Pairs I know of
-Dia and Umister
-Athena and Neoangelwink
-Starlighthoney and Breathlessaire
And I think I heard Limebarb is as well

>>5015507

Dia and Umister already won in the past? That's kind of shitty to enter again. Give someone else a chance. :/

>>5015535

At least the costumes will look amazing.

I know Sparklepipsi is entering, but I don't know who her partner is.

I had an interest in WCS, but that quickly dissolved. :c

>What costumes are we going to see this year?
CLAMPCLAMPCLAMP

>>5015590

Ditto. I am not wasting my time with that kind of competition.

My partner and i are entering with Princess Tutu this year.

>>5015655
NOT CLAMP
WON'T WIN

As far as I've come to understand, the WCS is a total fucking joke and it's not even really an honor to be entered. The winners are chosen before you're even judged and the horror stories from contestants are all quite bad.

That being said, the australian team built a full sized replica of an EVA cock pit and a massive eva 01 head that looks kind of wonky, but japan loves eva so they'll probably get a billion blow jobs.

US will never form a good group because:

1) Nobody in the US cares about WCS
2) People that judge who goes to WCS in the US do that typical con thing and try to judge on "presentation" or "how hard they tried" or whatever. So we just get ugly people in stupid outfits.
3) WCS preliminaries are never held at places that great cosplayers go to.
4) It's always held in a smaller venue, so putting on an elaborate or amazing skit is impossible.

the whole thing is a sad sham of a beauty contest.
still, want.

>>5015696
>2) People that judge who goes to WCS don't actually have a say and the one Japanese judge from the TV station makes the final decision
ftfy

Also 3 and 4 don't apply this year, it's at Katsucon.

>>5015726
Umm...Katsucon is small...Its not tiny but its still small...

>>5015696
>2) People that judge who goes to WCS in the US do that typical con thing and try to judge on "presentation" or "how hard they tried" or whatever. So we just get ugly people in stupid outfits.

This shit pisses me off the most for cosplay contests in general. Judges will often over look great costumes and hand the award off to mediocre costumes because it's a young kid who's daddy or mommy made the whole costume for them, BUT THEY'RE SO BRAVE FOR GETTING UP ON STAGE. Or worse still, they'll see an awesome costume and just assume that the person already has enough awards and that making amazing outfits isn't hard and they don't deserve to win because they didn't try as hard as the kid who just learned how to sew.

Bitches already flock to Katsu in their big ass dresses because it's held at the gorgeous Gaylord National.
That should make for interesting WCS prelims & really annoying elevator rides.

From what I have seen and participated in, there is no real reward for competing in cosplay competitions except for a sense of honor/bragging rights no one will care about. The prizes themselves are usually terrible, judges can make some questionable judgements and there's butthurt to be had for all.

WCS is no different, it simply is on a much larger scale than any other competition.

Fuck, if we had WCS over here I'd just try and win the prelims just for the free trip to Japan.

Pretty much every cosplay international competition is rigged. We don't get WCS here but we have Eurocosplay and the European Cosplay Gathering and we're all aware of the horror stories and how the winners are chosen beforehand.

I don't care, I just want to travel for free.

I've been looking at this and thinking about entering just to show off, but im in a gray area rules-wise that im not sure if my partners costume would get us DQ or not

Anyone got some expertise on the rules?

>>5015791
That is actually a lot of cosplayers' philosophy, just compete for a free trip to Japan since it's pretty fucking difficult to get beyond your initial win. The ones I've talked to who are going to try for WCS at Katsu said they know the US never wins, but that they want to try and get a trip to Japan. Can't blame them.

>>5015782
I've found that it depends on the contest. AnimeNEXT gives its winners a certificate, trophy, and bag of sewing goodies which is pretty handy. It's not anything "OHMYFUCKINGLAWD THIS SAVED ME HUNDREDS" but the bags are full of smaller things you would use frequently like pins, measuring tape, marking pencils, etc. Otakon on the other hand is like "HAVE SOME OTAKON MERCH... that is also available in our dealer's hall! UR SO SPESHUL!"

The Katsu judges themselves are very... inconsistent. I have seen them play "character" favorites and ignore absolutely gorgeously made costumes of more obscure characters. One of my role models who isn't super famous competes at several cons including Katsu and usually only gets honorable mentions or judges awards even though her work is much cleaner and better than the people who win because they cosplayed a popular character. Then again, she told me she didn't really GAF like other people sometimes do because for her it's just something to try. I geuss it depend on how serious the cosplayer is about the competition regardless of their work.

>>5015791
The problem is, you end up spending so much on costumes, prop, and personal stress that it's really cheaper to just go to Japan yourself.

>>5015921

You can have a good WCS costume for about $200 and win a trip and stay in Japan. $200 is not even half of the plane ticket to Japan.

I agree with the stress part though.

>>5015854
Actually I got first in Friday journeyman craftsmanship this year and all I got were two old 2XL otakon shirts, an otakon keychain, shot glass and a plastic trophy.

My local college con at least would give out $50 joanns gift card for the same placement. I guess some better prizes might go to masq performers at Otakon but honestly that was one of the biggest buzzkills in my congoing experience opening that goodie bag.

>>5015972
>Actually I got first in Friday journeyman craftsmanship this year and all I got were two old 2XL otakon shirts, an otakon keychain, shot glass and a plastic trophy.

LMAO, I'm the anon from above who brought up Otakon prizes. Good to see that they aren't attempting to spiff up prizes too much. The year I competed I got pretty much the same deal, an XL Otakon shirt, a keychain, and a pin. No trophy or shotglass. At least the shotglass would've been functional. Haven't even worn the shirt yet, how the fuck do you function in a generic adult/mens XL shirt when you're a petite female who wears XS. The prizes would've been better if they weren't generic sized or were something you can't get at the dealer's room/leftover merch.

I agree though. The smaller cons I've been to tend to do better with prizes like gift cards, supplies, etc. I honestly thought Otakon, being the largest E.Coast con would've done better.

>>5015759
There's actually some really stupid pressure on cosplay judges from the audience at times. Things like kids or something that really gets the crowd going you pretty much have to give something to calm the raging horde. Good cons have BS awards that deal with this like "best kid" or "fan favorite" but a lot of the time there's nothing.

That said, WCS does give considerably more weight to the japanese tv station rep's opinion, so even if something isn't good in ways that us silly Americans that are about craftsmanship instead of appearance it will do better.

I want to know what series will be cosplayed. Is it better to do a very popular series or an obscure one?

D'Eon-le chevalier d'eon
Chopin-Eternal sonata
Romeo&Cinderella-Rin

>>5015726
Katsucon is a small con that nobody gives a shit about.