Bristol GT Best Painted Army Award Update

At UKTC, the integrity of our events is one of our highest priorities, second only to attendee and staff safety.

Over many years, we have worked to put robust processes and procedures in place to ensure that our events are fair, transparent, and trusted by the community. That work is never finished, but we are proud of the high standard of sportsmanship at UKTC event and of the culture of accountability, camaraderie, and fair play that exists within the UK Warhammer 40,000 scene.

Unfortunately, following the recent Bristol GT, the integrity of the voting process for one of our hobby awards was brought into question.

This statement explains what happened, what we are doing to prevent it happening again, and recognises the correct winner of the Best Painted Army Award.

After the event had concluded, we were made aware of potential irregularities in the Best Painted Army voting process. We reviewed the available information and found that the result should not stand.

The issues identified included:

• votes being solicited from people who were not eligible to vote;

• votes being submitted outside the intended voting window;

• duplicate votes;

• and votes being cast for attendees who had not entered the Best Painted Army showcase.

As a result, the award was originally given to an ineligible candidate at the awards ceramony.

We do not take decisions like this lightly. However, in order to preserve the integrity of the award and to recognise the correct result, we have rescinded the original award and are pleased to confirm that the rightful winner of the Bristol GT Best Painted Army Award is Jessie Thompson, for their fantastic Tyranid army.

We would like to apologise to Jessie, who missed the opportunity to receive their award in person at the event. That should not have happened, and we are sorry

.

In response, we will be making a number of changes to our Best Painted Army voting process and event documentation. These will include:

• updating our event packs to make clear what is and is not permitted in relation to hobby-award voting;

• improving the voting process and systems to make them harder to manipulate or circumvent;

• introducing clearer and stronger penalties for anyone found to have intentionally manipulated outcomes for non-gaming awards;

• and reviewing how voting windows, eligibility, and entry lists are managed at future events.

The Best Painted Army Award is an important part of our events. It celebrates the time, creativity, and skill that players put into the hobby side of Warhammer 40,000, and it deserves to be decided fairly.

We are disappointed that our process was not robust enough on this occasion, but we are grateful to the members of the community who raised their concerns and allowed us to correct the result.

Please join us in congratulating Jessie Thompson on a well-deserved win.