Atomic Mass Games Names Winners of Marvel Crisis Protocol Painting Contest

Kyle Dalton's Spider-verse diorama "Collapse" took the top prize at Atomic Mass Games' Path of the Worthy competition, held at AdeptiCon 2026 at the Baird Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dalton claimed the Worthy award, the contest's Best in Show honor, beating out a field of Marvel: Crisis Protocol painters who submitted entries across four categories during the March 25-28 entry window.

Three other major awards were handed out alongside Dalton's win. David Diamondstone earned the Thor's Hammer prize for a single miniature depicting Gambit. Kevin Witt and Chris Velez each claimed Chosen prizes: Witt for a dual-miniature scene pairing Hulk against Thor, and Velez for a Rhino entry.

The Path of the Worthy has run at AdeptiCon since its 2023 debut, and the 2026 edition featured four distinct categories: single miniatures, dual miniature scenes, squad entries, and The Destined, a second dedicated single-miniature category. That structure is deliberate. AMG designed it to reward both the kind of elaborate exhibition piece that takes months to build and the tightly executed, tabletop-ready paintjob that most collectors actually field on the game mat. The award ceremony itself ran Sunday morning, March 30, capped at 50 seats in Hall C.

The contest uses an open judging format. Painters first earn Chosen status by crossing a merit threshold, receiving bronze, silver, or gold coins. From that Chosen pool, judges identify the Mighty (Best in Category) and ultimately the Worthy (Best in Show). That tiered approach means a painter who isn't competing at Dalton's level can still walk away with hardware rather than simply losing to a single dominant entry.

Dalton's "Collapse" is exactly the kind of piece that circulates hard on social media in the days after a convention. The Spider-verse visual language is immediately legible to anyone who's seen the films, and that IP-specific framing does real work in a competition built around licensed characters. Diamondstone's Gambit and Witt's Hulk vs. Thor scene operate on the same principle: the characters carry built-in drama, and the best entries in this competition exploit it rather than fight it.

For anyone studying the winners' gallery before the 2027 edition, Witt's dual-miniature piece is worth extended attention. Staging two large Marvel characters in a scene with clear visual weight and tension is genuinely difficult, and a Chosen prize for that entry confirms the judges noticed. Dalton's Best in Show result, meanwhile, extends a pattern the Path of the Worthy has rewarded consistently since launch: narrative ambition paired with the technical execution to back it up.