YouTuber ends Compton Pokémon card fight by handing out job applications

YoungFika has gone viral after an altercation with a group of men near a Pokémon card vending machine

As you read this, there are full-grown adults all over the United States staking out Pokémon trading card vending machines. They are there to gobble up all the inventory, and they don't care if that means kids can't get any Pokémon cards. YouTuber YoungFika encountered such people during a Sunday morning livestream in late May. And while the apparent resellers behaved predictably, the conflict concluded in an unusually satisfying way.

The early morning stream lasted around three and a half hours, much of which was spent surveying local Los Angeles shops for Pokémon cards. He found people hovering near every vending machine he visited. Midway through, for example, he found someone loitering in the parking lot who he suspected might be a scalper. They remained in the car, only getting out to surround it with shopping carts. It's unclear if the carts were meant to hold the card products the person intended to buy, but ultimately this move prevented YoungFika from being able to park at all.

"I can't believe how shameless people are," he says.

It's not until YoungFika headed out to buy Pokémon cards in Compton that things really got heated. During his third pit stop, he walked up to a machine to peruse its inventory. A handful of men nearby immediately began grousing. "You're fucking it up," one of the men said, presumably in reference to a vending machine exploit that drops products at a faster rate than intended. By purchasing a pack of cards, YoungFika was disrupting the exploit. The exchange begins at about 2:32:00 in the video below.

"It's a kids game, c'mon, chill," he told them, as they cursed him out. He asked them why they didn't simply buy the cards if they felt so strongly about it. A man covered in tattoos responded, "We were waiting here, brother. We were actually sitting here, doing something."

"Get the fuck out of here," the man continued. "I'll kick the shit out of you."

The streamer then sought out a store manager to report the incident, and returned to his car to interact with his chat. A few minutes later, the same men were next to his car, cajoling him. Though he repeatedly said he feared being hurt, the men taunted him for "acting tough" on stream.

Rather than continue to engage, YoungFika handed one of the men a job application and drove away. "Have a good one," he said to them.

And scene.

Though it was a close call, the clip has gone viral with Pokémon fans who are delighted to see some poetic justice. "CJ went from gang banging in San Andreas to being a Pokémon machine scalper, down bad fr," one YouTube commenter wrote. "Hero," another said. "Fuck the scalpers."