On October 17th, the Missuniverseorg.com website, run by the Miss Universe Organization (MUO), announced the list of 125 contestants competing in this year's competition and launched the voting for the top 30 most popular contestants. However, the list did not include representatives from six Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and Thailand .
Previously, MUO repeatedly emphasized that due to copyright issues with Mr. Nawat, the six representatives mentioned above were ineligible to participate in this year's competition.