Viewing and Voting are now open. You can view and vote on all the lovelies until 11:59pm on September 14. All entrants must vote on all artwork, with exception of the optional categories that you did not submit artwork to. Those who did not submit any artwork are more than welcome to vote.
Now that the important part of the announcement is over with, it's time to air some dirty laundry.
....
Well, what awards cycle would be complete without some sort of drama....and this one is no different. Seems I already get to award the FAIL ribbon to our two cheaters.
During the submission process, we noticed that the image files were being accessed. In short, someone was scanning the image folders on the site's server and looking for changes every 20 minutes. While they were not able to see the images, they were aware of how many entries were in each category. This means that they could wait until the last day and make their submissions based on what categories had fewer items. This person waited until the day before the end of the submission process to enter.
It turns out that someone on the awards staff was aiding in facilitating this. The facilitator mentioned that the person who looked at the files was in debt to them, and is possible that this could be used against the cheater as a form of blackmail.
This really irks me to no end. The awards are a source of entertainment for us. The only thing you win is a little graphic. That's it. That someone would try to gain an unfair advantage over all participants is bad. That someone involved in the awards process would deem fit to possibly use this as extortion really pisses me off. And then, to have the audacity to not only allow this sick situation to play itself out, but to ask that it's not mentioned on the boards....?!
So, Zetsuai and our facilitator (whose user ID will only be privately mentioned to future award organizers unless any more tampering on the site occurs.. ), here's what happening.
1) Both of your entries have been deleted.
2) Both of you are not allowed to vote in this year's Anime Beta Sketch Awards.
3) Whether you both will be allowed to participate in any future awards will be determined by the Anime Beta members. Whether you both will be allowed to organize/aide any future awards will also be determined by the members of this board.
Oooh...I feel much better. And yes, I've always wanted to use that icon.
.
but that little graphic means so much 
