Amazonian Cosplay vs Warped Con
You’d be hard pressed not to have heard about the Warped Con controversy that took over the end of 2019. Amazonian Cosplay, who goes by Beth, took to Facebook to stand up for herself against a Convention who were trying to keep her rightfully won prize money from her. After competing in the Cosplay Competition at Warped Con, Beth was continuously ignored to the point that all she could do was attempt to take legal action, The Cosplay Journal took the opportunity to talk to her about the whole situation.
Daisy: So this is about your experiences with Warped Con and the way they dealt with your case, could you just give a short rundown of what happened?
Beth: Well the day was like any other competition I've entered. Go to the event, pick up my ticket, get judged and then do the performance. Same as any other competition. The winners of this competition are announced, and I had won!
They took all my details down and I was wished on my way, online it said I would get paid within eight weeks. And then I hear nothing, for eight weeks (laughs).
D: So you contacted them through social media?
Beth in her winning Cersei costume on the Iron Throne at Warped Con
B: Costume and Play organised the competition for Warped Con, they'd been hired to organise it. They were actually the only people I was able to get in contact with. They said "yes, the trophy's in progress, you'll get sent your certificate" which they sent out. About six weeks after the competition they told me that Warped Con had decided to pay all the winners directly so there was nothing else Costume and Play could do and that was the last I heard from them.
So I tried to contact Warped Con. I emailed them, Facebook messaged them, tweeted them, messaged them on Instagram, I made Facebook posts and tagged them in it and they didn't respond to a single thing. I was basically asking as politely as I could, “where's my money?” We were approaching the end of the eight weeks at this point and that's what their T&Cs said. And then we hit the end of that timeframe and so the day after I sent them another Facebook message, saying. "If you don't pay me or respond to me I'm going to seek legal action". And they didn't like that.
D: Aha, no, they didn't.
B: So they responded to me at about 3am saying "While we understand that you are going to be paid, you cannot speak to us this way, who do you think you are". They even wrote the phrase "We are not your lap dogs" because I threatened legal action. Which was great, any excuse for the total radio silence for the last 9 weeks, all I couldn’t think was “what's going on?”.
About 20 minutes after this last message to me [Warped Con] made a public Facebook post disqualifying me, claiming that I cheated and that it was not in the "spirit" of the competition to let me win.
The original public statement from Warped Con regarding Beth’s removal from the 1st Prize spot
D: As I understand it, their public excuse was that you knew the judges and were associated with them?
B: No that's the thing, it wasn't even the judges, I'd never met any of them before, I couldn't even to this day tell you a single name of any of the judges. It was the fact that I have previously worked at a single event with Jess, who runs Costume and Play. I guested for them in April 2019 at Insomnia. So their reasoning was because I had worked with them, which they claimed was against the rules. Not only was it not against their published rules, which I know because I looked through their entire T&Cs, but also the third place winner, who they actually paid, had guested with Costume and Play a week prior to Warped Con.
D: So they seemed to be grasping at any excuse to dig you out. Obviously they were a new event, but they were still a company, what was it like to have to go up against a company who was trying so hard to publicly slander you?
B: They clearly didn't want to pay, but it was quite fun to be honest (laughs). It was on Halloween, and it really did shake me that they'd done this big public post, which they then banned me from so I couldn't even go and defend myself. I've been doing this for nine years now and I've never before been treated that way. To have someone say that I didn't deserve to win, that I could only win if I'd been colluding with the organisers really hurt. I'd spent two years making that costume and to have them say it wasn't a costume worthy of winning for what it was really hurtful.
D: Understandably so! In the past social media has really fuelled the drama fire but do you feel it sort of helped you this time?
B: Oh definitely, because if I hadn't made the Facebook post and that hadn't gone around then nobody would have cared and nobody would have known about it. Nobody really knew the event existed so if I hadn't done that then nothing probably would have ever come from this and when it came to the legal claim I wouldn't have had nearly as much evidence as I did as every time they opened their mouths and made public comments they helped my case. The fact was I was just going to seek action because they hadn't paid me, but then they made posts slandering and trying to defame me with contradictory comments, they completely destroyed their own argument.
It really is crazy how widespread this all went. I mean I've seen other people post about not getting paid before but I don't think anyone has ever pursued legal action and I don't think there's ever been a convention that's fought back so publicly before. People all over the world were talking and reaching out about it.
D: The situation was clearly handled very poorly on their part, do you have any feelings towards how they should have handled it? Other than just paying you, of course.
B: The thing is, this should never have happened. If you're going to rescind a prize because of suspected collusion and it was unfairly won, you do it immediately after the decision’s been made, you don't wait until the deadline to pay has passed and then decide only after being pressured to pay that you're going to change who the winner was. It just means all your integrity and so called "preserve the spirit of the competition" mind set has gone out the window.
D: I totally agree. There have been other stories in the cosplay community of companies trying to take advantage of cosplayers, did you feel it was similar to any of these other situations?
B: To be honest with all the other events and companies I've worked with, the bigger companies have always treated me better than the smaller ones because they actually know what they're doing. In 2019 I worked with Cartoon Network and Netflix and both of them were so professional with responding in a timely manner and paying me promptly. They treated me well. But then there's been other companies that have approached me and wanted me to work unpaid and without expenses, and then insulted me when I said I wouldn't do it. Some have even said "you can make your money back off of what you sell on the table", it's just out of order.
Beth’s promotional cosplay photo’s for Netflix’s Disenchantment
Photographed by Kerrit Cosplay and Photography
D: You were just talking about big vs. small business and creators and the need to be paid, how do you feel about small creators who are upfront about not being able to pay per se money wise but able to return "pay" in other ways like transport or food etc.?
B: I think as long as it's an equal trade. If someone wanted me to work for free but they'd be making a lot of money of my work then no, I wouldn't do that. But if there's a skill swap and it's an equal trade then it's okay. I asked Kerry to take the photos for the Netflix shoot and I paid her, because whilst we do work together and she has done other photos for me for free in the past, I was making money off of the shoot so therefor I was always going to pay her. So as long as all involved are equally benefiting, I think it’s okay.
D: You have a fair bit of experience in all of this now and I'm curious how best you feel cosplayers can go about making sure their work is properly valued and paid for?
B: The biggest thing is, standing your ground. Don't bow down because you want the exposure. Don't be afraid to say no. I find a lot of people will give in to really awful working situations because it's a foot in the door but it's not if you're not being treated well because it means it's not a company you want to be working with. You're an adult, you don't, can't and shouldn’t work for exposure. Cosplay is such a community based industry that's built on social media and popularity so people are willing to get walked all over and exploited for the work that they're doing. People need to realise it's okay to say no even if it's a job you really want, you should say no if they're not willing to give you what you're worth.
D: There's just so much pressure in the cosplay community to monetise your hobby, and you're so right that all these people who do choose to do that should stand up for themselves and hopefully your experience here will help people follow your lead and value their time and work better. Rounding up, with this case now over, are you able to talk a little about all that?
B: After the Facebook post was made by Warped Con I proceeded to take legal action. I approached small claims court, I paid £60 to submit my claim and then I had to wait for them to respond. They had three weeks and decided to wait until the very last day to respond to the claim before refuting it so then I had to wait another three weeks for them to respond. It got to the stage where the mediator recommended we go to court as we just weren't getting anywhere. Then the day I received my court documents I got an email from Warped Con stating that they would like to pay me my money and offer me a formal apology. We were due to go to court next month and they stated that they would pay within the week. Which they now have. It is what it is and I’m glad it’s over.
D: Personally I'm really proud of you for standing up and showing the community that you can say no and stand for the rights you deserve. I really hope it's a turning point for companies to see that you can't belittle this community. I think you've handled it admirably. I guess all I have to ask now is what does the future hold for Beth, what are you going to be doing in 2020?
B: What doesn't the future hold? The world is mine. I'm currently working on my next competition costume, I just got accepted in to the CosXpo Championships in my Wonder Woman costume and I hope to enter the ECG Qualifiers later on in this year. Just carrying on to the next project, always.
You can find more by Beth on her website or on her social medias; Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We attempted to contact Warped Con for a comment regarding their side of the story but were unable to reach them.
We reached out to Warped Con to make a statement about what happened but have not heard from them and it seems all their social media has been shut down or are inactive. If anyone from Warped Con would like to talk to us, please reach out.
