AU Top DAUG (Finally!!!)

After 5 years of being in the Top Ten in AUGI's Top DAUG contest after the written portion I have finally made it to the top position, after being runner-up last year (2005) in Orlando during AU.  I placed in the top spot during the CAD Camp in Minneapolis in 2005. Congrats to Craig Black for coming in second place (for the second time) and also KaDe King for landing in third place after making it into the top ten two other times, but not knowing she did.  Also congrats to everyone else that participated in the top ten and the AUGI Top DAUG contest.

Now that I have won it, I am no longer eligible to participate, as AUGI doesn't allow past winners to participate again in future Top DAUG contests... some might feel this rule is unfair but it is the right thing to do in my opinion and has been a rule since the first contest 5 years ago. So good luck to both Craig Black and KaDe King, hope you both win the AUGI Top DAUG contest in the future as you both deserve it. Both Craig and KaDe have placed in the Top Ten multiple times each at past AU's, Craig has placed second twice now.

(I will post pictures of the top 3 and the trophy that AUGI handed out once my luggage has been found by the airport, one of the many reasons why I dislike flying so much.)

Update: My luggage has been found on Saturday sometime, but never received a phone call from the airlines that it was ready for pick up.

 
Left to Right: Me (Lee Ambrosius), Crag Black, and KaDe King

Sincerely,
  Lee

Comments

[Tommy Shumpert]

Nice Job. You forget to mention that you won by default. R.K. McSwain Won, and for some stupid rule AUGI does not let the king stay on top.

[Steven Papke]

Congrats man...it only was a matter of time.

[Lee Ambrosius]

While the rule might seem stupid, it has been in place since Chris Linder won the first Top Daug contest 5 years ago in 2001. David Harrington has asked a number of times to participate again since he won it 3 years ago and the rule is always upheld. R.K. McSwain should have been removed from the top ten due to him winning last year, but this was not caught until late in the morning and he was informed prior to sitting down and taking the drawing portion of the test.

The issue of filtering out past winners is being addressed to eliminate this from happening in the future through the test itself and not just a few of us trying to monitor who is and who isn't taking the test. I do acknowledge that R.K. McSwain did complete the test and was the most accurate at it, but the ruling to eliminate him from the finals was a fair one since the rule has been in place for 5 years. If the rule was not unheld, it would have been unfair for us to not let other past winners at AU this year not take the test altogether.

[RobiNZ]

Congratulations!

[Troy Gates]

Good job KaDe King. Top female AutoCAD user!!!

[David Harrington]

Congrats fellow TD! No more fun for you now! Perhaps another organization will conduct their own contest next year so once again we will be allowed to compete! BTW, I did win the Avatech Solutions AutoCAD test, a nice $250 that I left in Vegas. Thanks Avatech!

[Misha]

Congrats man, you finally did it!!!

[Shaan Hurley]

I want to see a competition of past Top DAUGs next year, a duel for DAUG Master of the Universe. My money is on Harrington or Bell overall although I would lay my money hands down on Lee for any AutoCAD knowledge based competition as he knows more about AutoCAD than most anyone else I know.

I think the no two in a row rule is a good one otherwise I am not sure there would have been a change over the past few years with Harrington or Bell making it no fun for anyone else to win. We would have to wait for them to not attend AU or get old to have a chance. :-)

[Mich]

A past Top Dog live face off would be good. Maybe Howie Mandel could host.

[Lee Ambrosius]

We have actually talked about doing a contest with all past Top Daug's at an AU event since we are no longer able to win top honors anymore.