Watch The Cosplay Virtual Competition And See the Winners

This past Saturday during ReedPop Metaverse, Cosplay Central hosted our very first Cosplay Competition. While we may not have been able to host in person, the virtual competition was still just as exciting.

Premiering on New York Comic Con's YouTube channel, the competition was hosted by DJElliott and Geek Host Amanda and featured judges Plexi Cosplay and Cowbutt Crunchies. The competition had 53 entries from all over the world including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, and Mexico. Each competitor chose either the beginner, intermediate, or expert category to compete in. The judges then went through prejudging and chose the top 5 competitors in each category as finalists for the competition.

The judges awarded Chaos Cosplays as Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII Remake the winner of the beginner category. He had spent over 200 hours on the cosplay, and it was his second time making Cloud's cosplay. He even made EVA foam look like leather and texturing it look like metal. The sword is over 7 feet long and can be broken down for traveling.

For the intermediate category, it was Pleeberry Cosplay as Sugar Plum Fairy Mercy from Overwatch who was awarded the winner. The build was her first time working with EVA foam, airbrushing, wig styling, and prop making. It took over 350 hours to complete. Most of the build was made with EVA foam, and the wings are attached with a clear acrylic harness (Cowbutt Crunchies was very impressed with the wing attachment!).

The expert category consisted of cosplayers who had competed before at competitions and had a plethora of experience in the cosplay-making field. The judges had a difficult time deciding on the winner, but ultimately awarded Best-in-Show to Canadian cosplayer, Sarcasm-himé, in her original design of Ghidorah from Godzilla. This cosplay blew the jduges away with her incredible detailing throughout the design and the usage of paints to give it depth.

The competition held our first ever Fan Favorite Cosplay. For this award, the viewers were able to vote on Cosplay Central for their favorite cosplay. After more than 1,400 votes were cast, the Fan Favorite Cosplay award went to Euphoria.BJC as Rapunzel with 46% of the votes. She created the entire cosplay from scratch, and the embroidery was done completely by hand with almost 180 hours to do. The wig was the most challenging part to build, and was designed to flow with her movements. The braid weighs only 6 1/2 lbs and was built with quilting batting, jumbo Kanekalon wefts, and regular hair wefts.

We want to thank everyone for entering the competition as well as all of the viewers and voters who supported the first Virtual Cosplay Competition. If you were not able to compete in this competition, do not fret! There will be future cosplay competitions. Cosplay Central will also be creating a massive gallery of all the entrants from each category as well later this week so stay tuned!