@ayoships

The hook

Spoken: "It turns out Alex Hormozi is running a sales funnel that's so efficient, it was deemed illegal by the government." (transcript renders the name phonetically as "Alex Ramosi") On-screen: green box "EXPOSING ILLEGAL SALES FUNNEL" over a photo of Hormozi.

Full breakdown

1. Hook claims: Grant Cardone, Patrick Bet-David and Jeremy Haynes use it; "HIMS got sued by the FTC because their ads became too effective" (a securities class action search result is shown at 9s). "So just be careful about how you use this."
2. The funnel is a quiz positioned as a "$100M scaling roadmap" offering free personalised business advice in under 30 seconds: fast, free, personalised ("the holy trinity of marketing").
3. Roughly 25% of his 600 Facebook ads (Meta Ad Library screenshot) drive to this free funnel. Every YouTube video has a mid-roll or end screen to the quiz.
4. First questions: name, email, phone number, shipping address (in 2026; reason: snail mail is cheap and works, "when everyone zigs, you zag").
5. Last questions: number of employees, annual revenue (plus net profit margin, partner status, how long in business appear in frames). Honest answers get an accurate roadmap.
6. Logic: headcount decides which stage of the roadmap: just you and no revenue = stage zero; just you with some revenue = stage one, and up.
7. Revenue decides whether you get sales calls: under $250k = roadmap and a value-only path; over $250k = book-a-call page ("Want to learn how to scale your business with us in Vegas?"). Same quiz, two outcomes. (Flowchart shown at 57s, 66s.)
8. Why $250k: Acquisition.com buys and scales companies; under-250k leads are nurtured with free content until qualified; above it his team can sell workshops and consulting now. In 3 to 10 years some may become acquisition targets (ACQ Ventures page shown).
9. Side benefits: leads today, acquisition pipeline, market research, and ideas for his next videos; people give him real data willingly.
10. Generalise: push traffic into a quiz, qualify prospects while giving everyone value, pick who to work with. "You give value to 100% of your leads while only selling the right ones."

Tools & links

• acquisition.com/roadmap (the quiz), ventures.acquisition.com (ACQ Ventures page), Meta Ad Library (to inspect his ads), YouTube.
• Creator's own offer: full breakdown via comment "ALEX" (DM). Handle @hormozi referenced.

On screen

Hybrid talking head with screen-recording cutaways: Google results on the lawsuit, acquisition.com roadmap landing page, quiz field screens (phone, shipping address, employees), Meta Ad Library, YouTube channel, flowchart of quiz branching, book-a-call page, ACQ Ventures. Word-by-word serif captions, creator holds a furry-windscreen mic.

CTA & funnel

"Comment ALEX for the full breakdown." 272 of 285 retrieved comments are "Alex"; the creator replies in comments with "Check ur DM!", "Sent!", "DM'd!" to each (comment-to-DM automation). He sells quiz funnel building, so the reel is a demonstration of the exact funnel type he builds (quiz funnel builder bio).

The format

129 s, controversy hook ("illegal funnel") then a structured breakdown, "teardown of someone famous" format borrowing authority. Screen cutaways every 3 to 6 s as proof. The 575 comments (mostly keyword) feed reach.

Comment signal

• Overwhelmingly the keyword "Alex"; praise ("Alex is genuinely a monster in this game", 93 likes).
• "Quizzes and online assessments made me a fortune. Best lead magnet ever" (41).
• A commenter: "it's not illegal". Creator replies mainly with DM confirmations; no public link.

Apply it

• Ilene Joy: a jewellery quiz ("find your charm/necklace/gift in 30 seconds") that collects name, email, phone (WhatsApp) and budget, branching high budget to a concierge/book-a-call (Ilene's builder has a concierge) and low budget to the normal collection. Works with the "Design your own" builder.
• Healthy Manushya: a "supplement fit" quiz collecting WhatsApp number; sort by goal and send COD offer via WhatsApp; retention-ready lead data.
• Agencies: qualification quiz for Zamn Studios/StudioHRTN/Goodform using monthly ad spend or revenue threshold to route to a call vs a free guide.
• Own content: "teardown of a famous funnel" plus comment-keyword DM reel format.
• Shipping address in lead forms: consider for Ilene Joy gifting follow-up (postcards), but not for India-first COD brand without consent.

Doubts & caveats

• "Deemed illegal by the government" is clickbait and unverified: the cited item is a class action about Hims & Hers (securities), and the FTC claim is not shown; a commenter says it's not illegal. The quiz is not itself the subject.
• "25% of 600 ads" and funnel logic are based on an observed screenshot and may change; collecting phone/address has privacy implications (India DPDP act/consent).
• Creator sells quiz funnels, so the framing is promotional.

Full transcript

[0s] A reverse-engineered block blast to figure out how a free puzzle game makes over $100 million in ads.

[5s] That's more than Candy Crush.

[6s] And it turns out how well you do in the game has less to do with your skill and more to do with how much you're worth to them in ads.

[12s] It takes your phone model, your country, how much your past ads have made them, even whether you turned off the vibration on your phone.

[17s] It all goes into an XGBoost model that runs locally on your phone that predicts how much you can be worth to them in ads.

[22s] Then depending on your value, it'll make the game easier or harder.

[25s] One rule called Boost Then Kill secretly makes it easier so you think you're on the best run of your life right up until you hit your average game length.

[31s] And if it detects a really expensive ad is ready, that's when it turns on you.

[34s] A rule called High Value Ad Harvest confirms that you have a history of watching ads, then helps you beat your high score before it triggers something called the Death Algorithm, which rigs your next turn so there's no way to survive.

[43s] And the moment you lose, the first thing you see is an offer to revive if you watch that same ad.

[47s] And if you do revive, they'll even secretly add 10% to your high score so you keep coming back for more.

[51s] In fact, they even run experiments on the exact minute to make you lose, and they measure which one gets you to watch the revive ad.

[57s] So all things considered, Block Blast isn't really a puzzle game.

[59s] It's more of an ad harvest with a rigged game loop built to squeeze every penny out of you.

[63s] Let me know in the comments what app you'd like to see decompiled next.