Cosplay Information

March 17th, 2013 by Mike

A-Kon 24 Cosplay Competition Rules and Regulations

information on Hall Cosplay Contest is at the bottom, or here.

1. ELIGIBILITY:

Anyone may enter in the Saturday Night Cosplay event.
Entrants 13 and under must have their parents’ permission to enroll, and MUST be accompanied by a legal guardian or relative of age at the show.

Special Note for Children entering the Saturday Night Cosplay: Every Child Entrant for the A-Kon 24 Saturday Night Cosplay is given a special participation award at the end of the show.
(This award is usually a ribbon or small prize donated by the sponsors. If the child is unable to pick up the prize at the show itself, it can be collected on Sunday morning in the Cosplay Room.)

2. HOW TO ENTER:

Signup for the A-Kon 24 Saturday Night Cosplay will begin on Monday, March 18th, 2013. To sign up, the entrant (or group leader for group entrants) will be required to fill out the Cosplay Sign Up PDF form and email it in to akoncosplaystaff@gmail.com. (Please send the PDF as an attached file.)
You may also print out the PDF and mail it in to Elin Winkler c/o Radio Comix, 11765 West Ave. PMB 117, San Antonio TX 78216.
The deadline for entry forms to be received will be April 18, 2013.
The total number of entrants that will be allowed this year will be 70.
There will be 15 skit entry slots.
All skit entries MUST enter before the April 18th, 2013 deadline, in order to have enough time for review of materials.
If you do not make the first cutoff for skit entries, you will be placed on a waiting list, in case of drop outs/disqualifications.
There will be 50 walk-on entry slots; 40 will use pre-con sign-ups, 10 will have on-site sign-ups at the Kon itself.
The 10 on-site signups for walk-ons will be done in DeSoto A at 10:00 am on Saturday morning. (There will be a minimum of 10 entries taken at the Kon; this number may increase as the event approaches.)
FOR GROUP ENTRIES, PLEASE ONLY SEND IN ONE ENTRY FORM PER GROUP!
All entries are taken on a first come, first served basis, to be determined by email time stamp or postmark.

3. COSTUME GUIDELINES (DA RULEZ):

a.) No costume is NO COSTUME.
While many anime characters wear what could be termed “street clothes”, a single character in regular, everyday clothing isn’t very engaging and thus, is disqualified.
However, if this character is a part of a group performance or elaborate props are involved, then the entry will not be disqualified.

b.) Body Coverage:
A-Kon 24 is a family friendly environment and has to adhere to the rules and regulations set forth by both the Hilton Anatole Hotel and the City of Dallas.
All costumes need to be tasteful and the barest minimum of coverage that will be allowed at the event will be that of a bikini.
This means body paint, latex pasties, etc. are not considered adequate body coverage without additional clothing being worn over it.
Thongs are not allowed unless covered by shorts, skirts, capes, etc.

c.) Contest Guidelines:
COSPLAY IS AN ALL-AGES EVENT.
The Cosplay should be considered a PG-13 rated event at the most.
All music and pre-recorded materials will be screened and all violators of this rule will be disqualified.
The judgement of what is acceptable is left to the sole discretion of the Cosplay Director and Cosplay Staff.
Offensive language of any kind is not allowed. (Racial or sexual epithets, cursing not allowed on network TV, etc.)
Sexual humor is not allowed. This covers yaoi, yuri, mpreg, auto-erotica, tentacles, lolicon, etc.
If your joke/skit could not be performed at your workplace or in front of your grandmother, then you probably can’t perform it at A-Kon.
Be clever, not crass!
If you have a question about your content, please feel free to ask the Cosplay Staff if it is allowable.

d.) Stage Rules:

All entries must be able to get on and off the stage safely.

Cast limit: Six person maximum for group skit performances, four person maximum for walk-on entries.
More than 6 is allowed for skits, but only 6 on stage at any given time.
THERE IS A HARD LIMIT OF 4 PEOPLE PER WALK-ON ENTRY! (It has been proven that it is almost impossible to get more than this across the stage in 30 seconds.)
If your walk-on entry group has more than 4 people in it, you will have to enter each group of 4 separately.

Props: What goes on stage with you must come off stage with you.
For safety reasons, things like confetti, fireworks, glitter, flash paper, rose petals, water and other small messy objects are strictly forbidden to be brought into the stage area.
On stage, non-firing toy weapons will be allowed without peace bonding, but be aware that any “live” weapons will result in immediate eviction from the stage.
Also, no food, animals or remote control devices are allowed on stage.
And no throwing items into the crowd. You’ll put someone’s eye out!

Martial Arts/Stage Fighting: All stage fighting and general hijinks of a like nature needs to be limited to half speed and quarter strength.
One foot must remain on the floor at all times.
This means no jumps, leaps or rolls.
Climbing onto the stage or leaping off the edge of the stage are both prohibited and extremely dangerous.
(And will make our insurance premiums skyrocket!)

Time Limits: Each Walk-on entry will have 30 seconds to saunter across the stage, pose and depart.
Skits have approximately 3 minutes.

Sound: ALL SOUNDTRACKS MUST BE PRE-RECORDED. (This rule applies to skits only.)
This means all dialogue for your skit, all music, everything.
Soundtrack CDs MUST be received by the Cosplay Director no later than May 1, 2012 for review and pre-Kon preparation.
Any skit entry who does not submit a pre-recorded soundtrack in advance by the May 1st deadline will be disqualified.
Should this happen, a skit from the waiting list will move up and get their spot.
Should any skit soundtrack be deemed inappropriate (see section c.), the entrants will be allowed to re-record an approved version ONCE.
Should this re-recorded version still not conform to appropriateness guidelines, that entry will be disqualified. (And the waiting list will be called into play again.)
This rule has been created due to the many unpleasant skit surprises resulting in disqualification in past A-Kon Cosplay Events.
Walk-ons will be performed to runway-style music in keeping with the Kon themes, chosen by the Cosplay Director and Cosplay Staff.

Costume Credit: All costumes must be made by the entrant(s) or credited to the appropriate creator(s) on the entrant’s entry form.

Purchased Costumes: Purchased costumes (either commissioned, store bought, or eBay costumes) may only make up 50% of the costumes in your group. All purchased costumes MUST be marked as such on your (or your group’s) entry form. Entries using only purchased costumes CANNOT win Best in Show, Second Place, Third Place, Best Craftsmanship or Most Faithful Recreation awards.

4. CRAFTSMANSHIP JUDGING:

In order to be considered for the Best Craftsmanship award in the main Saturday Night Cosplay Contest, entrants MUST present themselves to the cosplay judges in DeSoto A on Saturday anytime between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm. THIS IS THE ONLY TIME BLOCK FOR CRAFTSMANSHIP JUDGING.
No craftsmanship judging will be done at any other time during the convention.
The craftsmanship judges (chosen specifically because they have degrees in theatrical costuming and fashion) will then inspect the costumes and make notes. Once they have looked your work over, you will be free to go. (Judges will endeavor to conduct their inspections as efficiently as possible.)
Please bring any reference material you wish the judges to peruse at this time.
If you choose not to show up on Saturday between 10 am-4 pm, then your costume(s) will NOT be judged for craftsmanship.
If you want to be judged for your craftsmanship, please try to make it during the appointed hours!
You do not have to be wearing the costume(s) to participate in Craftsmanship judging, but it helps.

5. AWARDS:

The award categories for A-Kon 24′s Cosplay Event are as follows:

1. Best in Show

2. Second Place

3. Third Place

4. Best Skit Performance

5. Best Craftsmanship

6. Best Prop

7. Most Humorous

8. The People’s Choice (basically, the hands down favorite of the audience, based on reaction)

9. Most Faithful Recreation (An award for the cosplayer/costume that looks the most like the original source material)

10. Best NIS America Anime Cosplay*

11. Best Non-Anime Cosplay (An award for the best costume that isn’t recreating something from an anime, manga, Japanese video game, Asian pop culture, etc. This award encompasses US or European cartoons, comics, movies, video games, etc.)

12. Up to six Judges Awards (to be chosen at the sole discretion of the judges; there will be at least five judges, but no more than six)

All entries can qualify for any award with the exception of Best Skit Performance, which can naturally only be awarded to a skit performance. (And of course, entries using purchased costumes cannot win the previously mentioned awards.

*NIS America is providing a special prize pack to winners in this category. Eligible entries will include characters from anime titles licensed by NIS America.

Legal Disclaimer: A-Kon Cosplay Staff and A-Kon reserve the right to refuse entry to anyone to the Cosplay Event for any reason.

HALL COSTUME CONTEST:

Have a costume? Want a chance to have your costume’s craftsmanship judged in a contest without having to brave the beast that is the A-Kon Cosplay Event audience?
Cursed with shyness or terrible stage fright? Then the Hall Costume Contest is for you!

How to enter:

Simply show up at the Hall Costume Contest Panel held on Friday in DeSoto A.
There will be a panel of costumer judges who will take your entry form and on-site contact information, and then spend a little one-on-one time with you checking your seams and flipping your hems.
After that, you’re done! Enjoy the Kon!

Winners of the Hall Costume Contest will be announced at the end of the judging session.

Friday Hall Costume Contest: 12 pm to 2 pm

Costumes entered in the Hall Costume Contest *can* enter the stage Cosplay Contest. However, the winners of the First and Second place prizes in the Hall Contest will not be allowed to win the Best in Show, Second Place, Third Place or Best Craftsmanship awards in the stage Cosplay Contest. (It is possible to win secondary awards.)
All costumes entered in the Hall Costume Contest must be made by the entrant(s) in order to qualify for the Craftsmanship award. Purchased costumes (either commissioned, store bought or eBay costumes) are ineligible for the Hall Costume Contest.

Hall Costume Contest Awards:

First Place
Second Place
Best Craftsmanship

We will be making all best efforts to contact the winners of the Hall Cosplay contest before the Saturday Night Cosplay Event, so that they may come up onstage in their costume to accept their awards during the half-time show.
Should a winner not want to walk across the stage at all, they may pick up their award in DeSoto A on Sunday morning.

Legal Disclaimer: A-Kon Cosplay Staff and A-Kon reserve the right to refuse entry to anyone to the Cosplay Event for any reason.