Blizzcon Is Coming and the Cosplay Is Going to Be Insane
Blizzcon holds a special place in my heart. It was my first ever convention, and it was my inspiration to begin this crazy cosplay hobby. Blizzcon cosplayers are truly a step above the rest as we all support each other to go above and beyond and create the best versions of our favorite Blizzard characters we can. I’m always learning from the amazing creators that attend Blizzcon, and just hanging out and seeing their incredible creations up close is the most amazing part of Blizzcon for me.
Typically, you can see a large number of the Blizzcon cosplays in the Community Night broadcast. The format for Community Night, the event focusing on the community’s art, talents, and cosplay through contests, has changed this year. There’s going to be a separate Cosplay Exhibition, in addition to the main contest. However, the main contest will be limited to the top 5 costumes in 5 different categories, meaning Community Night will only feature 25 costumes total. This is excellent for the creators who give it their all and work hard towards their Blizzcon costume and hope to place in the contest. This change gives them more time on stage and more time in their individual spotlight to recognize all their effort in getting there.
The downside of this is that some cosplayers who choose not to compete, or who are not chosen as the top 5, may be harder for the audience at home to see. I’m going to highlight some of the great costumes to keep an eye out for, some of which I know aren’t competing. You’ll be able to find these lovely costumes when they are completed all over the Blizzcon photo galleries and the cosplayers’ individual social media. And many will still be seen in the Cosplay Exhibition which takes place before Community Night on Friday from 5:30-6:30pm PST. You can watch the Cosplay Exhibition and all other Blizzcon broadcasts through the Virtual Ticket, which is Blizzard’s way of bringing Blizzcon to you.
Egg Sisters – Zandalari Troll in Heritage Armor from World of Warcraft
Egg Sisters’ Undead Rogue in Cataclysmic Gladiator’s Leather from Blizzcon 2015. Photo from the Blizzard Facebook page.
Egg Sisters is an amazing duo of sisters who do some amazing prosthetic work, in addition to just being all around awesome. Their past Blizzcon cosplays include the Blackhardt skin of Reinhardt from Overwatch, Trag’oul’s Avatar Necromancer set from Diablo 3, and my personal favorite, their Undead Rogue in Cataclysmic Gladiator’s Leather from World of Warcraft. This year, they are returning to World of Warcraft with a so far fantastic looking Zandalari troll! They are going all out with prosthetics for the face, hands, and feet. The armor thus far looks absolutely incredible as well. I believe they are entering the contest with this build, and I feel very certain we’ll be seeing them as one of the top 5 in their category!
Little Sparkz – Ice Storm Mantle Malfurion from Heroes of the Storm
Little Sparkz in her Warring Kingdoms Arthas cosplay at Blizzcon 2017. Photo from the Blizzcon website.
Little Sparkz is an Arizona local who consistently knocks it out of the park! Her first costume was Chromie, the gnome form of a Bronze Dragon, and she became well known as Chromie thanks to how incredibly accurate and adorable her costume was! She cosplayed another version of the character from Heroes of the Storm in 2016 and nailed that one too. She also made an incredible genderbend of Cenarius in 2015 which won an honorable mention, and last year she made the Frozen Mystic Kingdoms Arthas skin which won the armor category at Twitchcon 2017 and fourth place at Blizzcon 2017. The progress is looking fantastic, and her trademark foam sculpting is being wonderfully complemented by displays of her amazing skill in other aspects such as the wings, fur, lighting, and sewing!
Project Ebon Blade from World of Warcraft
Project Ebon Blade is the collaborative project between Zach Fischer Illustration and a huge group of cosplayers. He has created a huge amount of Death Knight versions of World of Warcraft characters, and has a whole army of cosplayers working to create the designs! The cast of Death Knights includes Zach’s redesigns of our new Lich King, Bolvar Fordragon, and the Four Horsemen, Nazgrim, Thoras Trollbane, Sally Whitemane, and Darion Mograine, which were part of the Death Knight class campaign in Legion. These big five characters will be created by Hoku Props, Paskadi Props, The K-Wall, Jessica Nigri, and Woodwarder. The sheer quantity of designs is crazy, and the progress pictures I’ve seen of some of the cosplayers working towards this has me really excited to see them all together. You can find more specific information on the Facebook page and their hashtag, #ProjectEbonBlade.
Draynee as Eyir from World of Warcraft
Eyir trial run! Lots of work left to do, but we have proof of concept! #warcraft #Blizzcon2018 pic.twitter.com/EjTGXzx3Ef
— DrayneeCos (@DrayneeCos) September 16, 2018
Last year, I ran into Draynee and we watched the winners announced for the 2017 contest. I’m excited for us both to participate this year!
I absolutely fell in love with Eyir’s design when I first met her in Stormheim. She’s the leader of the Valarjar val’kyr, and has a model that truly reflects her divine status. I really considered cosplaying her myself, but I wasn’t ready to deal with wings or the lack of visibility from her helmet. This is why I was so excited when I saw that Draynee had plans to cosplay her! I’m not even exaggerating; I’m giddy with excitement at each progress picture. Her past projects have included amazingly well done Death Knight tier 10 and tier 19. Last year, Draynee shared my unfortunate fate of not finishing the costume in time, but this year she’s back at it again. My enthusiasm for this costume has not dropped off in the least! It’s going to be absolutely beautiful! SO EXCITED!
Oshley as McCree from Overwatch
Oshley’s Varian Wrynn at Blizzcon 2016. Photo by Alive Alf Photography.
Oshley is one of my favorite cosplayers, like, ever. Her craftsmanship is always absolutely stunning, and she’s such a fun and wonderful person too. She’s a sanding fiend and it shows in her work. The first costume of hers I got to see in person was her Hunter tier 8, and it’s one of the costumes that inspired me to do my current Hunter project. She’s done two Mercy costumes, default and Valkyrie, and both were absolutely impeccable. In 2016, she won second place at Blizzcon with her version of Queen Varian Wrynn. She streamed a good amount of the progress on that costume, and oh my goodness is that costume detailed. This year her McCree is already shaping up to be just as great as her other costumes. She gets her Worbla SO SMOOTH. I really can’t wait to see it all together and lit up!
Kazplay’s Hogger, winner of the Blizzcon 2017 costume contest, sure brought back some memories, and trauma, from the early days in Elwynn Forest. Photo from the Blizzcon website.
There’s so, so many more amazing costumes coming, like last year’s winner Kazplay working on a Khazra from Diablo, Geek Lyfe homies Cynorme and Cheshsmiles working on their Overwatch costumes, and so many more! This is definitely a very small section of the glorious costumes we’ll be seeing! Keep an eye out for the Blizzcon hashtag on all social media. The entire Blizzcon community is so incredible and I can’t wait to see them all in person, in their magnificence.
What are some of your favorite Blizzcon, or Blizzard in general, cosplays? Are there any you’re hyped to see? Tell me in the comments!
Featured photo is Steel Barrel Cosplay‘s Prophet Velen from Blizzcon 2017, third place winner. Photo from the Blizzcon website.
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