It didn’t break last year’s record but it came pretty close. The yearly online version of ‘The Hunger Games’ where hundreds of thousands of geeks fight to the proverbial soul sucking death to obtain the golden ticket – yes, folks, I’m talking about the quest to obtain online a San Diego Comic Con badge – began and ended in 93 minutes.

Soul sucking is putting it mildly as badges for the crown jewel of comic conventions officially went on sale today, February 16, at 9AM PST. By 9:06, many people were receiving this notice:

“We are sorry, but the EPIC online waiting room has reached capacity and it is unlikely that badges are still available. Please click here to return to the Comic-Con website. If you were unable to purchase a badge today, please check our website frequently or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for important badge resale announcements later this year.”

By 9:55AM, 4 day passes and 4 day passes with the preview night (costing $150 and $175 each) were sold out. 15 minutes later, Friday and Saturday badges were gone and by 10:35 it was all over.

Wails of unsuccessful potential buyers were heard across Facebook and Twitter complaining about the same issues the site had last year: server errors, site crashes and permanent over -site capacity messages. Some just felt the need to wail:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year, SDCC did admit there were problems in their process and like last year, the organizers will be offering a resale opportunity telling those who were left empty handed to “check our website frequently or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for important badge resale announcements later this year.”

So were you able to get a badge? Let us know below and maybe we can set up a ScienceFiction.com meet up!