A fun, innovative and rewarding revolution on how cosplay events are done was underway at the first leg of the Cyberzone Cosplay Craze series at upscale SM BF in Paranaque. Sponsored by SM Cyberzone and organized by cosplay.ph, Cosplay Craze has begun bringing absolutely free events closer to where the cosplayers are, offering huge prizes and giveaways that even major events can’t match. But most of all, it has given cosplayers a reason to meet up with others like them within their communities and have an enjoyable, non-cramped, stress-free afternoon of cosplay fun.
Starting off with its inaugural event at SM BF earlier this year, Cosplay Craze has been SM Cyberzone’s promotional series of events for 2016. Already the premier hub for consumer technology with 29 locations all over the country, Cyberzone has striven to provide the most interactive and most technological experience to its patrons. It is also known for holding the some of the biggest gaming and tech-related events in the country, and it has been especially supportive of cosplaying, holding many cosplay events around the country, with a major two-day Cosplay Craze event last year at SM City North EDSA Annex (our coverage of Day 1 here and Day 2 here).
Helping us cover the event is our Correspondent and Cosplay Model Nicolette cosplaying Shiro from No Game No Life. She’s surprised but happy to have a new cosplay event near her place and got to have fun while we did our coverage as well.
Cosplayers and enthusiasts have gathered from all over the metro at the Cyberzone area since the mall opened. Cosplayers were asked to register so that they could take part in the competition as well as be eligible for the great giveaways during the program. A lot of cosplayers registered for the contest, and throughout the afternoon a secret panel of judges were already assessing them for pre-judging.
The main program was set to begin later in the afternoon, and the cosplayers used the time before then to prepare for the competition, socialize with each other, have their photos taken by the mall patrons, or just take it easy with their friends.
The event proper started off with the Cosplay Parade where the cosplayers made a round of the mall in their striking and colorful costumes. Mall patrons couldn’t get enough of them as they snapped away on phones and cameras and took videos as well.
Once they got to the event area, the program got to start with host Pablo Bairan welcoming everyone to the very first leg of Cyberzone Cosplay Craze. He did a marvelous job of keeping the audience pumped and excited. He got to call all the cosplayers on stage to present them in front of the judges and the curious but appreciative crowd that has gathered around them.
From all the registrants, 20 were chosen by the judges to move on to the final round. They got to do a catwalk and perform skits in front of the enthusiastic audience, with the finalists doing their best to impress everyone in attendance.
After the presentations and while waiting for the announcement of winners, there was a raffle where five lucky cosplayers who registered for the contest got to win 1,000 pesos in cash on the spot courtesy of Cyberzone. The cosplayers whose numbers were called out had to be there at that moment and go to the stage to be able to claim their prize; otherwise a new number was drawn. Winning a prize just for cosplaying is always a welcome thing, of course.
After giving away lots of great prizes, it was then time to reveal the top three winners of the cosplay competition. Winners got huge cash prizes from Cyberzone, and the Champion gets an assured slot at the Cosplay Mania Cup at Cosplay Mania ’16.
With the awarding of the winners, the SM City BF Paranaque Cyberzone Cosplay Craze leg was over, but the cosplayers were still welcome to stay and have fun and have their photos taken by the crowd, and we got to do our own shots of them as well.
Watch out for the next legs of Cyberzone Cosplay Craze which will be another exciting event with great prizes also to be given away, so we hope to see you then as arkadymac.com makes its special coverage.
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