Cosplay/Masquerade Rules

Alright, let's start with the basic stuff that applies to the whole weekend. Just like any other convention we do not want you walking around with real weapons, so… don't have them! No steel, you know the drill. Also, nothing profane or obscene. That goes for cosplay skits as well as costumes. This is a convention that is family friendly and we don't want to scar any little kids any more then necessary. If there is an issue with you costume you will be approached by a staff member and asked to take care of it or have con privileges revoked. This also applies to the masquerade. If you get out of hand during your skit or your walk on you will be disqualified. Keep it PG-13 people. It's not that hard to do.

Now lets move on to the rules for the masquerade specifically
  1. This is an anime convention. So when we are looking to judge and award costumes we are looking for anime, manga, and video game characters. For those of you who have costumes of original characters or Sci-fi characters, feel free to bring these costumes to the con and show them off and wear them, but don't expect to be taking home the major awards if you enter them into the cosplay.
  2. When you are getting judged on craftsmanship, we do mean that we are judging you ability to create and present a completed and well put together costume. This means that we need for at least 70% of the costume to have been MADE BY YOU. If you are entering a commissioned costume, the person who made the costume must be there to meet with the judges. (it's their work, they need the credit). Alterations count as having made it, we understand that not everything is done from scratch. We just don't want strait off the rack from the Gap you know? ^_^
  3. Please do not enter a costume for a craftsmanship award if you have already won a major award for that costume. If you already have a 1st place craftsmanship award for that costume from a different con you will not be eligible to win a craftsmanship award for the same costume. The same goes for skits. Please don't use repeats. We have faith in your creativity.
  4. There are two different types of entries for the Masquerade: Walk-on and Skits.
    • If you are doing a walk-on, it is precisely that, you walk across the stage and show off your costume. If you want your walk on to be considered for an award YOU MUST ATTEND A PRE-JUDGING with the panel of judges so that they can see and judge your costume.
    • If you are entering a Skit, the following rules apply:
      1. The skit can have between 1 and 7 members ONLY. We can't have safety jeopardized by having too many people running around on stage.
      2. The skits can be no longer 3 minutes for an individual, 5 minutes for a group. We won't be sitting with a stopwatch, but be considerate of the fact that other people want to perform.
      3. All skits that want to be eligible for the BEST IN SHOW award are required to have their costumes PRE-JUDGED for craftsman ship
      4. All skits must meet with me before the cosplay for a rehearsal (time allowing) or at least a talk through. Gives us a chance to make sure you are staying PG-13. Speaking of: Skits MUST STAY PG-13! We are a family friendly con, if your skit strays from that you will not only be disqualified, but you will be immediately pulled off the stage. Got it ^_^
      5. Any pre-recorded audio must be submitted before the close of cosplay registration or it will not be used.

Cosplay Registration
It take place at the convention. The registration will be open most of Friday, as well as the morning and early afternoon on Sat. When you register you will get your Cosplay number, your Pre-judging time and location, and rehearsal time and location for skits. YOU MUST REGISTER FOR THE MASQURADE. Even if you do not want to be judged for anything, and just want to walk across the stage, we need you to register so that we can set up the line-up. We do have a participation cap so register early!!! We will accommodate as many cosplayers as we can, but its better to be safe then sorry!

This year we are also offering Online Registration! Check out our Website. ^_^ www.matsuricon.org (Working on that nao...)

The awards for the cosplay
  • Best in Show- excellence for skit performance as well as costume craftsmanship
  • Best Performance- eligible for anyone with a good skit
  • Craftsmanship awards - eligible for anyone who enters for craftsmanship.
  • Judges Awards- Well… that's pretty self explanatory
  • Specialty Awards- these awards vary from year to year based on the number of participants and the types of costumes that we have available.