Full refunds to be given to Miss Universe live stream ticket holders after prelims malfunction

Just before the Miss Universe preliminaries began on Thursday morning (Philippine time), the streaming website Live Bash crashed, forcing the streaming site's CEO Amy Emmerich to issue a statement and advised ticket holders and pageant fans to turn to YouTube instead.

"The viewership and ticket purchasing from our fanbase overwhelmed the Live Bash host site, so in order to avoid any delays we are pushing to YouTube! Available for all, live from beautiful El Salvador! Head to our channel now!" She said.

Ahead of Friday's national costume competition, Live Bash sent out an advisory to ticket holders saying they "will be providing full refunds to all customers who purchased virtual tickets for the Preliminary Competition."

"No further action is required on your part. Your refund will be processed within approximately 5-10 business days," it added.

In its advisory, Live Bash also apologized "for the confusion and frustration many of you faced while trying to access our livestream."

"Your overwhelming passion and enthusiasm were too much for our servers to handle and we faced unexpected technical difficulties," Live Bash explained.

The Miss Universe national costume competition on Friday will be streamed on YouTube for free, and "All customers who purchased virtual tickets to the National Costume Show will also be receiving a full refund," Live Bash said.

The preliminaries quickly became a trending topic of social media on Thursday, thanks to the visible results of Miss Universe changed rules. Included in the 84 beauty queens vying for the crown are two trans candidates, a plus-sized model, Pakistan's first-ever participation, and two married mothers.  

In the pageant-crazy Philippines, Michelle Dee also turned viral after putting on an incredible performance. 

She took to Instagram to thank her supporters and promised to give another fantastic show at the natcos. 

— LA, GMA Integrated News