Eligibility
You must have a valid SUPERSTARCON wrist band to participate.
If you are under the age of 13, you must have your parent/guardian's permission to participate and you must also be accompanied by your parent/guardian during judging and the contest.
When you sign up for this contest you agree to read and abide by all rules as posted. If you don't, you will be disqualified.
Cosplay staff reserves the right to disqualify you for any reason.
Contest Rules & Guidelines
The Cosplay Contest is rated teen. Keep all performances rated just like FNAF movie #1 PG-13. Judgment on the appropriateness of material is left to the discretion of our cosplay staff.
All costumes entered must adhere to the cosplay, costume and dress policy. If your costume does not meet this criteria you may be asked to change or not permitted to walk the stage.
75% of the cosplay must be constructed or altered by the entrant. If you are modeling a cosplay that someone else made, THE CREATOR MUST be with you at pre-judging for you to be eligible for an award.
Purchased or commissioned cosplays are NOT eligible for any awards and cannot be entered into the contest.
As this year is SUPERSTARCON 's first Cosplay Contest there will be no divisions HOWEVER, all cosplays will be judged fairly and with the skill level of the creator in mind. Amateurs are welcome but we HIGHLY suggest that contestants are a journeyman or better for this contest!
Be respectful to other cosplay entrants and the judges. Unruly or disruptive behavior during pre-judging, backstage, or during the contest is not permitted.
Entrants must be able to enter and exit the stage quickly on their own. If your costume/prop is too big for you to get on and off the stage by yourself easily, you may bring a handler to assist you. Our cosplay staff will not be able to provide a handler for you.
Entrants with disabilities are welcome to provide their own handler or request handler assistance from our cosplay staff for any stage of the cosplay contest process. If you think you may need assistance, we request you to contact us in advance or request assistance during the pre-judging process.
To prevent sandbagging, entrants wishing to compete with costumes that have previously won a costume competition must declare this upon registration. In order to be accepted, at least 60% of the costume must be altered or remade since the costume last won an award and the costume must also be entered in a higher skill division if one exists. Failure to inform the judges and our cosplay staff of this will result in being prevented from entering in future SUPERSTARCON contests.
Group entries are not allowed. All cosplays are judged on an individual basis.
Costumes entered must be presented with reference images and recreate characters from FNAF, other horror games, or horror movies. At least one reference image must be in color. Reference images must be provided during pre-judging and may be provided on any medium including, but not limited to, paper, phone, tablet, etc. You can also submit it digitally at superstarconinfo@gmail.com
Original characters will not be permitted; however, art book variations and reinterpretations of existing characters will be allowed with an accompanying reference.
Progress portfolios are HIGHLY encouraged as they include photo documentation of your work from start to finish.
Professional cosplayers ARE WELCOME to enter. A professional cosplayer is anyone who makes a significant portion of their income from costume design, construction or sales or feels they are a master of their craft. If you are a pro, you MUST declare as such on your form.
If we find that a contestant is showing "sore loser syndrome" or bad sportsmanship after the contest, meaning we find that a contestant that doesn't place makes or is making offensive comments about contestants/judges based on their gender, race, creed, or other nontangible evidence of cheating, showing favoritism, or otherwise not being placed/judged based on a cosplayers crafting and presentation merits online or otherwise the contestant will be banned from any future SUPERSTARCON contests, we mean ALL contests. This also applies to winners as well. Lose GRACEFULLY. Win GRACEFULLY.
How to Enter
Sign-ups will take place online. Sign-ups that do not fill by the deadline will be available on-site at admissions on a first come, first served basis until 2 hours prior to prejudging.
Each entrant must fill out the Cosplay Sign-Up Application online. Only one entry person is allowed.
You will receive a confirmation of your entry via email.
On the day of the convention, you will be asked to line up near the craftsman judging room (room c per the current events schedule.) Additionally, please be aware that only two (2) handlers are allowed with you unless specifically required. We will ask you how many will be needed at check in so we can allocate the correct number of seats.
Walk-on Rules
Although we know you may want to walk to a specific FNAF track we will not be allowing any music to be played this time.
Walk-on entries will be limited to 30 seconds.
Walk-on entries are required to attend craftsmanship judging. If you skip this, you will not be eligible to receive awards or participate in the contest.
Any costume that is skintight is expected to have the appropriate underthings. I.E. A dance belt. Any lack of such will result in you being removed from the contest.
Craftsmanship Judging
All costumes must be made by the entrant(s) or credited to the creator(s) on the entrant’s entry form. Creators not entering in costume must be present to receive awards. Purchased costumes will not be allowed for craftsmanship judging.
All walk-on entries must be at least 75% made or significantly modified from original garments.
When filling out the application, keep in mind each entry will be allowed 3 minutes to present their costume to the judges. Entries that go over their time limit may be disqualified. Please be courteous to your fellow cosplayers and to your judges by keeping your presentation brief!
Pre-judging is NOT open to the public. Only participants, handlers, and parents/guardians are allowed.
Craftsmanship judging will take place in the room labeled The Shire. Please line up as soon as possible after you check in to receive your pass, as prejudging is only between 10am-2pm. If you line up after 12pm, you may not have the chance to be seen. Entries that do not show up for craftsmanship judging will be disqualified.
Reference images and progress binders used as part of craftsmanship presentations must be picked up immediately after the contest or they will be destroyed.
Entry Types
Walk-On: Contestants walk onto the stage and do several different poses, including jump scares, and acting like their character for at least 30 seconds to show off their costume.
Skill Levels & Divisions
Each cosplay will be judged as if it were at minimum a journeyman skill or higher. Amateurs are welcome to participate but this year we are NOT dividing up the skill levels.
Here is a list of Skill Levels, sometimes referred to as divisions, for you to learn about if you don't know whether you are at journeyman skill or higher. If you have questions about which division you should be in, feel free to ask us. We would like to assist you.
Novice
The Novice division exists to encourage people who are new to costuming to compete.
Novices tend to have the following qualities:
- You are new to costuming, have never competed before, or are not a professional costumer.
- You have competed in the Novice division of other conventions, but you have not won any awards.
- You have competed in the Novice division but have won less than three major awards. A major award is anything that is not a judges’ award (IE: Best Novice, Best Craftsmanship, honorable mentions, etc.) at any convention.
Journeyman
The Journeyman division is an interim division for costumers who have consistently won awards in the Novice division, but who feel they are not yet ready to compete in the Master division.
Journeyman cosplayers tend to have the following qualities:
- You have been cosplaying for a number of years but do not yet feel like a master of your craft or are not a professional costumer.
- You have won more than three major awards in the Novice division or less than two in the Journeyman division.
Master
The Master division is open to any competitor who wishes to enter, and usually professionals MUST enter this category at cosplay competitions.
Masters tend to have the following qualities:
- They may be professional costumers.
- They have been cosplaying for at least 4 years and have mastered crafting skills to not only look good and be functional on the outside of their costumes but also have mastered the same on the underside of their costumes (for example their costume will have finished closed seams on the underside of a cloth costume and is typically sewn with string rather than hot glued together.) Mastering a craft is subject to what materials the cosplayer regularly uses in a Master level costume though.
- They have won at least 3 major awards from the novice category, 2 major awards in the journeyman category, and at have at least competed in 1 Masters category of any cosplay competition (or was placed in the Masters division by the convention staff) or has a mix of all categories.
- Masters may have been a judge for at least 1 cosplay competition even if they have never competed themselves but have qualifications for being a judge. (ie. professional costumer.)
Awards
All awards may be given to ANY skill level!
1st place - This award is to be granted to the entry that shows an overall exceptional degree of craftsmanship, execution, and showmanship.
2nd place- Given to an entrant who has shown an exceptional degree of craftsmanship and presentation.
3rd place- Given to an entry which displays an exceptional degree of craftsmanship.
Honorable Mentions - Each judge may grant an award to an entry that they feel is exceptional.
NOTE: Only Award certificates/Trophies will be handed out on stage. Any other prizes must be picked up by the winners immediately following the cosplay contest. Awards may be added or removed based on the number of entries accepted.