well, nothing is guaranteed and the contests have lots of good entries but not many of it are done at a professional level so may be worth the shot
I don't think it's pure waste
I like the idea of thinking in bets.
just to make it clear I see no big problem on commissioning someone to participate unless it's clearly against the rules
It's against the rules of the contest since it was clearly stated the you need to submit your
own art as entry for the contest but it's still up to you on how you will handle guilt since there is no way to determine if your entry is commission or not if it's done outside the forum but the stated it was forbidden..
But once you know that it's prohibited then why you should do that if you want to participate in any kind of contest you must follow the rules and regulations first to be qualified in the winner spot but you are right mate its up to the contestant if how he handled this kind of situation. Cause if you break the rules, remember this that if you cheat the contest then it's equivalent that you cheat your self.