Is it unclear? I understand giving him the benefit of the doubt, but the cards are supposed to be from his personal collection. He worked with CGC to help authenticate them, FFS. I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario where he wouldn't be involved somehow.
I spoke with Pokemon Center support this evening. The e-mail was not sent to everyone, and only those who received it are eligible for the promotion. If (like me) you've mysteriously stopped receiving the marketing e-mails, you're SOL.
Assuming the typical lack of playability from the Starter Decks, that's a lot of really cool Pokemon (Snorlax, Lugia x2, Kyogre, Dialga, Reshiram, Xerneas, Zacian) getting garbage ex-es.
The Lugia / Unown V boxes at least had exclusive English promos. The Terapagos ex should as well, since they're described as "promos" as opposed to regular ex-es.
I'm shocked that no one at GameStop is smart enough to request that 5ban comes up with a different pose to at least put something...