MrBeast’s camp has pointed to the recent CrowdStrike outage for the harrowing experience people faced while filming the Beast Games in Las Vegas last month. Participating contestants reportedly suffered through injury and mistreatment, while others supposedly had personal medication withheld for lengthy amounts of time while the competition ran.
Participants spoke out about their experience while at Allegiant Stadium on July 18 for the Beast Games, a new television show hosted and run by MrBeast in partnership with Amazon. An Aug. 2 report from the New York Times included comments from several contestants who spoke anonymously so as not to break contractual nondisclosure agreements. Many described the conditions as poor, including inadequate meals and medical care—but a spokesperson for MrBeast said many of the issues were out of their control.
“[The event] was unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather, and other unexpected logistical and communications issues,” the spokesperson said in a recent text message to the New York Times. A follow-up message added MrBeast had begun a “formal review” and steps were being taken “to ensure we learn from this experience.” Amazon MGM hasn’t made a formal statement yet.
The CrowdStrike incident knocked out much in the way of tech and communications globally last month, with the outage affecting over eight million computers worldwide. The incident did coincide with Beast Games, which saw 2,000 people battle it out in a preliminary round of the show. The top 1,000 contestants will proceed to the Amazon show, while the July 18 filming was largely content for MrBeast’s YouTube channel.
Judging by the comments from Beast Games participants, though, it appears the event struggled to operate with such an expansive group of contestants. An anecdote from one player said staff were ill-equipped to handle the crowd of people, and as such, they were “treated horribly.”
From a lack of access to hygiene and critical personal medication (that was taken from them on arrival) to a reported two small meals a day and several hospitalizations, those who spoke up criticized the way they were handled by MrBeast’s team while on-site. “We signed up for the show, but we didn’t sign up for not being fed or watered or treated like human beings,” one player said to the Times in the same August article.
It’s been a month of headlines for the YouTuber, who has been embroiled in drama after he distanced himself from longtime collaborator and friend Ava Tyson over alleged inappropriate comments made to a minor. On the show’s side, Beast Games production is now heading to Toronto, Canada, to continue filming.
