After 8 months of planning, blood sweat and tears, The Annual Championship of Cosplay held at Comic Con Africa has come to a close. With a total of 59 contestants, spread over the novice, intermediate and masters levels, all of whom looked stunning and gave it their all and should be proud of themselves and what they achieved as it takes great courage to enter into a competition of this size. Pre-judging for the competition took place across the Thursday and Friday of Comic Con Africa where the judges got a chance to look at the contestants’ cosplay up close allowing them to see all the details and allowed the contestants to explain to the judges how they made their cosplay and what techniques they used, it is also during this pre-judging that the masters’ contestants are not only judged by the local judges but by the international cosplay guest. Where Taryn Cosplay joined in the masters judging on Thursday and Leon Chiro and Elizabeth Rage joined in on the masters judging on Friday. After all the pre-judging took place, 26 contestants were selected by the judges to move onto the finals where they were then judged on their stage presentation and how well they can be in character! After all the contestants did their stage walk the judges selected the winners.

What makes this competition different is that the Champion of Cosplay gets to go and compete on the global stage at MCM London Comic Con against other talented cosplayers across the world, in the World Championship. Africa has so far sent two Champions to take part the in the Crown the first being Kinpatsu Cosplay with her Sister of Battle cosplay where she came 2^nd overall and our second Champion being Jinxie Cosplay with her Priestess Bathory, where she took 1^st making her the current Crowned Champion of Cosplay. This puts extra pressure on Africa’s next Champion to keep up the winning streak!

This year the judges were blown away with all of our local talent and are excited to see how the community is going to keep growing in the future! So without further ado here are Comic Con Africa’s 2022 Championship of Cosplay Winners!

African Champion of Cosplay – Ludus Cosplay as Aratak – Chieftain of the Banuk Tribe from Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds (Africa’s First Male Champion and the Comic Con Cape Town Regional Champion of Cosplay)

Masters Champion – BlueCat Cosplay as Yennefer of Vengerberg from The Witcher Series (Hannah Alexander Design) (She won the Champion of Needlework title at Comic Con Africa 2019)

Construction Champion – AhtohCos as Baine Bloodhoof from World of Warcraft (This was his second ever cosplay and competition, he placed 3^rd in Armour at Comic Con Africa 2019 with his first ever cosplay)

Armour Champion – Toonibug as Wonder Women from DC Comics (Royy_Ledger Design) (The artist himself consulted her on the construction of this cosplay)

2^nd Place Armour – Artaxer as Katsuki Bakugo from My Hero Academia (This was his first ever cosplay)

3^rd Place Armour – Nico as Griselbrand from Magic: The Gathering (This was his first GES Competition)

Champion of Needlework – Annakapat as Mollymauk Tealeaf from Critical Role Campaign 2

2^nd Place Needlework – Jordan Fur-rie as Kassandra (OC) (This is her second ever cosplay)

3^rd Place Needlework – Jeezz_Louise as Harley Quinn from Batman: The Animated Series

Judges Favourite – FrostyKitty Cosplay as Gorou from Genshin Impact

Best Newcomer – Chkombi as Neytiri from Avatar

Most Creative Techniques – Just Plain Cal as The Bone Armour set from Monster Hunter World

Best Prop – MonlyFans as Shoretrooper Grunt from Star Wars

Best Wig – Ruthie_Music as Rapunzel from Tangled

Green Leaf (Best use of recycled materials and upcycling) – Isola as Nobushi from For Honour

 Thank you to all who competed and supported this year’s competition! We can wait to see all your cosplays at the next one!