The Masquerade and Custom Design Contest

Not one, but two cosplay competitions! This year, we are offering you a double pocketful of fun! On Friday at Pyrkon in the Cosplay Zone you will be able to take part and watch the Competition for Own Design, focused on costumes designed by the participants, and on Saturday in the Earth Hall – the headline of the Convention – The Masquerade, a beautiful show with qualifiers for Extreme Cosplay Gathering World Championship with the finals in Paris! Come and see, or better yet, come and compete!

The Masquerade

The most important cosplay competition at Pyrkon with qualifiers for the Extreme Cosplay Gathering World Championships, with the finals in Paris! A colourful show full of lights, creativity and fantasy. The awarded persons will receive the title of “Cosplay Representation of Poland” and, at the expense of the organizer and with their support, will go to represent Poland during the finals of the Extreme Cosplay Gathering World Championship in Paris (July 3-6, 2025).

To participate in the Masquerade, you must apply via the application form by 23:59 on Saturday, 01.06.2025. We accept groups of 1 to 4 people. Cosplayers participating in the competition should be of legal age and present on stage a self-made costume as similar as possible to the reference illustration (selected frame from a film or comic book, illustration, etc). The course of the event, step by step, can be found in the rules and regulations. The competition takes place in the late afternoon on Saturday at the Earth Hall in Hall 15.

What awaits the winners? Financial prizes of PLN 16,000 total!

• 1st place. Polish Cosplay Representatives at the Extreme Cosplay Gathering classification 2026, PLN 6,000.  It is one group or a soloist (1-4 people) who, at the expense of the organizer and with their support, will represent Poland during the finals of the European Cosplay Gathering in Paris (July 2026). They will receive a financial award in the amount of PLN
• 2nd place. Runner-up of the Polish Cosplay Representatives in the Extreme Cosplay Gathering classification 2026, PLN 4,000.  It is one group or a soloist (1-4 people) who, in the event of indisposition of the Polish Cosplay Representatives for European Cosplay Gathering 2026, at the expense of the organizer and with their support, will represent Poland during the finals of European Cosplay Gathering in Paris (July 2026). In addition, they will receive a financial award of PLN 4,000.
• Three equivalent Jury Awards of PLN 2,000 each, which will be awarded to outstanding cosplayers (groups or soloists) at the discretion of the judges. The jury may consider both the overall work of the cosplayer and a single element of this work to be worth rewarding (e.g. stage performance, use of a new creative technique, propmaking, above-average hairdressing and make-up work, representation of the character…). Each of the three jurors is entitled to a decisive vote on the award of one of the prizes.
•  All participants who perform on the stage during the 2025 Masquerade will receive a thank you in the form of a three-day pass for Pyrkon 2026.   

We encourage people with less experience to apply, but we require the persons applying to be of age and have Polish citizenship or a permanent residence card (due to the trip for the winners).

The Masquerade Rules and Regulations

Custom Design Competition

A contest for creators of fantastic costumes that may or may not be cosplay! To participate in the Custom Design Competition, you must apply by 01.06.2025 at 23:59 via the application form.

Costume designers participating in the competition should present a self-made costume in one of two categories:

• The “Best Costume Based on Fanart” category, where the made costume is created as a representation of an already existing, graphic vision by another artist (e.g. character fanarts in versions other than the original ones, animal humanizations, combinations of characters from different universes, etc.) The prize in this category is:
  🏆 1st place – PLN 2,000
  🏆 2nd place – PLN 1,500
• The “Best Original Costume” category, where the costume is made as a reproduction of the participant’s own design of a character developed by the person making the costume. The reference may be in graphic or literary form, provided that the author of the costume created it personally. The prize in this category is:
  🏆 1st place – PLN 2,000
  🏆 2nd place – PLN 1,500
• The jury’s special prizes are 3 equal prizes, PLN 500 each. They will be awarded based on an individual decision of the juror whose name they bear, and are aimed at distinguishing participants whose works have interesting details, an innovative or creative approach to techniques, project coherence or other noteworthy elements worth emphasizing. The prizes in this category are:
  🏆 Anhyra’s award – PLN 500
  🏆 Bisz’s award – PLN 500
  🏆 Kuba Dobrenko’s award – PLN 500

Do you want more? Participants in each of the above categories can also compete for the CD PROJEKT RED Special Prize! We are looking for a person who will create the best costume referring to one of the titles released by CD PROJEKT RED, i.e., Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Gwent or games from the Witcher series with add-ons. Be creative! In this category, both Geralt in the noir version, led wedding dresses straight from Night City, as well as your characters of bards, monsters, fixers or witches can be distinguished. Win a wealth of gadgets from the worlds of The Witcher and Cyberpunk, a trip to the CD PROJEKT RED studio, as well as the conditions for a photo session in the Cyberpunk 2077 bar. 

Presentations can take place by walking along the catwalk or presenting a prepared scene. The course of the event, step by step, can be found in the rules and regulations.

Presentations can take place by walking along the catwalk or presenting a prepared scene. The course of the event, step by step, can be found in the rules and regulations.

Rules and regulations of the competition for custom design

If you are curious who won the previous editions of the Masquerade and what the costumes of the winners from previous years looked like, then be sure to have a look at the specially prepared subpage and see for yourself how great and colorful the costumes are! Do you dream of being among the winners and representing Poland at the most important cosplay competition in Europe – European Cosplay Gathering? Let’s do it!