World Cosplay Summit Canadian Preliminaries rules

Hi aspiring international cosplayers (and everyone else!),

Rules for the Canadian Preliminaries of the World Cosplay Summit have been posted. As some of you may already know, Otakuthon will host the Canadian Prelims of the WCS. Read the full rules here:

www.otakuthon.com/2014/events/…

Key points to know:

SCHEDULE:

- Registration is from Mon, Jul 7th to Fri, Aug 1st
- The competition will be held on Fri, Aug 22nd from 8 pm to 10 pm, with a rehearsal on that day from 12:30 pm to 3 pm

REGISTRATION:

- Contestants must submit their vital information (names, birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, etc) as well as a history of their masquerade experiences and awards won

GENERAL:

- Teams of 2 (pairs) only, no personal helpers/ninjas on stage
- 30 entries will be accepted
- The 2014 winners (from this year) will represent Canada at the 2015 Championship in Japan (next year / 11 months later)

ELIGIBILITY:

- Must be an Otakuthon attendee, must be 18+ as of Jul 1st, 2015, must have a Canadian passport, must be available to travel to Japan in Jul & Aug 2015

COSTUMES & PROPS:

- All costumes must be self-made, must be from the same source material (with exceptions), must be from Japanese anime, manga, video games, or tokusatsu
- Shueisha series costumes (ie. Bleach, One Piece, Naruto, etc.) are not permitted at the World Cosplay Summit Championship in Japan. However, these characters may be used at the Canadian Prelims.
- The combined weight of all costumes/props/equipment for both team members cannot exceed 40 kg (88 lb)

PRESENTATION:

- Time limit for each entry is 2 mins 30 secs
- Stage ninjas can be used to place and remove stage items before and after each performance
- 3 large items can be placed/removed from the stage, and cannot exceed 40 secs for each of the placement and removal

AUDIO:

- All soundtrack must be pre-recorded; no live-speaking on stage
- Audio must be in .mp3, .wav or .wma file format
- Original voice tracks from the source material are not allowed

CANCELLATIONS:

- If you must cancel your appearance at the Preliminaries (withdraw from competition), you have to notify the organizers at least 72 hrs before the show, otherwise you may not enter next year's competition.

ALTERNATES:

- In case one member of your team has to drop out, you can replace them with an alternate team member
- The alternate must be listed in your resume during the application process and cannot be changed once submitted
- If you have no alternate and one of your teammates drops out, your team must withdraw from competition
- If the alternate competes as a team member and your team wins, the original teammate who dropped out may no longer participate further in that competition year

JUDGING:

- 25 pts per entry, where 10 pts is on "Performance" (presentation/showmanship/acting), 10 pts on "Costume" (workmanship/craftsmanship/construction), and 5 pts on "Fidelity" (accuracy / faithfulness to the source material)

These rules are in line with those of the Championship in Japan, and are made as similar as possible to streamline transition from the national Preliminaries to the international Championship. The official convention email address for all WCS inquiries is: wcs[at]otakuthon.com

You may already have costume plans for Otakuthon and lack time/money/teammates to form teams and make new costumes & skits for the WCS Prelims, but I encourage the rest of you to watch the competition on Friday evening and cheer for all the contestants on stage! Going for competition on the international stage can be a daunting venture for every cosplayer, so please encourage and support the WCS participants as much as you can!