Alleged Fraud @ Golden Daemon Chicago '09

Sad news to report today. Dave Taylor alleges that a GD entrant - Marc Schmelze - entered two minis (pictured below) under false pretenses.




Both entries won Gold at this year's Golden Daemon Chicago. However, they were not painted by Mr. Schmelze, but were commissioned pieces done by Karol Rudyk for Mr. Schmelze. GD rules clearly state:

"We will not accept any entries on behalf of competitors who are not in attendance at the event....All models should be the work of a single hobbyist. All work on models entered into the Golden Demon including but not limited to painting, modeling, converting, after-market sculpting, and basing must be performed entirely by the entrant. Neither models obtained from someone else in any state of completion nor collaborative efforts may be entered. Anyone found violating this rule will be immediately disqualified and forbidden from entering future Golden Demon painting competitions." [my bolding]

Whether or not this was a blatant illegal entry or simply a case of rules being overlooked, it appears that both Mr. Schmelze & Karol Rudyk knew that this work would be entered in the GD, as Karol's CMON pages were immediately updated with their GD Gold status after the event.

Whatever the case, let's all hope that GW does the right thing: Take back all trophies, bump all 2nd-4th place entries up to 1st-3rd, and ban both Mr. Schmelze & Karol Rudyk from competing in any further GW painting competitions.


Update! 8/7/09

The following was posted on the CMON forums:

Hey all,

We are aware of what is going on with Marc's entries and have sent him an email regarding his pending disqualifications. As we don't have ALL the facts in just yet, we are apprehensive about taking action immediately until we hear his side. All evidence is pointing to the worst, but it's only fair to hear his story.

We hope to do the following to amend the situation provided that Marc's entries are indeed disqualified:

1. Post the amended winners and notify those who earned 4th place they have received an award.

2. Notify those that won awards in the Open, WFB Regiment, and WFB Monster categories that they should send their golden demon statues back to us at the HQ for re-distribution.

3. Send out the appropriate awards and post the coverage with the correct winners. As it stands, if those three entries are disqualified, the following people will win the awards:

Warhammer Monster
Gold - Kyle Morgan - Chaos Giant
Silver Dave Pauwels - Rat Ogre
Bronze - James Wappel - Slann Mage Priest

Warhammer Regiment
Gold - Kyle Morgan - Red Great Swords
Silver - James Wappel - Salamander Hunting Pack
Bronze - Dylan Gauker - Nurgle Beastmen

Open
Gold - Tim Lison - The Fall of Egrehafen
Silver - Chris Borer - Night Goblin Boss
Bronze - John Shaffer - Snikrot on Rynn's World

I'm sure it may raise eyebrows that my name is on this list, but I assure you I in no way had any influence over the judging of the Open nor was Tim or I even in the vicinity during judging of that category. We always choose a 4th place in case of tomfoolery, and I was lucky enough to be chosen for 4th in a pretty tough category.

Thanks again to those of you that keep an eye out for such things - we will certainly put into place measures to help ensure honesty during the registration process for next year. Unfortunately we often don't know until well after the fact. We're open for suggestions on how we can avoid this sort of thing in the future as it seems to happen in the US all too often. Please post your suggestions here if you like.

If you have any further questions or concerns, just shout!

john.shaffer@games-workshop.com

John Shaffer
Golden Demon Staff