The most vivid, juicy and complex images from our cosplayers for 2019.
Lei Radna: My selection, of course, is subjective, so if you do not agree with her and can immediately recall a couple of better costumes or photosets – great! This proves as well as possible how high-quality and varied cosplay is made by our compatriots and friends from neighboring countries. It’s incredibly difficult to single out just a dozen images, so I’ll talk about my personal favorites – and I urge you to share the best finds for the year in the comments.
I also decided to refuse last year ideas to hand out places from the first to tenth. Instead, I just highlight the most memorable images and shoots, which, well, just could not be said in the results of the year. So let’s forget about prizes and scores for a while and just remember the most vivid, juicy and complex images, which we saw in 2019.
So keep your eyes on me now
A little over a year ago at the World Championships in League of Legends fans were introduced to the virtual pop group K / DA, consisting of four champions of the League of Legends in new daring images: they were Akali, Kai’Ca, Evelynn and the leader of the whole team, Ari. The spectacular debut appealed to the community of players, and cosplayers almost ran to race to bring to life the images of new idols.
And if last year in the conditional nomination “Hype of the Year” Bowett confidently won, then this year we constantly observed new reincarnations of musical divas. And believe me – we’ll still enjoy a lot of them next year. Akali introduced one of the first updated skin Leya shion.
There were many single photoshoots and performances, but to assemble a complete team and clearly put a number was not an easy task. But just recently, at the end of November, a team of Belarusian cosplayers (Pauline Lusco – Kai’Sa, Ekaterina Leonchik – Ari, Nastya Bondaletova – Akali, Galka moiseeva – Evelynn) showed an excellent result. Filming and editing – Evgeny Fedorov.
By the way, each member of the group has an additional, prestigious skin. For example, Sasha Holland boasts not only excellent cosplay on the “prestigious” version of Ari, but also funny video clip in the role of the “prestigious” rap star Akali.
Of course, with such an incendiary idea of a virtual cape group it is difficult to stay within the framework set by the canon. So the fans of the game tried not only to think up additional informal costumes and images for the official members of the group, but also presented their favorite champions in the same guise. For example, wonderful Katya Smirka created her own “star” skin for Soraki.
Bow to the Lord of Terror
Fast forward to the noisy days of Igromir-2019 (from there, by the way, we also had cosplay reportage), namely, to Hall 3, zone G1, where the grand blue stand of the company is located Blizzard. Many talented cosplayers in spectacular and sophisticated costumes appear on the stage, and a huge crowd is looking through the eyes of familiar characters.
And now the Lord of Terror, Diablo himself, rises to the stage. Even more surprisingly, he is accompanied by little Tyrael, who is clearly not easy in massive armor, but he still confidently follows the embodiment of world evil.
And even more striking is the fact that behind these images of great opponents, in fact, mother and son are hiding. Yes, if you did not know, this cosplay Diablo performed graceful Anna Alekseeva, known to many under the nickname Brykus. But the full name of her son includes part of his stage image: the brave baby is actually called Tyrael-Constantine.
For her costume, Anna received not only universal attention and recognition, but also a well-deserved victory (and at the same time a gaming laptop along with an anniversary collector’s edition Wow) in the cosplay contest from Blizzard on IgroMir. Now we can only wait until our Diablo submits to the American Blizzcon itself.
Only fools are eager to go where the angels dare not step
But speaking about the cosplay of Brykus, one cannot fail to mention her other famous image, namely Saint Sylvanas from the universe Warhammer 40,000. Yes, this image is already more than a year old, and we met it at festivals and in 2018, however, full-fledged photosets appeared only this year – as well as a series of victories at conventions. For example, in November, Anna won the Grand Prix of the Moscow festival cosplay contest with this image. Player, and as a reward she got a trip to gamescom 2023.
And if I now had a beautiful figurine with the inscription “cosplayer of the year” in my hands, I personally would have handed it to Brykus. I would like to sincerely wish her success in Germany at gamescom, and in the long run also safely and safely get to Blizzcon. Believe me, transporting a massive handmade costume across the Atlantic Ocean twice is a very laborious and expensive task.
There can only be one queen
Her namesake can tell us about this in detail, Anna Moleva, which this year not only participated in a cosplay contest at Blizzcon, but also won in one of the prize nominations called Artisan Crafting (for craftsmanship). I talked about this not so long ago in fall issue “Cosplay of the week”, but if you missed it, then once again congratulate Anna on a well-deserved victory.
Full Metal Jacket
The uniqueness of the mentioned Sylvanas costume lies in the choice of materials: the armors of the Forsaken Queen are made of real metal, the corset is made of real leather, and the bow is made of real bones. As harsh and realistic cosplay as you can imagine. And the beautiful Anna does not stop there: she is currently participating in a cosplay contest from Cyberpunk 2077 with the image of singer Lizzy Wizzy, whose modified body is covered in shining chrome.
The future always begins now
And let you see the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 only in April of the coming year, thanks to the cosplay contest from the company CD Projekt RED you can already admire the characters from the distant future. For four months, company employees conducted offline qualifying rounds at gaming exhibitions in Germany, the USA, Japan, Russia and France. And the five main winners selected as part of these tours, together with the five winners of the online competition will have the opportunity to reach the grand finals, which will be held in early 2023.
Many of our cosplayers took part in offline contests, someone took honorable second and third places, but became the only finalist from Russia Sergey Stepanov. He won the qualifying round at IgroMir-2019 with his impressive Royce costume along with a combat exoskeleton. We wish Sergey good luck in the grand finals, and also hope that someone else from the talented Russian-speaking cosplayers will be able to become a finalist according to the results of the online tour.
Try to nerf!
And I’m just obliged to remind you of another large-scale international cosplay competition. Namely – about the Battle of cosplayers Overwatch. About the results of the competition and the results of the work of the participating teams we have already published separate materialHowever, let us once again express our respect to the Russian team, which prepared an amazing full-sized combat MEKA in addition to D.Va cosplay in a standard skin.
We will collect all of them
And to complete the series of stories about the deeds of our compatriots at international festivals, you can follow up with the cosplay contest at The Nexus Arabia 2019 convention in the UAE. But for starters, there is a background: this year League of Legends celebrated its tenth anniversary, and in honor of this event, employees of the Russian branch Riot games invited cosplayers to participate in the creation of a large-scale photo book on a competitive basis.
The idea is amazing, and it did not arise from scratch. For several years in a row, LoL cosplay calendars were created in a similar way for the Russian community, but there are only twelve months in the calendar. But in the new project there was a place for as many as fifty images! And this is clearly the case when the more – the better, since there are plenty of ardent and sincere LoL fans among cosplayers.
At the same time, Riot Games themselves liked this experience so much that after the release of the photo book, many Russian cosplayers were invited to come to work as animators at The Nexus Arabia 2019 festival. A team of more than twenty people flew to Riyadh in early December. At the same time, the festival had its own cosplay contest, the total prize fund of which was 200 thousand dollars. As a result, six prizes went to our guys!
Katya Smirnova for the image of Karma in the skin, the Sun Goddess took second place and received a reward of 45 thousand dollars! Fourth place and $ 20,000 went to Anastasia Kulitskaya for cosplay Champion Thresh. And significant prizes of $ 5,000 received Elizabeth Bear with Akali for the best tailoring, Ulyanka Makhneva for the best craft for the prestigious Arcade Caitlin skin, Alexey Vlasov for best acting as Yasuo and Irina Sabetskaya for her image of Miss Fortune in the Captain skin – she won the nomination “Spectators’ Choice”.
Need more views!
By the way, about the choice of viewers. Over the past year, the May most watched weekly cosplay release on Gameromania was the May selectionCosplay of the Week: Hellboy, World of Warcraft, Dynasty Warriors 7, God of War, Marvel, DC“. Most likely, the reason is a bright photo Anastasia Zhelnina on the splash screen. Or maybe there are just too many fans among you Hellboy or Dynasty warriors 7? We won’t be able to verify this for sure, but we’ll definitely see which issue will turn out to be the most popular next year.
Party like a Nilfgaardian!
Last time in cosplay year results in seventh place was the photoshoot of the Enchantress Lodge from the photographer Victoria Milligan. But once this year there are no places, let’s just note how many unique and authorial photographs Milligan prepared for all fans of the witch saga. I especially remember the photoshoot on fan art from Anastasia Kulakovskayainspired by the single Party Like a Russian by Robbie Williams.
False Cyril’s art from the eponymous Gwint card also came out just amazing. And other characters from Milligan photographs – not only the main ones, but also secondary or even familiar to us only by Gwint – instantly take us into a world filled with witchers, monsters and Slavic magic.
Take it off immediately
And since we’re talking about The Witcher and great photos, then let’s admire and work Kira Mitenkova, who is also a big fan of this series.
In the photographer’s group, views are leading photos. Lada Lumos in the boudoir image of Keira Mets, but according to the likes and reposts of the post, group photoset with the midnight party of three sorceresses – with the already familiar Keira Mets, Yennifer performed Anastasia Vvedenskaya and Julia Shuenkova in the role of Triss Merigold.
Everything will be in my opinion!
No, of course, the Witcher underwear is wonderful, but, in my opinion, one of the most successful images and at the same time spectacular photoshoots of the past year is Ash performed by Alice of Warsaw. You just look at how the image is executed in detail and the character’s character is successfully conveyed. Photographer – Kira Mitenkova aka KIRA.
And since the powerful sorceresses are not forbidden to appear in negligence, then such desperate bandits as Ash certainly do not need anyone’s approval for this. Following a successful photoset in a canonical character Alice Warsaw together with the photographer NERINA prepared a nice bonus: a fantasy about what Ash does in the evenings in his spare time from robbery.
Time to chew gum and kick ass
In my personal fictional nomination, “Old Schools brought together,” this year confidently wins Mikhalych Nazarov with his amazing cosplay on Duke Nukem. Incredibly nice in our time to see the embodiment of the heroes of the games of the nineties. So, friends, not a single hype, as they say, cosplayers live. The company Mikhalychu as a dancer is Lada Lumos.
And this is definitely not graphics?
Probably many people ask this question when looking at the cosplay of Ivara from Warframe from Daria Sannikova. No, it’s all for real: only outstanding craftsmanship and photographer’s talent Nikolay Zharov allowed to make such fantastic shots.
From Astana with love
Despite the fact that cosplay is popular in Russia and the CIS countries, we have paid a lot of good festivals, and St. Petersburg Starcon and at all on the verge of closing due to debts. It is all the more pleasant to see when something new appears – in such cases you only want to sincerely wish the organizing team good luck. And in this thankless job you can succeed – as, for example, the creators of the festival Comic Con Astana.
The festival’s prize fund was almost 4,500,000 tenge (about 750,000 rubles), and not only cosplayers from Kazakhstan, but also their Russian colleagues arrived in Astana. A special guest at the event was Pilu Asbek, who played Euron Greyjoy in Game of Thrones. A festival of such a level and scale was held in Kazakhstan for the first time – and the government at the same time provided all possible support within the framework of a program dedicated to culture and spiritual modernization.
And although I decided not to rate, it is here that I even want to exclaim: ten out of ten! Of course, the organizers still have room to grow, but for the festival, which was held for the first time, they set a very high level of quality. I hope next year Comic Con Astana will be held with anotherabouton a grand scale.
On this positive note, I am finishing the cosplay of 2019. Do not scold the author if you have not found your favorite photos here: your humble servant judges how he can, and to highlight the most significant results of the work of hundreds and thousands of people for the whole year is not so simple.
Better tell (and show) in the comments whose cosplay this year struck you in the very heart. Just do not forget to sign cosplayers and photographers: they worked hard and deserve their moment of fame! 🙂
