We all work so hard on our costumes, so why not show them off? Join us by participating in our Saturday night Cosplay Contest! We recommend registering online prior to your arrival at Kabochacon, however at-con registration will be available depending on remaining availability. Everyone entering the cosplay contest will need to check-in with cosplay staff 10 minutes prior to their appointment time, information on the times and locations will be available as the convention date draws near.

 

ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST HAVE A BADGE: Kabochacon requires that all participants have a valid badge prior to cosplay check-in.

 

General Information

For those of you who have never competed in a cosplay contest before, you may be wondering what all it entails. You will be going on stage to show off your costume,  perform for the audience, or both. This will give you a chance to show off your hard work and dedication! All costumes, regardless of their category, must reflect the rules and guidelines of Kabochacon.

 

The Categories

Craftsmanship: You will be going on stage for a few brief seconds, posing, and showing off your costume to the judges and audience.

 

Performance: You will be going on stage for a performance of some kind, whether it is a dialogue heavy skit or a choreographed dance. These take some time and planning to do, but they are a great experience! For more specifics on skits and performance rules, please scroll down to the skit rules! All skit audio MUST BE SUBMITTED at the time of your pre-screening.

 

ABOUT DIVISIONS

Everyone entering the cosplay contest is required to choose a division. The division show what level of competition you will be competing in.

 

NON-COMPETITION DIVISION

Exhibition: This division is intended for those who wish to show off their costume on stage for fun, but is not interested in competing for awards. Costumes for the Exhibition division include commissioned, store bought, rented, and/or borrowed costumes or closet cosplay (costumes made up of entirely existing/found parts with little to no modification). In the Exhibition division, you will not be receiving any awards. Nor will your costume be judged for craftsmanship.

Submissions for this division will open at the convention, there will be no pre-reg.

 

COMPETITION DIVISIONS

The following divisions are for those who want to compete for awards with their costumes and/or performances.

 

In order to compete at Kabochacon, your costumes must adhere to the following criteria:

  • Costumes must be of Japanese or East-Asian Origin, unless you are competing in the Western Division.
  • 60% of all costumes must have been made from scratch by the costume creator (Shoes and wigs do not need to be made from scratch, but we encourage modifying these items to fit your character!).
  • No fanart costumes will be permitted. All costumes must be derived from the original source material/artist/creator.

 

Junior Division: This division is intended for ages 12 and under. Any help you receive from friends or family to complete your costume is allowed!

Novice Division: This division is intended for those new to making their own costumes or performing on stage and has not competed much, if at all.

Criteria for Novice Division

  • No more than 1 major award won previously or 5 minor awards.

Journeyman Division: This division is intended for those who are more experienced with creating their own costumes or performing on stage.

Criteria for Journeyman Division

  • No more than 4 major awards or 10 minor awards

Master Division: This division is intended for those who have adequate experience with creating their own costumes or performing on stage.

Criteria for Master Division

  • More than 6 major awards or 15 minor awards

 

AWARDS

Junior:

  • Best Junior

Novice:

  • Best of Novice

Journeyman:

  • Best of Journeyman

Master:

  • Best of Master

 

Best Overall Craftsmanship:

  • This award will be given to the entrant(s) with the best craftsmanship. Best Overall Craftsmanship is considered to be a major award. Any category regardless of their division will be eligible for this award.

Best Overall Performance:

  • This award will be given to the entrant(s) with the best performance. Best Overall Performance is considered to be a major award. Any category regardless of their division will be eligible for this award.

Judges Awards:

  • Each judge will be giving awards away to whomever they would like based on their own personal criteria. This is considered a minor award.

 

There will be no Best in Show award this year. As Kabochacon is still relatively small we do not offer a Best in Show award at this time.

 

ALL ABOUT CRAFTSMANSHIP

Remember that in order to have your costume judged for craftsmanship, you must enter for one of the competition divisions: Junior, Novice, Journeyman, or Master!

Scheduling an appointment will be done via pre-reg. Competitors will be emailed after their submission with 3 preferred time slots on a first-come, first-serve basis. If all judging slots are filled prior to Kabochacon 2016, there will be no at-con registration.

  • Bring reference of your costume!: Without a reference, we cannot accurately judge your costume for craftsmanship. It would be beneficial to your score to bring as much reference as possible, preferably as a color printout, but bringing figures, tablets, manga, books, laptops, etc., are also acceptable.
  • Be prepared to talk about your costume: Tell the judges everything about how you made your costume. Things you should talk about include fabric, construction methods, or any special methods you used to get around a problem in designing the costume. The judges will be there to help guide you in your costume judging.
  • The judges will look at your costume up close!: Judges will be inspecting the costume craftsmanship up close, if you feel at all uncomfortable at any time, please feel free to let the judges know!

Judging Appointments: There are only so many judging slots available. They will be given out on a first-come, first-serve basis! We will give each entrant 5 minutes for the judging process as a guideline, if you go over, don’t worry you will not be penalized for the judge’s interest.

 

SKIT/PERFORMANCE

All performance entries are subject to the following rules. Disregarding these rules may result in disqualification and/or you could be asked to leave the event. Competitors will be emailed after their submission with 3 preferred time slots on a first-come, first-serve basis. If all judging slots are filled prior to Kabochacon 2016, there will be no at-con registration.

 

  • All performances must be pre-screened before the cosplay competition, the screeners are not the judges and will only serve the purpose of checking the content.
  • Skits must be PG-13. If it’s appropriate for a PG-13 movie, it’s appropriate for the competition, but please keep in mind that there will be children in the audience. If you are unsure whether your skit is appropriate, please feel free to email the Cosplay Coordinators at [email protected]
  • Skits must be no longer than 3 minutes in length. Skits that run on longer than 3 minutes (within reason) will be disqualified from any awards. For this reason, we encourage you to pre-record your skits unless it absolutely must be performed live (such as playing an instrument). You will be given 30 seconds to set up and 30 seconds for tear down.
  • No surprises! What you present to us during your pre-screening session is what we will see when you go on stage during the event. Any significant deviation from pre-screening to the live performance will result in immediate disqualification.
  • Objects and activities not permitted on stage: No live steel and firearms, incendiary devices (such as sparklers, firecrackers or smoke bombs). No throwing of objects will be permitted. If you hit the equipment or judges with thrown objects (ie, Pokeballs) you will be disqualified.
  • Reckless Behavior resulting in falling off stage, or breaking/damaging equipment (or nearly doing so) will result in disqualification. If you break something, you buy it. So please keep this in mind.
  • Member Limit: Your group can be as large as you’d like it to be, but no more than 5 people should be on stage at a time. If your group involves staged fighting, no more than 3 people should be on stage at any given time.
  • What goes on stage with you MUST come off stage as you leave.

 

MANDATORY REHEARSAL

Rehearsal will occur an hour or two before the event is set to begin. This rehearsal will give the tech crew a chance to learn your cues and check for any kind of hiccups that may occur during the live event. Information on the time for the rehearsal will be given at your screening appointment.