Anime Expo Masquerade and WCS 2024 - an Honest Experience

This summer, I attended Anime Expo in Los Angeles, CA. It was my first time at this convention, and as a long time competitive-cosplayer who primarily attends cons to either compete, judge, or run a cosplay contest, this naturally meant that my main reason for being there was to compete in one of their cosplay competitions. I say 'one of' because if you want to get technical, according to Anime Expo they host two: Their usual Masquerade, and also the World Cosplay Summit preliminaries. I say 'technical' because for all their division of Award Qualifications, they are not truly separate. They happen during the same show, entrants are evaluated by the same set of judges, and there is no way to participate in both since they occur simultaneously and you're not allowed to be considered for both. But, I'm getting ahead of myself a bit. This year (along with my friend Uvibee), I was one of the finalist teams for the World Cosplay Summit Preliminaries. Every competition has it's pro's and cons, and I am not normally one to publicly blast the contests I participate in, even when I have strong opinions (which, as a long-time competitor and experienced coordinator, is often). I wasn't planning to really say anything about Anime Expo's contest outside of private conversations with close friends. But then, their Feedback Form arrived in my email inbox, and I figured... sure, why not. If they were going to ask for it, I could give them my thoughts. It wasn't until I sat down and started answering their questions, that I realized I had more criticisms than I'd thought. And lots of friends and acquaintances have been asking me for my experience.

Before we start, here's a little bit of important context: I have very few opinions on Anime Expo as a whole, because I didn't really go to the convention. I was on site to attend costume pre-judging, to rehearse, and to be in the show. I did little else outside of that, except hanging out with the other World Cosplay Summit teams. This report is entirely about the cosplay contest(s), and my experience with them through every step of the process... starting all the way back in January, when sign-ups went live. I also have a lot of experience competing (and in particular, with international preliminaries) ran 2 USA WCS Regional preliminaries back in 2013, and have worked as a contest coordinator for SakuraCon in Seattle, WA since 2019. All of my criticisms are meant to be constructive because, with my particular background, I know that improvements are possible; both because I've seen it done successfully elsewhere, or because I have personally been able to implement it in my own show. Nearly everything I am about to talk about, I have already provided some form of feedback to Anime Expo's cosplay team via their feedback form, so none of this is a secret. I can only hope that their staff take it to heart. So, lets start at the beginning. As mentioned above, Anime Expo (here on referred to as AX) technically hosts their Masquerade (which I'll be shortening to Masq) and World Cosplay Summit (here on referred to as WCS), as two separate competitions. They are hosted during the same showtime, and judged by the same set of judges, but sign-ups are handled through separate forms, and entrants are not allowed to 'double dip' as it were -- meaning you must choose whether you want to be eligible for WCS, or Masq awards. The general reason given for this is that the AX Masq and WCS, have different rules and criteria. That's all well and good... except that in most cases I can see, WCS has MORE rules than their standard masq. In AX's case, it seems to be only the time limit causing an issue, as Masq entries get 2 minutes, while WCS is 2:30. There are Other Rules specific to WCS, but, I'll get into that later.

SUBMISSION PROCESS When WCS Sign-ups opened in the end of January, it was shared on AX's social media platforms, with a direct link to the signup form. At this time, AX's website had never been updated with specific WCS rules, only linked to the old, external WCS USA Website. I checked back several times after sign-ups opened, and AX never updated their website to include the signup form for WCS. If you wanted to sign up for WCS, you had to find the link from the One Time it was shared on their social media, and/or hope you hadn't missed this post, since that was the only place you could find it. This was just the first of the signup-related issues. AX's rules on their website give absolutely no insight into something I think is very important as a coordinator and competitor: the process by which they accept submissions (first-come-first-serve vs Juried Selection vs Lottery) and timeline of submission processing. It's about as clear as mud whether or not AX's contests are FCFS or Juried. There is no posted Closing Date for Signups, and the form itself says that submissions will be open 'until capacity is reached'. This to me would imply a first-come-first-serve system. But, that doesn't actually appear to be the case. I asked AX participants from previous years, how we were supposed to know if we got in or not, since the submission itself received no acknowledgement or receipt. I was told that in previous years they had gotten their acceptance emails in APRIL, and those who did not get in received no email at all. This seemed absolutely wild to me. So, I reached out to the coordinator to ask about if there was a projected time that we would hear about entry status. I was told, the last week of March. This was March 1st, more than a month after we had submitted our form, and a month out from when they planned to send emails. That the staff had a projected time of when acceptances would go out implies that there is in fact a set Closing Date for the submissions, and potentially that it is juried; why else would you need to wait to inform everyone if they've been accepted? This obviously contradicts with the verbiage in the form itself, unless they are processing acceptance/rejection as submissions come in... but if that is the case, why can't you tell a submission they've been accepted once you've processed them? In the end, we received our acceptance email on April 1st. Up until then, we didn't know if we were in or not, and had I not asked when those would go out, we may never have known. There is no reason why AX can't post a fixed closing date on their submissions, and be more up front about what their back-end submission process is. They could do with a LOT more transparency in this area. I also told them that all submissions should get an email -- whether accepted, wait listed, or not-accepted.

Rules

As mentioned above, AX's website never updated with the WCS signup form, or the WCS Rules in the body of their site. Linking to the external site with the rules, and AX's insistence on separating entries because of the different rules, you would naturally assume that the rules they link to, are the rules to follow for WCS, right? Well, it would seem, not exactly. The key note at the top of the rules page on the WCS USA Website states: "All applicants must also be aware of and willing to alter their performances to comply with the World Cosplay Summit Japan Rules should they be selected as WCS Team USA. 

While the Anime Expo Masquerade and World Cosplay Summit USA Finals are held during the same time, they are separate events with separate rules, regulations, and requirements. Due to the popularity of both events, Contestants may not enter to compete in both under any circumstance."

The words 'alter their performance' would, to most, imply making changes to the stage presentation of the entry that they entered (and won with, presumably) in the preliminaries. The site goes on to list all the Championship rules, which include things like limitations on set sizes/weight/number of set pieces, and particularly, limitations on Source Material. Specifically, WCS Championship has rules on what source material you can and cannot use. The common understanding to most is it 'has to be Japanese source' but the actual rules are so much more specific than that. To quote the rules directly, source material must be from "Japanese Anime, Manga, Tokusatsu or Video Games" and then within that, must NOT be "Dojinshi and unique characters from live action movies or stage productions based on anime or manga". Most people follow these rules naturally... because they think they have to. But this year, one of the accepted teams for WCS entered with costumes by Sakizou. While Sakizou is a Japanese illustrator, she is by definition a Dojinshi (Self-Published) artist. These designs would not be allowed at the Championship in Japan. AX (and in fairness, several other countries as well) seems to have taken the approach that the WCS Specific Rules do not matter at the preliminary level, as they 'have 13 months to make something new for finals'. The problem here is two fold: Number one, while the note on the WCS USA page would technically cover this, they are Vague Enough that it's not obvious that this would be allowed/acceptable for submission, unless you just decide to roll the dice on it. Secondly, based on my and many others experiences with international events, If you are going so far as to select a team whose core costumes would not be allowed at the Finals, you are setting them up for a huge disadvantage, and possible failure. 13 months seems like a long time, but in the case of WCS you also need to make sure you have at least 3 additional costumes (that also fit their costume requirements, and won't kill you in the heat) to take with you for the extra events... a lot can happen in a year and sometimes, life gets in the way and you don't have the means (physical, time, or financial) to create something Entirely New for the competition, even if you had originally planned on it. The potential of selecting a team whose costumes don't fit the most basic rule of the finals is depriving them of a Fall Back Entry. For this reason, I feel that at least the source material rule should be enforced at the preliminary level, but as of writing this, it is not.

Also, if you are going to insist on fully separating your competition pool because of the Different Rules, said rules (besides 'time limit') should probably be enforced. There are 2 other competitions in the USA that host multiple international preliminaries -- one lets you fully opt into their Masquerade awards, knowing you cannot win BOTH and that the international entries don't break any of their Masq rules... and the other which separates awards qualified for into clusters like AX, based on differing rules and criteria... but actually enforces them. WCS also seems to be a Juried Selection for finalists, so there is no reason to even accept entries that break that most basic rule right off the bat, especially when it is, as they say, such a popular event (with limited spots). I can see where it is not practical to measure and weigh everyone's sets and props and costumes the way that they do at the Championship Finals, so letting that slide with the understanding you have to adjust for finals makes SENSE. This is what I feel the spirit of 'being prepared to alter your entry for finals' was meant to be. If exceptions are going to be made to the rules, said possibility for exceptions should be more up-front and transparent in the rules shared by the preliminary host. But, it would seem that AX has lost management of the WCS USA website (or simply doesn't care to update it) following the departure of Diana (Binkxy) as their coordinator. I say this, because it has not been updated since the results of AX 2022 (the last time that she was involved with a preliminary there).

Costume Prejudging and Communication in General

I wanna preface this section by saying this is not about the individual judges who worked the AX Masq/WCS prelims this year. They are all skilled individuals who clearly know what they are looking at when it comes to their crafts. However, based on personal experience, I really truly feel that the judging panel for International Competitions of this sort should not only have qualified crafters, but also be EQUALLY balanced (that is, not the Minority) with Alumni of the competition, or other similar competitions. In the case of WCS where craft and performance are important but with performance weighing heavier in a 60/40 breakdown, this could include Domestic and International Alumni of events like ICL, C4, CICAF, GICOF, and ECG (all of which being team events, like WCS. A secondary choice would be those from solo performance/craft competitions such as NCC, ECG soloists, and CWM). These types of events are so unique, so unlike other competitions, that there is something that only First Hand Experience can bring to this particular decision-making panel. I highly recommended that AX bring more of these judges to the pool for purposes of WCS selections. That said, the judges behaved professionally and I have no complaints about their individual qualifications to be on the panel at all, only with AX's particular lacking in this area of balance for this unique event. It seems they tried to balance this out with Japanese Performance guests weighing in, but I don't think that was the right call either. The primary criticism I have from the weekend, is the apparent lack of sufficient communication between the cosplay staff and judges, as well as schedule management for judging. We had a relatively early judging time slot, in the grand scheme of things. Our time was 1PM on Thursday. We arrived on time (20 minutes before our scheduled time) to check in/etc. When we arrived there were already 2 other entries in the waiting area, and the judges were out of the room, on a break. We checked in, and waited, only for the judges to arrive back around our scheduled time. They took one of the teams before us, which says to me that either they multi-booked time slots, or this other team had an earlier time slot and judging was now already behind due to the judges taking an unscheduled break. I want to say up front, as a coordinator, the Judges should get breaks. But it should also be scheduled into your day. It was unclear whether this was the case, or whether the judges were told to go take a break because at the time no one was there and they NEEDED a lunch break that wasn't previously factored for. Whatever the case, they finished with the first team (15 minutes for WCS entries) and there was enough time for us to chat with those cosplayers while they fixed themselves, gathered their things, and headed out. And then... we waited. And waited. It was 2pm -- an hour past our scheduled time, and with another team STILL lined up ahead of us - when we realized we could hear the judges talking, and they were not talking about anything judging related. We went to the staffer at the table who attempted to shush us and said they were deliberating. We said they were not, we could hear them, and it was only when the staffer asked for our time and realized how late it was, that they went to check with the judges. The judges had been ready for a long time.... they were waiting for the Staff to tell them when the next entry was ready, and the staff were waiting for the judges to tell them when they were ready to see the next entry. They finally took the next team. At that point, the schedule was completely off the rails. This could very easily have been avoided with a little bit of up-front communication early on, and openly establishing who had what job. Based on accounts from other people who were judged later that same evening, the schedule was still off because of this snafu. AX could also stand to be more transparent about their judging schedule and process in general. If they've multi-booked time spots and done things in Blocks, that's a valid way to do things, we do that at SakuraCon and it's very successful... but we are also up-front with our contestants about how our schedule works, and how long they can expect to potentially wait if they're not the first to show up for their slot. We have never once run more than 5-10 minutes behind schedule.

Staff and the Show

There was, notably, no means of contact for the coordinator or staff, provided for our use during the convention. When we ran late on Saturday, we had to rely on messages to friends we knew were already there, to pass on that we were en route. This was far more stressful than it needed to be. A pre-established discord server, or cell-phone number we could contact (as most don't have time to check email during con) could have gone a long way.

The staff members were over all friendly and trying to be helpful, but yet it did not feel like there was any kind of actual connection. When we checked in, we were asked if it was our First AX. I said yes, but I've been competing for years, and my partner said it had been a number of years since her last AX. For the rest of the time interacting with this staffer, the way we were spoken to confusingly felt like they believed we had never done this before, period. We were repeated the same encouragement multiple times about how to talk to the judges (something we did not need, though I suppose true beginners might benefit) and most confusingly, coached on how to do a walk-on despite the fact that we said multiple times that we were doing a skit... and AX doesn't even do traditional walk-ons to begin with.

The best thing we had available to us was a room that was held for Masq/WCS use all weekend. It was huge, the room we were all intended to meet in for call time, and we were allowed to store sets and props there throughout the weekend. They also had taped out an area on the floor the approximate size of the stage, so that anyone who wanted to could practice. I wish more conventions had this option, as it greatly reduces the stress of trying to figure out when/how to get your things where they need to be, and whether or not it can even be done while you're in costume. We were told it would be monitored all weekend, but from what we could tell that turned out to not be the case past Thursday. It WAS locked up over-night though.

I have one final criticism, but it is not one I passed on to the cosplay staff. This is just because, as a coordinator myself, I know it is something they likely have little or no say over... and that was their showtime schedule. I will say, rehearsal went off without a hitch, and ran perfectly on time. Backstage was one of the smoothest experiences I've ever encountered in that regard. But the problem, was the time. The call time for the cosplay contest was 5:30PM. Rehearsal ran from 6PM - 8PM, with a 9PM show start time. Rehearsal time was accurate for the entries... then you add the opening act, half-time/deliberation, and actual awards... we were not out of there until at least Midnight. When you factor in the time it takes to get ready (an hour, at minimum) and the time to get to the convention center, it means our last opportunity to eat, was no later than 3:30PM. That's almost NINE HOURS where food was completely inaccessible, and letting us out at a time when few things were still open, and no one wants to go out still in costume after wearing it for almost 9 hours. As a coordinator, I know that we get very little say in when they decide to schedule our shows... but even as someone who had to deal with shows that started at 9 and 10AM in years past... this was one of the most grueling. I'm used to Fasting, and it was still tough.... I can't imagine what that was like for everyone else. Not to mention, I had an 11AM check out time and a flight to catch the next day.... so squeezing in packing was a struggle. I couldn't do it that night as is, because I had drenched my costume in sweat and I wanted to give it time to at least dry out before shoving it back in a suitcase.

Final Thoughts

As a competitor, alumni of 3 international events, and a coordinator myself, I have to say that even outside of personal feelings, AX could really stand to Do Better with how their show is run on the back-end. There are so many little things that they could do to make the experience less frustrating.

I don't plan on returning to AX in the future, but that was true even before this weekend. It was always sort of intended to be a one-and-done for me. I have other events I am more interested in, and when it comes to limited time and funds, it means having to make Choices. AX was a choice this year because time/other factors meant my other top-choices, were not. In general though, I had an enjoyable time specifically because of getting to know the other WCS Finalist teams ahead of the convention, and spending time with them. That's truly what the WCS experience (and, other international events) is about, so in that regard I feel satisfied. I am proud of what we put together and presented, but I also fully understand why we weren't front-runners this time around. We also planned this initially before my life was turned upside-down, and in the end I got everything out of it I wanted -- winning was always going to be an unexpected Bonus if it happened.

That said, if you're interested in doing International Competitions... maybe check out YoumaCon or HolMat instead. You have more options for potential prizes with a single entry vs AX's "WCS or Nothing" set-up, and both contests are run by coordinators with first-hand experience in the International scene.

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Edited 7/13/2024 : After initial publishing, A few people seemed to misunderstand a couple of points in my post, so, for clarification:

• Absolutely NONE of the costume-judging schedule issues, were the fault of the judges. They were 100% correct to assume the staff would inform them when another entry was ready to be seen, that is the standard. It is the mis-step of the staff for not verifying, or communicating this to all of their staffers. I also fully believe the judges had no idea anyone was waiting, as we were all being respectfully quiet on the other side of the curtain wall that separated the judges from the waiting area.
  

• Since posting, I have been informed that one of my potential guesses about the schedule format, was correct. The schedule WAS done as up to 4 entries to a 1-hour block. This was never communicated to the entrants, and since we were asked to show up 10 - 30 minutes before our scheduled time for check-ins, this would imply an individually scheduled time. Had we been informed of this scheudling format up-front, it would have been the difference between "My time of 1PM means I should expect to potentially be there as late as 2PM" and "it's 2PM and I have not been seen yet, this is SEVERELY behind schedule". In reality, not being seen yet by 2PM was still behind schedule based on this format (as we were not the only team who had not been seen yet in our block), but the lack of communication from the staff is to blame here, not the judges.
  

• Some people seem to think that my comments using the Sakizou example for rules was a personally targeted attack at the team who participated with Sakizou in this years prelims. I used Sakizou because it's a popular source material in other competitions, and it's presence at this year's preliminaries is what prompted so many people to express deep confusion, and is the example people would be readily familliar with after watching this year's preliminaries. I have absolutley no ill will or intent towards the team who was accepted with these costumes. The circumstances were not their fault, I don't feel like they WILLFULLY broke any rules, only that AX was not clear on what exceptions they would make to finals rules, and was an example of the failing of their apparent lack of care to update/share WCS Info on their website proper. The cosplayers who entered this years preliminaries with Sakizou had costumes that were beautifully made and as makers they were certainly up to the quality expected of WCS. The issue lies in unclear rules, inconsistant rules, and the issues it causes in public perception and opinion when preliminaries don't follow the rules of finals with no note of that anywhere. That is a good way to breed resentment, because not everyone was on the same page. Hypothetically, having inconsistancies between preliminary and finals also opens up the possibility for future prospective judging panels who, when coming down to deliberating on tiny points, could use that as the deciding factor when stuck between two equally qualified teams. I say this as someone who has been locked in judging decisions that were that tight, where decisions ended up being almost arbitrary. If they are stuck, and one team is doing something allowed at finals, and the other is not, it could beg the question, how much better would an entry that doesn't meet the finals rules have to be, to beat something of comparable quality that DOES meet the restrictions for finals.
  

• Additionally, at the end of the day, I don't have an opinion as to whether or not I think Sakizou SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be allowed in WCS. Plenty of other international competitions allow her works, but every competition has their own rules. At the end of the day, most of what is and is not allowed at WCS Finals has to do explicitly with Licensing. WCS is a lot like many other international events, but is unique in that it is owned and operated by a corporation that was created as an offshoot from it's founding company, TV Aichi. It remains largely a media focused event, and a TV Show. This complicates Rights issues more than you would find at most other events/conventions. For exmaple, there was a period of time where properties owned by Shueisha were not allowed, because even though they fell under the allowed category sources of Anime/Manga, Shueisha would not allow a license to use their properties. Similarly, Sakizou's works are quite niche, and whether you want to argue that she is a 'manga artist' and so her works should be considered MANGA or not (worth noting, that on her own profiles she defines herself as a Watercolor Artist), at this time, as of writing this post, WCS either Cannot, or has chosen not to to pursue licensing from an independant artist, or for one specific creator who just happens to be particularly popular amoung Cosplayers. My point was that, not keeping consistancy between preliminaries and finals, or not making the effort to be explicit in where your preliminaries rules will differe from finals, needlessly complicates things for EVERYONE -- Interested participants, those accepted (and potentially CHOSEN) with something that won't be allowed at finals, and even audiences who are familliar with the event. As a coordinator I have learned that you can never be Too Explicit, and up-front clarity of intent is so important for your contestants, and everyone's overall experience.