This Cosplay Contest is Unbelievable
I’ve covered some pretty terrible cosplay contests on my channel, but it’s not surprising that I keep running into unfair systems or my fiance getting kicked off stage because there are no standard requirements for these things. So, most of them are banned. But what does an excellent contest look like? Well, I just went to MetroCon where they run five cosplay contests in the same weekend and I got an inside look cuz I hosted one, judged another, and collected the stories of the contestants, the staff, and the judges. Cuz while I was invited to judge cosplays, I really came to answer the question, is five too much for a small con to handle, or are they putting these big budget cons to shame? And first up out of the five was the performance showcase. And unlike most of the competitions I’ve covered before, this one is just about performance. But don’t let the showcase name fool you. This is a competition with awards. Though the actual cosplays don’t factor in much at all. Costumes, the videos, all of the other elements are only judged in how much they add to that storytelling and to that overall performance. And this one had some pretty good MC’s, though I’m entirely biased. And I absolutely love the fact that they actually take the time to explain the contest, what it’s judged on, and who the judges are before starting the show because it ensures that the audience understands what’s going on. And I wish more contests would do this. Because craftsmanship contests in particular are plagued by people who don’t understand what’s being judged, who watch the contest and then go yell online, “Oh, why did the dress beat the mech?” But all the contests had an MC pairing of one cosplay guest and one member of the cosplay staff, which is great because when you have actual cosplayers doing this, you don’t end up with people who don’t know how to pronounce even mainstream character names, which at best makes the audience cringe into the sun and at worst causes that friend in the audience who promised to film that walk-on to not realize it’s them until it’s too late. But we had a call time early enough that I got to go backstage and confirm name pronunciations with each contestant. Granted, there were only 10 entries in this contest, but even in larger ones, contestants usually have a call time long before the stage show starts, and it doesn’t take that long to go down the line and be like, “Is this how you say Naruto?” Nudo. Naruto. Anyway, Metroon also chooses really great judges. Each contest had five and that many judges on its face is a great way to ensure fairness. It eliminates biases and odd numbers mean you can’t end up with people voting 50/50. And these weren’t just competitive cosplayers, but people with tons of experience, particularly in performance, and they included Indra Rojos, who you may remember from Heroes of Cosplay. Yes, I got to talk to her and she knew about the video and she was she was cool with I have a 2-hour documentary on Heroes of Cosplay if you didn’t know. Check it out. It’s good. It’s 2 hours though. But what I loved about this contest is that it’s only performance-based because these are not nearly as common as the craftsmanship contests we usually see. But this gives the people that want to put on a show without the added pressure of having to make a cosplay a place to do wild stuff like be idol Waluigi. That was beautiful. I didn’t know I needed Miku Luigi. Miku. Did anyone else not know that they needed a Waluigi idol performance? I also loved this Moana with her gorgeous flag and fan choreography. I don’t know about you guys, but I cried a little bit. I did. And this adorable Wall-E and Eva pair who had an incredible skit, but I think became victims of a tech error cuz the lights went out on them when they were pulling out some of their most impressive dance moves. And I think we might have a case of the tech team thinking the skit had ended when it hadn’t, which actually happened to me once, but it was the MC’s walking back on stage. But I can’t even be mad because also the queen herself, Yaya Han, shued them off stage. Actually, the only problem with the contest overall was just a couple tech errors. Like there were a couple times we as MC’s would walk back out to announce the next person only to find that our mics hadn’t been turned on yet. So that was unfortunate. But the stage has a lot of really cool tech stuff like a bigger lighting setup than I’ve ever seen and a smoke machine. So it was cool stuff when it did what it was supposed to. It just didn’t always do what it was supposed to. But unlike a craftsmanship contest where the winners are typically chosen ahead of time, the judges were having to write scores as the skits were happening and then needed a deliberations break. So when they need a break, they do what we call the halftime show. In the last couple years, I’ve started to see contests bring in like idol performers to keep the audience in their seats so they aren’t presenting the awards to a completely empty room. But Metroon just played Guess That Song, which I think is more likely to have people sneaking a bathroom break or just leaving entirely. But the judges didn’t take that long at all because they only had three awards to give. And that might seem extreme, but with only 10 entries, I do think that it is entirely appropriate to have fewer awards and fewer entries for performance contests because skits can be anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 and 1/2 minutes. So, the more you include, the longer the contest takes, the more likely you’re presenting awards to an empty room. But I’ll tell you more about how that scoring was actually done when I get to the championship where I got to judge performances. But I had a great time hosting this one. And my only downside is that I didn’t actually get to watch the skits cuz I had a side view the entire time. That’s one contest down. But before I get to the next one, I want to point out that MetroCon was not always like this. When I was at the con, I heard horror stories of a cosplay department feeding the cosplay guests with only Little Caesar’s Pizza all weekend. But last year, a new cosplay department was built from the ground up by Heather and Sammy, the new cosplay directors, who I actually competed against 6 years ago in the same contest as the Yaya Shuing. I reached out to them after the con to find out why they would balloon the department to five contests. Here’s what I found out. This is from Heather. When we were first offered these positions, our CEO, Alex, had initially said that he would be fine with one cosplay contest. But having been competitors ourselves and having been part of Metroon for so long, we drafted up and pitched the five contests to him. He was incredibly supportive and really just let us run with it. And from Sammy, everyone cosplays in different ways and has different strengths. There needed to be a space for makers, performers, casuals, and kids at Metro. And they didn’t just make these decisions from their own experiences. They also reached out to the community, gathering feedback from prior cosplay guests, and they specifically call out Cafe Dwey, an incredible competitive cosplayer who I think was in that same contest, too. So, basically, they did their homework. And while I heard that there were a few bumps in the road last year, the performance showcase was a huge success. But now, we move on to the craftsmanship contest. In this one, the costumes are judged on their craftsmanship alone. Their time on stage has no bearing on their judging and is limited to a short walk-on. The old strike three poses and leave. But that means this contest can have more entries and way more awards that are actually all decided before the contest even starts. Because unlike the performance contest, this one had prejudging. Meaning that earlier that day, each contestant got five minutes with all the judges in a private room where the judges got to see those cosplays up close, examine all the little details, find any flaws, ask questions, and see the build books. Hey, have you noticed my dumb little drawings are kind of flat? Well, maybe today’s sponsor, Skillshare, can help with that. I love my little starfish people, but they just lack so much dimension. So, I’ve been taking this class called Drawing in Three Dimensions by Brett Evston. I did learn perspective drawing like a decade ago, but all of that has left my brain except for this one faint memory of the word vanishing point. So, this class is the much needed refresher that I need to maybe attempt to get some much needed dimension into my little starfish people. But hey, if you like the little animations that I do for my videos and you want to do something similar, you should check out this class called Character Rigging and Animation Fundamentals in After Effects by Megan Frius, who calls herself an explanimator, like explainer animator. And I I don’t know. I really hope that I count as that title, too. Anyway, she takes you through a much more professional and fluid way to animate character rigs than my incredibly lazy shoulder anchor points. But a lot of what she does in the basics of this is exactly what I do to make my animations. I just don’t use the fancy plugins that I probably should, but I’m too lazy. Anyway, Skillshare has tons of classes from worldclass creatives, from renowned graphic designers to professional illustrators to explanimators and entrepreneurs. It’s a platform designed to build creativity into your life by learning from real talented and successful creatives. So, if you’re interested, the first 500 people to use the link in my description or the QR code on screen will receive a one month free trial of Skillshare. get started today. So anyway, buildbooks. Build books are short pamphlets that cosplayers prepare so that the judges can see the work in progress shots of the cosplay and see how it was made. At MetroCon, each judge was handed like a 10-year-old iPad mini, like one for each of us. And they had loaded all of the build books onto it, and it was awesome. And the staff was so dedicated to fairness that they would not allow contestants to leave their physical build books in the room with us, which usually does not happen. But if only a few people leave their buildbooks, judges might be unconsciously drawn to the one still sitting on the table. Okay, it’s kind of overkill, but it’s overkill in the name of fairness, and we love that. I’ll talk more about prejudging specifics for the contest that I got to judge. So, let me tell you about this incredible gaggle of judges. They included my dear friends, Pins and Snip of Pin Snip, who came in second place last year in the Metroon Cosplay Championship, as well as Indra again, Lady Cells again, Charmandanda, and Katie’s Thingabobs, one of the best wig stylists on the planet. And while I was just in the audience for this one, I did get to talk to pins beforehand where I found out that the decisions were super hard to make because everyone in the contest was incredibly polished. Just from where I was sitting, even I could see that. From this jester with tons of gorgeous quilting lines all over their jacket to this giant chomper who designed the cosplay to where they can put on other outfits on it like the hat can come off and they can make it wear another hat. It’s so cool. And then our friend Amanda in her gorgeous no flutter Winnie the Pooh who by the way is the new cosplay director for Dream Hack Atlanta. So if I haven’t said it enough, Dream Hack did ridiculously improve after I yelled at them. Please see exhibit Amanda, who is still an active competitive cosplayer and one of the runners of the best cosplay contest on the East Coast, the Winter Cosplay Championship. So now, Dream Hack, IW, I give you, I crown you as the true best cosplay contest in Atlanta. Granted, I have not actually been back yet, but I trust in Amanda not to kick anyone off stage. And they have a rubric. It’s almost like when you get critiqued by your peers, you improve. But maybe Metroon is in the running for the best on this coast, cuz the contestants had rave reviews for this contest. Big Chomper had this to say about it. We’ve been in a few costume contests up to this point, but Metroon was heads and tails the best. The direction they gave, attention to detail, help getting on and off stage, the holding area, and everyone running the show was the best I’ve ever seen. We had easy access to a restroom, water, and tons of room to sit and stand as we waited. It was wonderful. That sounds like really basic things to be excited about, doesn’t it? You have no idea how bad cosplay contests are. So, I was beyond excited at how well Metro handled us. I’ve never been in the Metro Contest before, but I can say that I get the hype and it’s my new favorite. This year was a blast. And it’s not surprising that every single contestant brought excellence to the stage because this contest is also vetted. Meaning before the con, that person’s entry cosplay or body of work was judged to make sure that they were a good fit for the contest. So, not everybody that applies is going to get in, but everyone that walks the stage earned their spot. Vetting is also the greatest guard against cheaters or sandbaggers. I don’t think there’s any cheaters and sandbaggers in this contest. I’m just fully explaining why vetting is good. If the person has absolutely zero in progress photos, then they lack proof that they made the cosplay and could be passing off someone else’s work as their own. And if the veterans check their social media to see if the cosplay has won a major award before, then they can stop someone from breaking rules and winning in the same cosplay twice. We call that sandbagging for some reason. And once again, the only issue found was the tech because when it came time for the awards, it took the tech people a second to realize that the judges were going to talk and they didn’t turn the music down. All right, for our judges award, we have Tony Tony Chopper. This was just a weird like, oh, I really want to hear pins talk and I’m very annoyed that I can hear music with vocals in it. That Ooh, that makes my brain go brr. The only complaint that I heard from any of the contestants was that it was impossible to hear what was going on stage backstage. And I was backstage for opening ceremonies, too. And I can absolutely confirm you could not hear anything going on on stage back there. But what a wonderfully small problem to be the only thing contestants had to complain about. But that is for this contest. The championship did have a more important complaint. My one personal critique, and this is a nitpick, was that while once again I do appreciate the script that was written for the MC’s. They again explained what was being judged and who the judges were before it started up. But the sponsor awards segment was kind of really repetitive. At embellish effects.com at embellish effectx.com at spraygunner.com. Make sure to check them out at spraygunner.com. And you do not have to explain to me that there are probably some contractual obligations in there, some things they probably definitely had to say. And don’t get me wrong, I love sponsor awards because they’re usually considered minor awards, which means that if you win one, you’re not going to be accused of sandbagging if you choose to enter that cosplay again. Sandbagging is only for like major awards like top of category or best in show. But sponsor awards are the best of the minor awards because they usually have really awesome prizes. $200 Embellish effects gift card. $200 Ardo wig gift card. And they give more people a chance to shine over a specific aspect of their cosplays. Look at that wig. Look at that wig. That’s a great wig. Look at the spiral on that thing. But could we not have just done the sponsor read once and then presented both awards that they provided? And while I didn’t get to judge this one, I didn’t need to to wholeheartedly agree with the best in show. Just look at how many sewing techniques are jam-packed into this cosplay. Those diamonds aren’t just some fabric. Those are individually cut and sewn squares. Those pants, that gold trim, you can’t see those sewing lines. The color wire. Do y’all want to yap, too? I feel yapped. Those shoes though put a hole in their floor to put the holes in the leather. Venil, the winner of best in show, had this to say about competing at Metro. The cosplay department is such a tightlyun ship and they are so incredibly transparent with the work that they do to ensure that us as competitors know exactly what we need when showtime hits. From the organized time slots and check-in process, the cosplay repair at almost every station I can think of, volunteers and stage hand that were there to help with any accessibility thing that you could even think of and more. It is quite literally one of the best contests out there in terms of organization and quality. Oh, and this one also got a feedback panel where contestants got to receive critique from the judges. Another thing I want more cons to do because feedback from judges is invaluable because when you boil down craftsmanship contests, you get artists looking to improve and be recognized for their craft. And the best way to improve as an artist is to be critiqued by your peers. But finally, we get to the contest. I judge Metricon Cosplay Championship. But first, let me give you a proper introduction to my fellow judges. If you’ve been around for long enough, you’ve seen some of these people before. Kosplay won the GCOF qualifier the same year I won the NCC qualifier. Then came back the next year to take the US representative spot for the extreme cosplay gathering. Restar won the GCF qualifier the year after K and went on to win it. They also shared the stage with me at Idol Fest in 2023, the same year they got Chico. Yeah, these people aren’t just talented. They’re some of the hardest working cosplayers I know. Their bodies of work speak for themselves, and I was incredibly excited to finally judge with them. and also Cassandra Cosplays, who I had never met before, but she’s an incredibly talented cosplayer with tons of performance experience, and that matters because this contest is judged on both craftsmanship and performance. So, our day started bright and early at 8:45 for prejudging. This is the room we had for prejudging, and I’m going to draw you how this setup worked because it was pretty interesting and exceptionally efficient. So contestants would come in one entry at a time. A staff member would get photos of them. Then they’d be ushered to the judges table on the other side of the room where we’d get our uplo look at those cosplays to make the craftsmanship decisions for the championship. In any craftsman contest, the first thing we look at is cleanliness. And Paladin Mabel’s Coraline cosplay had as much cleanliness as it did buttons. But in a contest with only a few select contestants, cleanliness is kind of a given. Each one of these builds was masterfully crafted. So, how do we choose one over the other? That’s when we start looking at the variety of techniques used. And this Fire Emblem group had tons of techniques from gorgeously sewn garments to these amazing leather bags, heat transfer vinyl, machine embroidery, stunning wig work, and even weird boot suspenders. And while accuracy is a thing we score, creative interpretations of characters are still welcome and appreciated, like this Okami cosplayer who took the game’s watercolor textures as inspiration to ice dye all of the fabrics for this cosplay. And they made these GA out of real wood. They were absolutely incredible. I got to hold one. They were so precious and perfect. And I think some people have this perception that competition cosplays have to be made out of expensive materials like silk, but that’s not the case at all. I absolutely loved this completely handmade pair of jeans by this Nami cosplayer who purchased the largest pair of men’s jeans they could find at the thrift store, cut them completely apart to make this perfect new pair that included these gorgeous embroidered seams on the back pockets. Yes, I have permission for this close-up of a butt. This work is excellent and needs to be appreciated. We are looking at embroidery here. Please don’t be weird. From my perspective as a judge, this was kind of the easiest prejudging ever because we only had 10 contestants, which meant we had plenty of time with each of them and plenty of time to deliberate. But we also had an incredible rubric. It’s absolutely one of the best I’ve ever seen. My one critique of it is that I wish each of these categories had a printed definition just so that the judges have something to refer back to if they need to argue a point, but what I loved most about it, and this is a weird thing to be excited about, but the fact that the numbers were printed on the sheet, for whatever reason, that just works better with my brain to see the scale of numbers instead of having a blank box that you have to put a number into our scores were then put into an Excel spreadsheet, but those final numbers were not law, but they were a great way to ensure fairness because it also allowed the staff to audit the judges. Cuz if we rank somebody’s straight ones and then decide that’s best in show, that’s a little fishy, isn’t it? And I cannot stop complimenting the lengths that this staff went to to not only ensure fairness, but also the comfort of the contestants. So over the last couple years, it’s basically become standard practice for judges to start prejudging with a very short consent speech. Mine for the last couple years is, “Is it okay if we get up close to you?” Wait for the nod, touch your cosplay, wait for the nod, and then I’d go, “Is it okay if I film you?” But I had Haley do that this time, and it was great. But the staff was actually doing that for us, letting them know that we would be getting up close and touching their cosplays. But this also gives them a way to say no or express concern to someone who wasn’t determining whether or not they would place. And little known fact, competitors are allowed to say no to this. I have had somebody say, “Well, y’all can touch the cosplay,” but then invoke a personal space bubble and then they just picked up their own hem and handed it to me. It works. Anyway, despite us being told that the staff was doing the consent speech for us, it still felt really weird not to do it. So we then just also did it anyway. But the fact that the staff does it too just shows how in tune they are with the standards of the community and their willingness to uphold them. The staff also kind of helped keep those deliberations orderly. Like we still needed to go ahead and find our top contenders for craftsmanship alone, but we wouldn’t be able to make the final decisions now because craftsmanship only accounts for 40% of the score. So, they had each judge rank the contestants 1 through 10, and we as judges were so synced up that all five of us had the same top three, but we’d have to wait for the performances to have our winners finalized. And you get to see that right now because everything in between was in my last video. Go check out the vlog if you haven’t yet. Anyway, judging performances is an absolute whirlwind, but this is where those numbers being printed out just worked with my brain. They allowed me to make decisions quickly without looking down too much so that I could focus on the skit in front of me and still get those scores in before the next contestant took the stage, which was awesome because these performances were great. I was so impressed by the stellar lipsyncing of this Charlie skit. And I was laughing so hard at how absolutely camp this One Piece skit was. I don’t know anything about One Piece. So, it took me a second to realize that the mermaid was big when mermaid whipped out the little Nami figure. I got it. I loved it. And I don’t even go here. And I absolutely loved the incredible composition of the Disney ghost skin. They opened with just the skelly on stage and wowed us with his facial acting and then the bride made the impactful entrance she deserved and they finished off with a lovely little dance. But my personal favorite had to be this Princess Monoke cosplayer who made the entire audience dance with her. And I just can’t put into words how magical it was to be sitting in the middle of the audience at the judges table and be able to turn my head in any direction and see a sea of people dancing exactly as she said. This was fantastic. But I think my favorite dance move was this little twostep. But this is where we get to the single major problem with this cosplay contest. And it’s actually a problem with the con itself. In my last video, my vlog of the weekend I spent at MetroCon, I mentioned that Metroon runs on MetroCon time, which means that everything runs late. For me as a guest, this didn’t super matter. But I was pulled by the contestants of the championship that they were supposed to have enough time to rehearse their skits on the main stage, but because Sunday’s main events ran late, it never happened. I do know that the people in the performance showcase got to rehearse, but the championship did not. And it might not seem like that big a deal, but knowing what kind of stage you’re dealing with ahead of time can be crucial for blocking or even knowing that you need to cut your shoes up like a ballerina cuz the stage is slippery. It’s an important nugget of lastminute knowledge. And it’s unfortunate that Metroon time stole it from the competitors. But God knows I don’t know how to make an entire con run on schedule. So, I don’t know, set everybody’s watch back half an hour or something. But just like the performance showcase, we the judges went off to deliberate while they did some kind of halftime entertainment. They did name that song again. But just like this morning, all the judges were on the same wavelength, so it didn’t take us that long to choose our three winners. Third place was chosen for an excellently crafted cosplay with really unique and beautifully executed techniques as well as a skit that paid tribute to the culture that inspired its source. Our second place went to a very funny skit with probably the most variety of techniques within their cosplays. And our first place went to the Disney ghosts. These two cosplays were gorgeously crafted. And what I never got a shot of was the many layers of the bride’s skirt, her accurate historical undergarments, and the perfectly lined inside of the skelly’s jacket. Plus, their skit was incredibly paced and told a story with very few words. Here’s something Sammy told me about the championship. Our vision with the championship was to build a reputation for Metro in the cosplay competition world with the long-term goal of hosting some kind of qualifier or preliminary for a larger contest and to do an exchange with another convention. But now I bet you’re thinking, Sarah, that’s only three contests. You said there were five. Well, the fourth is the hallway contest, which is open to like everyone at the con. You like get your picture taken in the hallway by the con’s photographer and then it’s awarded at closing ceremonies. It’s very casual. There’s very low stress and it’s for everyone. It’s great. But then the fifth, which might be the best one, is the kids contest whose best feature is the fact that every single child that enters receives a unique award. For the junior cosplay showcase, I was really motivated to create something that would empower and encourage the next generation of cosplayers. We really noodled on it and we came up with a system where every kid gets an individualized award created just for them. We want every kid to leave Metro feeling empowered and excited to continue to cosplay. What I loved most about all of these is the dedication to inclusivity. Every kind of cosplayer has a way to take the spotlight. And cosplay competitions run by competitive cosplayers are just a caliber above the rest. When you’ve been a contestant, you know what makes a good experience and you know what work the contestants have put in because you’ve done it. from Heather. Our top priority is always going to be celebrating the amount of hard work, passion, creativity, and in many cases, blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into each competitor’s costume or performance. So, honestly, just putting energy towards and doing everything in our power to make sure that we have created a fair, uplifting, and encouraging environment conductive to showcasing and celebrating the absolute artistry of our craft. Do you hear that? our craft. This staff knows that competitions are how we as craftsmen push ourselves to grow and how we find friends who share the same corner of this hobby. And no matter what corner you’re in, everybody gets a chance to shine. Thank you so much for watching. If you want to support the channel directly, you can check out my Patreon. You’ll get some exclusive content. But if you’re just watching, liking, commenting, subscribing, or sending the video to your mom or subscribing, please subscribe. Then you’re supporting the channel, too. So, thank you. A special thank you to Heather and Sammy for one having me, but also giving me like a six page response to the like five interview questions I gave y’all. Thanks. If that wasn’t enough to prove to y’all that the people running this really care. They sent me a six- page response to like five questions. They care. Anyway, but the biggest thank you to my newest big support tier patrons. It’s just Kick, Cryana, Shannon, Artemis Creates, Frankie, Fitzy, Creat, Ray, Mary, and Morphantra creates. Thanks for watching. Bye.
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