BlizzCon’s 2018 Costume Contest is Getting a Shiny New Format

BlizzCon's 2018 Costume Contest is Getting a Shiny New Format 2

BlizzCon 2018 will have a new format for their costume contest this year. Although the convention and the Community Night Costume Contest are several months away, Blizzard knows its fans and artists are hard at work with their designs. To make sure everyone is prepared for the upcoming changes, they updated the community with more details.

For one, there will be a format change that many of BlizzCon’s costume contest veterans have longed for. This year, once entries begin, competitors will get a specific deadline to enter and be considered for the contest. This will be a change from the rush to be the first ones to sign up.

After the competitors have been chosen, they will go through some judges, who will ultimately choose 25 finalists for the Friday evening BlizzCon event.

Five different and brand-new categories will also be part of the contest, meaning there will be one winner in each category by the end of the event. The categories are: Individual or Duo Construction, Group Construction, Artisan Crafting, Large-scale Fabrication, and Makeup & Special Effect.

When the contest is open, competitors must tell Blizzard whether their entry is an Individual or Duo Construction or Group Construction. Later, if they are chosen as the top 25, the judges will choose the competition category. For example, an entry submitted into the Group Construction category would end up in either exactly that one or the Large-scale Fabrication category.

The Individual or Duo Construction category is for competitors who have worked on a costume by either themselves or with the help of a partner. This means Group Construction is for teams of three or more people, with each of them having to contribute a large part in making one costume. Artisan Crafting rewards those who pay the closest attention to detail. For example, lovingly crafted armour, meticulous accents in clothing, and even intricate leatherworking are all a part of this.

BlizzCon attendees will also get to behold the might of larger-than-life costumes with the  Large-scale Fabrication. This one will be judged on how well costumes with props and armour are made using various types of materials like foam and even 3D printing.

The final category, Makeup & Special Effects, highlights a competitor’s skills in not only makeup, but also things like hair, prosthetics, and even ambitious animatronics and FX lighting.

Leading up to BlizzCon, competitors must also do process check-ins with Blizzard to make sure everything is right on track. Entrants will take part in meeting milestones by submitting photos and videos, for example, to show how they are doing.

Although Blizzcon’s Community Night Costume Contest will showcase the top 25 competitors, it will have a Cosplay Exhibition event to let more people show off their hard work.

Blizzard is still ironing out all the details, but they will be sharing more information in the upcoming months leading up to BlizzCon 2018. In the meantime, competitors can take a look at some Heroes of the Storm cosplay reference kits to get a start on those creative ambitions.


Liked this article and want to read more like it? Check out Amy Chen’s article on Yrel and Heroes of the Storm.

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Amy Chen
Amy Chen

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