X-VPN’s 2026 Back-to-School Challenge: Emoji Your School Year. Pass It On.

Back to school. Yay. 😐 We can’t cancel your 8 a.m. class, but we can make the semester a little more rewarding.

Start with a few emojis. Unlock up to 90% off X-VPN, climb the leaderboard, and compete for a MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad, and more. Best of all, it’s completely free to enter, with no sign-up or purchase required.

Here’s how it works.

TL;DR

Too lazy to read the whole thing? Here’s what you need to know.

How to join

1. Open the “Emoji Your School Year. Pass It On.” event in the X-VPN app and enter a display name.
2. Create your school-year story by completing the first chapter with up to 5 emojis.
3. Get your personal link and share it with friends.
4. Let your friend open the link and complete the next chapter of your story in the X-VPN app.
5. Keep sharing and see how far your story can go.

How the Rewards Work: Share, Share, Share

• Complete the guided setup for your own story, and you’ll reach the 10% off tier.
• More new friends move you up the discount ladder, all the way to 90% off, and push you higher on the global leaderboard.
• Make the Top 10 and win one of our prizes based on your final rank, including a MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad, and more.
• The runner game is open throughout the event, too. You start with 10 seconds, and every new user you bring in adds another 10 seconds. Longer runs can unlock extra rewards later.

No account or login required. Join for free from September 10 through October 10, 2026 (UTC).

What You Can Win

There are two main reward tracks: the discount ladder and the global referral leaderboard. They’re calculated separately, so qualifying for one won’t affect the other. If you qualify for both, you can receive rewards from both.

Unlock Up to 90% Off 

Complete the full guided setup for your own story to earn your first progress point and unlock the 10% off tier. After that, every valid new-user referral adds 1 more point:

Continuing someone else’s story does not add to your own discount progress. If you only continue other people’s stories without creating and completing your own guided story setup, you’ll remain at 0 progress points and won’t receive a coupon.

The coupons apply to the prices already available on the X-VPN website. So, based on our current website prices, here’s what that could look like:

Yep. Reach 90% off and the 2-year plan could go from $69.99 to about $7.

A few things to know: You’ll receive only one coupon, based on the highest tier you qualify for when eligibility is determined on October 15, 2026 (UTC). To receive a coupon, you must not have an active Premium membership at that time. See Coupons under Terms and Conditions below for full eligibility, redemption, and access details.

MacBook Air, iPhone & More

Every valid new X-VPN user you bring in counts toward one global leaderboard. The Top 10 participants worldwide each win a prize:

There are no separate regional rankings and no random draw. Your position is based only on the number of valid new-user referrals you bring in during the event. Paying for X-VPN won’t improve your rank.

If two participants have the same number of valid referrals, whoever reaches that number first ranks higher. If the recorded time is identical, system record order will determine the ranking.

Extra Rewards in the Runner Game 👀

The runner game has its own separate set of extra rewards. Everyone starts with a 10-second run, and every valid new user you bring in adds another 10 seconds to your run time. So your available time works like this:

10 seconds + (valid new users × 10 seconds)

Your available time is cumulative and resets to your current total at the start of every run.

During the game, you’ll need to dodge, jump, or attack your way past obstacles. Hit an obstacle, fall into a gap, or run out of time, and the run ends. The difficulty increases the longer you survive.

You can play as many times as you like, and your longest single-run survival time becomes your final score. Later in the event, we’ll open a separate reward track based on runner performance, with additional tech and gaming prizes. Full prize details and qualification rules will be announced on this page and in an official post on r/X_VPN.

How to Participate

The idea is simple: start a story, pass it on, and keep it going. You can jump straight in without creating an account or paying anything.

Step 1: Open the “Emoji Your School Year. Pass It On.” Event

Open X-VPN and enter it from the Home banner or the Me tab. You don’t need to provide any real personal information to take part.

Step 2: Enter Your Display Name

It will be shown publicly on the event page, your shared link, generated images, and the leaderboard, so use something you’re happy to stick with. Once submitted, it can’t be changed.

Step 3: Start Your Story With Up to 5 Emojis

Now write the first chapter of your school year. Pick up to 5 emojis to tell your story and complete the setup for your own entry.

Step 4: Take Your First 10-Second Run

Your first runner game starts with 10 seconds on the clock. Dodge, jump, and see how long you can stay in the game. Complete the guided flow and you’ll get your first progress point, putting you at the 10% off tier.

Step 5: Get Your Personal Link and Share It

Once your chapter is ready, X-VPN will generate a personal share link for you. Send that link to your friends and invite them to add the next chapter.

There’s one important rule here: credit is tied to the link your friend actually opens, not to the person who forwarded it. So if you want the activity to count toward your own progress, make sure you share your own personal link.

Step 6: Your Friend Continues the Story in X-VPN

Just opening the link isn’t enough. Your friend needs to complete the next chapter of your story in the X-VPN app. Once they do, it counts as a successful share. If they’re also using X-VPN for the first time, your referral count goes up by 1.

That distinction matters: successful shares show how far your story has traveled, while rewards are based on valid new-user referrals. Existing users, returning users, and your own other devices won’t add to your referral count.

A new user can only count as a referral once. Their referral goes to the participant whose link they used for their first completed story continuation. If they later continue someone else’s story, that continuation can still count as a successful share, but it won’t create another referral.

A Few Things to Know Before You Keep Sharing

There are also a few device rules to keep things fair.

Each device can create one story and earn the story-setup progress point once. A device can also continue the same story only once. That doesn’t stop it from joining other stories, though. The same device can continue stories from different participants, and continuing someone else’s story won’t prevent you from creating your own and joining the event yourself.

Winners, Verification & Prize Delivery

The event ends on October 10, 2026 at 23:59 UTC. After it closes, we’ll verify the final results, confirm the winners, and start issuing rewards.

Coupons and the first physical prizes will begin going out from October 15, 2026. Some physical prizes may take longer if additional eligibility checks or leaderboard adjustments are needed.

Winner Verification

Before any prize is sent, X-VPN will review the winning entries for abuse and verify that the results are valid.

This may include checks on device associations, genuine usage, and retention patterns. Entries involving bots, scripts, emulators, device farms, reset or falsified device identifiers, repeated participation through uninstalling and reinstalling the app, self-referrals, or other abusive activity may be disqualified.

If a participant is disqualified, the participants below them will move up accordingly, together with the prizes assigned to their new positions.

Winner Notification

After the event ends, winners will be contacted through an in-app message on the original device used to participate.

Winners will have 14 days to respond. If a winner does not respond within that period, is found to be ineligible, or can no longer be contacted, including because X-VPN has been uninstalled, the device has been changed, or the device identifier has been reset, the prize will be forfeited and the next eligible participant will move up.

If you’re in the running for a prize, keep notifications enabled and keep your original participating device until your reward has been delivered.

Appeals

If you believe there’s an issue with your verification result, referral count, or final ranking, you can submit an appeal by contacting X-VPN Support through the Help Center in the X-VPN app, using either Email or Live Chat, by October 13, 2026 at 23:59 UTC.

Appeals submitted after the deadline will not be accepted. X-VPN will review eligible appeals before the final rankings are confirmed, and the outcome of that review will be final.

Information Required for Prize Delivery

Information needed to deliver a physical prize, such as your shipping address and contact details, will be collected outside the X-VPN app.

Before collecting anything, X-VPN will explain what information is required and how it will be used. The information will only be collected with your consent, used solely for prize delivery, and deleted once delivery is complete.

If you prefer not to provide the required information, you may choose to decline the prize.

Shipping, Customs and Taxes

Physical prizes will be shipped by X-VPN or one of our fulfillment partners.

X-VPN will make reasonable efforts to minimize customs duties and taxes, but additional charges may still apply depending on the winner’s country or region. Unless otherwise required by law, those costs will be the winner’s responsibility.

If a Prize Can’t Be Delivered

International delivery isn’t always straightforward.

If shipping, customs duties, taxes, or other delivery costs are unusually high, or delivery to a winner’s location is not reasonably possible, X-VPN may provide a similar type of prize with approximately the same retail value instead.

If a suitable replacement can’t reasonably be delivered either, X-VPN may choose to provide the approximate retail value of the prize through PayPal or another available payment method.

If none of these options can reasonably be completed, the prize may be forfeited and the next eligible participant will move up in the rankings.

Terms and Conditions

Organizer and Administrator

This event is organized and administered by X-VPN (“X-VPN”).

No Purchase Necessary

No purchase is required to participate or win. Purchasing or subscribing to X-VPN will not improve your chances of winning or affect your leaderboard ranking.

No account registration, payment information, or real personal information is required to participate.

Eligibility

The event is open to individuals who, at the time of participation, are at least 18 years old or the legal age of majority in their place of residence, whichever is higher. Minors are not eligible to participate.

Eligibility, progress, and rewards are tied to the device used to participate.

Employees of X-VPN and its affiliated companies, as well as their immediate family members, are not eligible to participate.

Eligible Regions

The event is available only in regions where X-VPN may be legally used and is not open in any jurisdiction where participation is restricted or prohibited by law. Eligibility is based on the participant’s location as determined by X-VPN. Geographic restrictions take precedence over any other eligibility category.

Event Period

The event runs from September 10, 2026 at 00:00 UTC through October 10, 2026 at 23:59 UTC. Dates and times shown in the interface may be displayed in the user’s local time zone.

Only actions completed during the event period will count. If a story continuation crosses the event deadline, the time at which the submission is received by X-VPN’s servers will determine whether it qualifies.

Verification and winner confirmation will take place after the event ends. Prizes will begin to be distributed from October 15, 2026.

Nature of the Contest

This is a participation-based, skill-based contest. Winners are determined solely by their leaderboard ranking, which is based on the number of valid new-user referrals generated during the event period. There is no random drawing or element of chance involved in determining leaderboard winners. This event is not a sweepstakes, lottery, or other game of chance. In the event of a tie, the participant who reached the tied referral count first will rank higher.

Prizes

Prize models, specifications, and images are for illustrative purposes only. The actual color, capacity, configuration, and regional version of a prize may vary. Each winner will receive one prize corresponding to their final leaderboard position.  Physical prizes are non-transferable and may not be exchanged or redeemed except as described in the Winners, Verification & Prize Delivery section.

Any manufacturer or brand shown in prize-related materials is not affiliated with X-VPN and does not sponsor this event. Physical prizes and discount coupons are separate reward tracks. Participants who qualify for both may receive both.

Coupons

Coupon eligibility will be determined once before coupons are issued on October 15, 2026 (UTC). Each participant may receive one coupon only, based on the highest discount tier they have reached at the time eligibility is determined. Discount tiers cannot be combined or stacked.

Only participants who are not active Premium members at the time eligibility is determined are eligible to receive a coupon.

Once eligibility has been confirmed, coupons will be issued automatically. Participants can view their coupon code on the event page on the original device used to participate.

Coupons:

• may only be used for purchases made through the official X-VPN website;
• apply only to the first billing period of the selected subscription plan;
• expire thirty (30) days after issuance; and
• may only be used once.

After the first billing period, unless canceled, the subscription will automatically renew at the regular price available at that time.

The coupon code can only be viewed on the original participating device. Switching devices, factory-resetting the device, or uninstalling and reinstalling X-VPN may make the coupon code impossible to recover. X-VPN will not reissue a coupon in these circumstances.

Once retrieved, the coupon code itself is not restricted to the original device, but it may only be redeemed through the official X-VPN website. The event page and coupon-code viewing access will remain available until November 15, 2026 (UTC).

Runner Game and Additional Rewards

Runner-game performance does not affect discount-ladder progress, referral leaderboard ranking, or eligibility for the Top 10 physical prizes. Any additional rewards linked to runner-game performance form a separate reward track.

The applicable rules, qualification thresholds, prizes, and delivery methods for these additional rewards will be announced later during the event on the event page and in an official post on r/X_VPN. X-VPN reserves the right to interpret, modify, or withdraw these additional rewards.

Devices and Fair Participation

Each device may create one story only and may receive the story-setup progress point only once. For any individual participant, the same device may continue that participant’s story only once. The same device may, however, continue stories belonging to different participants. Continuing another participant’s story does not prevent that device from creating its own story and participating in the event. 

New-user status will be verified using device records and app installation records. Existing users, returning users, and a participant’s own additional devices will not count as new-user referrals. Each device may count as a new-user referral only once. That referral will be credited to the participant whose link was used when the device completed its first story continuation.

The following are prohibited:

• bots or scripts;
• emulators;
• device farms;
• resetting or falsifying device identifiers;
• uninstalling and reinstalling the app to participate repeatedly;
• self-referrals, including referrals to your own other devices; and
• any other automated or fraudulent method of participation.

Participants who violate these rules will be disqualified. This may include resetting referral counts and leaderboard positions and revoking any rewards.

X-VPN may review any participation and may disqualify any entry that is incomplete, fraudulent, or in violation of these Terms and Conditions or any applicable platform rules.

Friendly Participation

All content submitted as part of the event may be displayed publicly.

Participants are expected to keep their submissions friendly and appropriate. Display names and emoji stories must not contain offensive, harassing, discriminatory, derogatory, or otherwise inappropriate content, and must not target any individual or group.

X-VPN may hide or remove content that does not meet these standards and may disqualify the relevant participant where appropriate.

Display Names and Public Display

The display name submitted by a participant will be publicly displayed as part of the event, including on the event page, shared invitation links, event-generated images, and the leaderboard. Participants should choose a friendly and appropriate display name that does not contain offensive or inappropriate material or infringe the rights of others. X-VPN may hide or modify display names that do not meet these requirements. 

Display names cannot be changed once submitted, so please review yours carefully before submitting it.

Content Standards

Display names and emoji stories must not contain illegal, hateful, harassing, or pornographic content and must comply with all applicable platform terms. These standards also apply to automatically generated emoji combinations and chapters added by other participants.

X-VPN may remove or reject any content that violates these requirements and may disqualify the relevant participant.

Tax Withholding

If applicable law requires X-VPN to withhold, pay, or report taxes in connection with a prize, X-VPN reserves the right to deduct the applicable amount from the reward.

Platform and Brand Disclaimer

This event is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Apple Inc., any app store, any social media platform, or any prize manufacturer or brand.

Apple, MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and Magic Mouse are trademarks of Apple Inc. and are referenced solely for the purpose of identifying the prizes.

By participating, participants release the above parties from liability arising in connection with this event. Any information provided by participants in connection with the event is provided to X-VPN, not to any platform or prize brand.

Privacy

To administer the event, identify new users, and prevent abuse, X-VPN will collect and process a device identifier associated with the participating device. The identifier will be used only for these purposes, will not be sold to third parties, and will be deleted when it is no longer needed following the end of the event and completion of prize delivery.

Contact information and shipping addresses required for prize delivery will be collected outside the X-VPN app and processed in accordance with the X-VPN Privacy Policy.

Release and Limitation of Liability

By participating, participants agree to release and hold harmless X-VPN, its affiliated companies, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims arising from participation in the event or the receipt or use of any prize, except to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

General Terms

If fraud, technical failures, or circumstances beyond X-VPN’s reasonable control affect the integrity or normal operation of the event, X-VPN reserves the right to cancel, suspend, or modify the event as it determines appropriate.

X-VPN’s decisions regarding event administration and the determination of winners are final and binding.

FAQs