The media portrays it as "Redditors take on hedge funds". In reality, the volume indicates there's hedge funds, as well as a broad group of retail investors from outside Reddit, who have all jumped on the train. Hedge funds are on both sides of this.
yes, there are large whales that are long on gme. yes, a lot of retail investors have jumped on it. reddit is the propaganda machine that ignited the fire
A strat that quant funds use are algorithms that look for movement in the market. When they noticed an uptick in gamestop they bought in. When they buy in the price goes up which signals to other algorithms to also buy in. Thus raising the price and causing a tsunami.