Summary of the Monster Energy gear controversy for the first 30,000 people in 2015

There was a big chaos when the 10,000 limited gear application for 2014 happened and the Monster Energy fanatics united in what became a huge incident. And now, two years in a row, we’ve faced another big issue this year…

No information on the official site until the day of the event

Just like last year, there was absolutely no announcement on the official site regarding the number of required serial codes or product details until 10 AM on the morning of July 7th. The press release was sent out to other companies, so Energy Drink Mania consistently posted the latest information. We often received emails from people who mistakenly thought our site was the official one Σ(´∀｀；)

And at 10 AM on a weekday, it finally started. Since it wasn’t at midnight like last time, I thought there wouldn’t be any server crashes, but…

The server crashed, as expected

I was a bit surprised, but the server just crashed as expected. It was so weak that it was ridiculous. As soon as the screen changed at 10 AM, the site became sluggish and the screen went completely white.
There was a lot of disappointment voiced on Twitter about this.

From there, it remained disconnected, and just when it seemed like the connection might finally be stable, a big incident occurred.

Personal information of applicants was visible to anyone

The application process for the gear was:
1. Create an account
2. Log in and register the serial number
3. Select items
4. Apply

However, these registration actions were very unstable, and most people couldn’t proceed. At this time, some could register their information but couldn’t select items, some couldn’t log in, and others couldn’t log out, causing a chaotic situation on Twitter.

Then the incident occurred.

When trying to view account information without being logged in, you’d normally see nothing because no information was registered. However, personal details (like addresses) and the selected gear of about 19 applicants who had already completed their applications were fully visible.

This was a very serious situation, so we tweeted advising people to refrain from registering and some of us also tweeted to Monster Energy’s account about the personal data leak.

By 2 PM, the personal information had been left exposed, and the server continued to be slow and difficult to access.

At 3 PM, with no announcement regarding the personal information leak, the site was temporarily closed, a repeat of last year’s “coming soon” fiasco.

Not only did the server crash, but personal information was leaked

Last year’s limited gear application had everyone panicking when the server crashed, but this year, not only did the server fail, but there was also a personal information leak, which significantly raised distrust towards Monster Energy.

Some people expected the server to crash again this year, so it was still somewhat enjoyable to see how popular Monster Energy was, but the personal information leak was a critical issue, especially given the current trends.

During this time, Twitter was abuzz with discussions about compensation, whether it would be resumed, postponed, or canceled. I thought the worst-case scenario could be a cancellation, but the announcement came that the event would resume on Sunday afternoon. However, no official announcement was made regarding the personal information leak.

The server crashed again right after the Sunday restart

On Sunday, many people tried to access the site, and as expected, the server crashed again, with many people unable to complete the application for half a day. On Twitter, there were complaints about not being able to connect or progress.

The fact that it resumed on Sunday was a fatal mistake, and from what I can tell, it doesn’t seem like the server was strengthened at all, as it crashed so easily…

The nylon jacket never arrived

The prizes were shipped individually rather than in bulk, so there were many who didn’t receive the nylon jacket, which was one of the main prizes. Fortunately, it arrived as expected for me, but it was strange that people who completed their application around the same time didn’t receive it.

In the end, it arrived in September. It’s rare for a prize to be delayed like this. There was a note saying, “We received more applications than expected…,” but since the number of prizes had already been decided in the planning stage, it was unlikely they could handle more than planned, so this explanation left many people disappointed.

In the end, it seems the nylon jackets for the winners hadn’t been produced in the required quantity, or there were production issues such as manufacturing stoppages, transportation problems, or defective products.

This situation was unavoidable, but I think an earlier announcement from the official site would have been better.

It’s a shame that the second large-scale campaign ended in this way. Furthermore, Monster Energy has been running continuous convenience store tie-in campaigns in September, but given the small number of prizes, I hope proper actions will be taken to handle them.