The Masquerade and Custom Design Contest
Not one, but as many as two cosplay contests! This year we offer you double the excitement! At Pyrkon on Friday, the Cosplay Zone will feature and Custom Design Contest, focused on costumes designed by participants, and on Saturday, the Earth Hall will host the convention’s gem – the Masquerade, a beautiful show with qualifiers for the Extreme Cosplay Gathering World Championship with finals in Paris! Come and see, or preferably come and compete!
The Masquerade
Pyrkon’s most important cosplay competition with qualifiers for the Extreme Cosplay Gathering World Championship with finals in Paris! A colorful show full of lights, creativity and fantasy. The award-winning individuals will gain the title of the “Cosplay National Team of Poland” and will travel to represent Poland at the Extreme Cosplay Gathering finals in Paris(July 13-16, 2024) at the organizer’s expense and with the organizer’s support.
To participate in the Masquerade, you must register by 11:59 pm on Saturday, June 02, 2024 via the registration form. We accept groups of 1 to 4 people. Cosplayers participating in the contest should be of legal age and present a handmade costume as similar as possible to a reference illustration (selected frame from a movie or comic book, illustration, etc.) on stage. The step-by-step course of the event can be found in the rules. The competition takes place on Saturday at the Earth Hall in Hall 15.
What awaits the winners? Financial prizes with a pool of PLN 15,000!
- Cosplay National Team of Poland in the Extreme Cosplay Gathering 2024 classification, 6000 PLN. It is one team or a soloist (1-4 people), who will travel to represent Poland at the finals of the European Cosplay Gathering in Paris (July 10-15, 2024) at the expense of the organizer and with his support. They will receive a financial reward of PLN 6,000
. - Cosplay National Team of Poland in the Extreme Cosplay Gathering 2025 classification, 6000 PLN. This is one team or a soloist (1-4 people), who will travel to represent Poland at the finals of the European Cosplay Gathering in Paris (July 2025) at the expense of the organizer and with his support. They will receive a financial reward of PLN 6,000. In addition, in the event of the indisposition of the Cosplay National Team of Poland for the European Cosplay Gathering in Paris 2024, they will be given priority consideration as its replacement;
- Three equal Jury Prizes to be awarded to outstanding cosplayers (groups or soloists). The jury may consider both the cosplayer’s overall work and a single element of that work (e.g., stage performance, use of a new creative technique, propmaking, above-average hair and make-up work, character reproduction…) to be worthy of an award. Each Jury Prize is a financial award of PLN 2,000;
- All participants who perform on stage during the Masquerade 2024 will be thanked with a three-day pass to Pyrkon 2025.
Those with less experience are encouraged to apply, but we require that you be of legal 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 necessarily be cosplays! To participate in the Custom Design Contest, you must apply by 02/06/2024 at 23:59 through the application form.
Costume makers participating in the contest should present a handmade costume in one of two categories:
- “Best Costume based on fanart”, where the costume made is created as a reproduction of another artist’s existing graphic vision (e.g., fanart of characters in versions different than the original existing ones, humanization of animals, combinations of characters from different universes, etc.) The prize in this category is PLN 1500,
- “Best Original Costume”, where the costume made is created as a reproduction of the contestant’s own character design developed authoritatively by the person making the costume. The reference can be in graphic or literary form, provided that the author of the costume created them personally. The prize in this category is PLN 1,500.
Do you want more? Participants in each of the above categories can also compete for the CD PROJEKT RED Special Award! We are looking for the person who will create the best costume referring to one of the titles released by CD PROJEKT RED, namely: Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, GWINT or games from the Witcher series including add-ons. Be creative! In this category, the awarded person can be dressed as Geralt’s noir version, wearing led wedding dresses native to Night City, or wearing costumes of the contestant’s own characters of bards, monsters, fixers or witchers. A wealth of goodies from the Witcher and Cyberpunk worlds, a tour of the CD PROJEKT RED studio, and conditions for a photo shoot at the Witcher Tavern and the Cyberpunk 2077 game bar are up for grabs.
Presentations can be made by walking the catwalk or presenting a prepared scene. The step-by-step course of the event can be found in the rules and regulations.
The competition takes place on Friday on the cosplay stage in Hall 8A. Newcomers who are just discovering costume making, minors, and those from outside Poland are also welcome.
Rules and regulations of the competition for custom design (PL)
If you are curious about who won the previous editions of the Masquerade and what the costumes of the winners from previous years looked like, then be sure to take a look at the specially prepared subpage and see for yourselves how wonderful and colorful the costumes are! Do you dream of being among the winners and representing Poland in the most important cosplay competition in Europe – European Cosplay Gathering? Then get to it!