Titan Quest: Ragnarok DLC	Steam	Available
Toki Tori 2+	Steam	Available
Tom Clancy's The Division™ - Survival	Uplay	Available
Tom Clancy's The Division™	Uplay	Available
Tomb Raider	Steam	Available
Torchlight II	Steam	Available
Total War: Rome II - Nomadic Tribes Culture Pack	Steam	Available
Tower of Guns	Steam	Available
Toybox Turbos	Steam	Available
Tumblestone	Steam	Available
Type:Rider	Steam	Available
Ultimate Chicken Horse	Steam	Available
Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Campaign, Ultimate Combat, Bestiary 2, Adventure Path: Dance of the Damned (Hell's Rebels 3 of 6), Inner Sea Poster Map Folio, Pathfinder Society: Year of the Sky Key Scenario Mega-Pack (23 Adventures!)	Paizo	Available
Umbrella Corps™ Deluxe Edition Upgrade Pack	Steam	Available
Umbrella Corps™	Steam	Available
UnEpic	Steam	Available
Uncanny Valley	Steam	Available
Undertale	Steam	Available
Uurnog Uurnlimited	Steam	Available
Verdun	Steam	Available
Vertical Drop Heroes HD	Steam	Available
Vertiginous Golf	Steam	Available
Vertiginous Golf	Steam	Available
Victor Vran	Steam	Available
VoiceBot	Steam	Available
WRC4	Steam	Available
Waking Mars	Steam	Available
Wandersong	Steam	Available
War for the Overworld	Steam	Available
War of Omens — Humble Super Starter	War of Omens	Available
Warframe Booster Pack	E3 Digital Ticket	Available
Wargame: Red Dragon	Steam	Available
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III	Steam	Available
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide Drachenfels DLC	Steam	Available
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide Item: Razorfang Poison	Steam	Available
We Were Here Too	Steam	Available
Whisper Of A Rose	Steam	Available
Windward	Steam	Available
World of Goo	Steam	Available
World to the West	Steam	Available
Worms Armageddon	Steam	Available
Worms Blast	Steam	Available
Worms Crazy Golf	Steam	Available
Worms Pinball	Steam	Available
Worms Reloaded	Steam	Available
Worms Ultimate Mayhem	Steam	Available
Worms W.M.D	Steam	Available
Wuppo	Steam	Available
Zombie Army Trilogy	Steam	Available
shutshimi	Steam	Available