Meet The Lucky Derp Con Winners Who Dressed Up Like 5SOS Superheroes And Showered Michael With Gifts!
When 5 Seconds Of Summer announced that they were hosting Derp Con -- the ultimate fan event that'd unite 5SOS devotees from the globe -- Heart Break Girls and Unpredictables everywhere scrambled to win a chance at punk pop’s hottest golden ticket.
We here at MTV gave a lucky pair of fans (BFFs, specifically) a trip to the 'Con, and the winning pair of besties were Maria Burrell (in the Voodoo girl costume) and her ride-or-die, Nicole Matti (in the Mrs. All-American costume), who flew to L.A. from Detroit. Oh, and, as you can see, they dressed up for the occasion.
And they got Ketchup dogs and 5SOS toothbrushes.
And now would be the perfect time to point out that they both nominated each other by making matching Vines. Because, to totally paraphrase Boromir, one does not simply enter an MTV 5SOS contest without directly involving your bestie.
Maria was at a Hoodie Allen concert, with Nicole, obviously, when she got the news that she had won. “I'd turned my phone off so I could enjoy the concert, and when I turned it back on, I had a DM from MTV saying that I had won,” she told me at Derp Con. “And this is how badly I was shaking,” she said, flapping her hands in the universal fan-girl sign for FUH-REAKING OUT. “I was unstable. We couldn’t focus.”
Maria’s unbridled enthusiasm harkens back to the moment she first discovered 5SOS on YouTube doing a cover of A Day to Remember. She was smitten at first sight, and has been a literal super fan ever since. (Again, please note that both she and Nicole arrived at Derp Con suited up in homemade superhero costumes. Respect that.)
When Maria finally got the chance to meet 5SOS, she did more than just pose for a typical picture with the boys -- she brought Michael a birthday gift, because as any fan worth their SOS knows, his birthday is November 20th, just four days after Derp Con. They also know that Michael is a huge video game fan, so Nicole gifted him with his very own Gameboy, complete with games like Super Mario and Kimpossible, which both Maria and Nicole admitted to playing on the plane ride to L.A. Michael was floored by the generosity of the gift, exclaiming “Seriously? Thank you so much!”
In the aftermath of meeting their favorite human beings on the planet, Maria and Nicole reverted back to that same state of breathlessness and shock that they reported feeling after winning the MTV contest.
“This is the best day ever!” Maria exclaimed. “This is something we will remember our entire lives!”
“It was so tight talking to Ashton,” added Maria. We have to assume, based on these girls’ epic display of fandom, that for Ashton and his boys -- and the rest of the 5SOS Fam at Derp Con -- the feeling was mutual.
