This year’s Cosplay Contest will be bigger and better. Expect to see some glorious prizes for the top 10 best costumes. Taking part in the whole process requires a little bit of commitment and a lot of enthusiasm. Here’s are the steps you need to take to make sure you secure a chance to be in the top 10 and help us create a wonderful stage show full of colour and imagination.
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Sign up for the contest
First thing to do is to express your interest in participating in the contest by giving us a few basic details about you and your cosplay. There are two ways to do this:
- Online: Registrations on the website are currently open and will continue to be so until the night before the event. Signing up online will save you precious comic con time and will allow for the judges to look at and research what you’re cosplaying as – which if not a very famous character will possibly benefit your accuracy mark. Be sure to tick in the form that you will be taking part in the contest!
- On the day of the convention: The cosplay team will be manning a desk at the entrance of the venue where registrations will continue to be open until early afternoon. You will be prompted to register as you walk into the convention. The exact time of the registration deadline will be announced soon. Be sure not to miss out on registering on time! The cosplay desk will be open until the registrations close and will gladly answer any questions and solve any problems you may have.
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Check In
Regardless of whether you have registered online or not, you will have to drop by the cosplay desk and inform us of your presence and ability to commit to the competition. When checking in, you will receive a wristband with your Cosplayer ID. Anyone who registers on the day of the event is instantly checked in. Cosplayers who have registered online just need to come by and pick up their wristband. The check in closes at the same time as the registrations do. You need a wristband with a Cosplayer ID to be a valid contestant.
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Attend the private judging
According to your Cosplayer ID, you will be assigned into a private judging slot (yes, forget the long waiting times). The judging will take place in a private seminar room where you and 9 other cosplayers will be asked to be your best for the judges. If for some reason, you cannot appear at the judging on the time you were assigned, you will have to make sure to attend during the private judging hours (which will be announced soon) and ask to be fitted into the next group. If you miss out on the private judging, you will be disqualified.
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Be ‘backstage’ before the cosplay parade and award show
All cosplayers will have to meet the cosplay team ‘backstage’ (time and place to be announced soon) so we can sort you into your order of appearance on stage. If you are not present, you immediately forfeit your chance of winning anything.
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Take part in the cosplay parade and award show on stage
The nature of your appearance on stage will reflect how well you did in the private judging. High-scoring cosplayers will earn more stage time. As a high-scoring contestant, be prepared to act out any skits you might have in your pocket – maximum stage time will be 1 minute (unfortunately we cannot provide custom music) . If you don’t have anything prepared, you can just catwalk and twirl to show us your awesome costume. Everyone else will appear on stage in groups. You are all expected to BE IN CHARACTER or at least be in a dancing mood (yes, there will be music playing this time).
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Stick around to receive your prize
If you are one of the winners, you will be held on stage to receive your prizes and a whole lot of clapping and photos!
During the private judging will you be expected to do a skit or small showcase of the character?
You need to be in character in front of the judges too. Performing a very short skit, making your character’s signature pose or just replying to the judges in the way that your character would, will win you ‘presentation’ points. I will be writing an article about our scoring system and how to wow the judges, very soon.
Dear Hellen,
How old must someone be to enter into the cosplay competition?
All ages are welcome as long as cosplayers that are 12 years old and under are accompanied by an adult guardian (18+) on all stages of the competition.
oh thanks because im 10 years old.
can you tell me what houre the contes will happend because i want to play in ssb turnament as well
the cosplay judging might clash with ssb, make sure you let us know while you check in, so we can assign you a time slot before ssb begins!
ok i will, thanks
Dear Helen,
kindly tell me how judges are supposed to appraise the in-character behavior if they aren’t familiar with the character or the character is just an art, not being represented anywhere (or MMO character)?