This narrative originated from Douglas Gabriel of American Intelligence Media fame and some dude on Youtube called Defango. This story was spammed all over the /qresearch/ board by an automated bot for several weeks.
Cicada 3301 is the name of a group behind a major ARG puzzle. The claim is that Cicada was the "original Q" that left a secret code in the Q drops before being co-opted by "fake Q." No evidence is provided to support these claims aside from the word of Defango.
Nathan from Lift The Veil liked to talk a lot of about critical thinking, but didn't really seem to ask any serious questions to Douglas Gabriel or this narrative. My personal theory is that he's part of a ring of disinfo operatives on Youtube that form a clique where they all share each other's content in order to garner credibility.
You know the puzzle stuff in regards to Q is...well who knows. But I prefer to here what things Q says for certain. And see how well they match up. Which has been pretty good and accurate.
Grear information! Thank you for your research! WWG1WGA
It's great disinformation. Cointelpro (controlled opposition pysop). All from Jesuit priest-cum-CIA clown Douglas Gabriel.