"Short Interest increased 162.63% Seems like there are a lot of people hoping for this to go lower......"
The sequence is important. "A lot of people" EXPECT the price to go lower. So they short the stock. THEN they HOPE that the price goes down.
The opposite is also true....I think. People buy the shares because they expect the price to go up, not because they hope it will. You wouldn't buy on hope, would you?