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HBO may have managed to anger more than 100,000 Game of Thrones fans today.
The network announced this morning that it would be revealing the premiere date for Game of Thrones’ seventh season during a Facebook Live stream at 2 p.m. ET today. At precisely that time, thousands of people tuned in, assuming it would be a quick announcement and hoping for a trailer.
Instead, they were greeted with an interactive challenge. In order to get the premiere date, they would have to type the word “FIRE” into the comment section and hit enter. Doing so would cause a flame to appear on screen and melt the block of ice the premiere date was trapped in.
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Unfortunately, this went on for just under 20 minutes ... before HBO shut down the stream entirely, without showing any footage or making any announcements. To say fans were frustrated and left angered would not be doing the situation justice.
It doesn't bode well for season 7 when the GoT team is like "our fans are so invested they will literally watch a block of ice melt."
— Alex Remnick (@AlexRemnick) March 9, 2017
Is it me or did millions of people just spend ten minutes watching a block of ice NOT melt to reveal the #GameofThrones S7 premiere date pic.twitter.com/TN6drn0zJA
— Kat Rosenfield (@katrosenfield) March 9, 2017
When you waste 10 minutes of your life watching a block of ice melt ... Only for the live to end ... @GameOfThrones sort it out mate
— Jess (@ThatJessKid) March 9, 2017
After the livestream ended, people continued to voice their disappointment on Game of Thrones’ Facebook page, calling out HBO for the uncool stunt and making people waste 20 minutes of their time waiting for nothing.
After about ten minutes, HBO returned with the ice block, asking people to continue writing “FIRE” in the comments and waiting for the giant piece of ice to melt. As of time of writing, that’s still going on, with no end in sight.
The premiere date will, hopefully, be revealed soon.
