The Insomnia 69 Cosplay Championship saw talented costume artists gather for its usual competition today.
Genshin Impact and Elden Ring were the most popular game franchises in the competition at the i69 Insomnia Gaming Festival, with each having two cosplayers.
Rose Magpie (aka Robin) won first place with a hand-made Bennett cosplay from the popular game Genshin Impact.
Rose Magpie shared the process of creating his cosplay with Esports News UK, and described it as time-consuming but worthy due to the outcome of today’s Cosplay Championship.
He spent about one month – including 130 hours on the sword – and invested roughly £500 to recreate the detailed cosplay, and described the winnings as barely covering the costs of creating his costume.
Robin said he cared about the quality of the cosplay and wanted to make everything canon, so no matter what the audience looks at, it will be 100% correct.
Rose Magpie delivered pre-recorded character voiceover lines on stage to wow the crowd. He also said he recorded the lines more than 20 times before they were perfect enought to go on stage.
After turning to his friends for help, he decided that the final sentence of the voiceover wasn’t realistic enough, as it was played by a different character in-game, so he found someone with a simial voice from fiverr.com to complete the audio.
When asked by Esports News UK about advice for new cosplayers, Rose Magpie mentioned that looking around thrift shops or eBay is a good idea as many small details are really hard to make, so finding something similar will give them the ability to alter it and save hundreds of pounds in the long run.
Other esports-themed cosplay outfits could be seen at the festival today, including Overwatch cosplayers.
The award for first place was £1,000 and a trophy from the sponsoring Costume and Play company, while the second was a £500 prize and the third £300.
Second place was awarded to a Princess Peach themed cosplayer and third was based on Doll’s cosplay from Black Butler. Honorary awards landed to
Mass Effect, Danganronpa and ‘magic girl’ inspired Pokemon cosplayers and awards landed honorary awards.
Elsewhere, a separate Assassin’s Creed masquerade took part to celebrate the franchise’s 15th anniversary. This was won by Jamie Oakley (@creedcosplay) who was dressed as Eivor from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
We have reached out to organisers to hear more details about the Assassin’s Creed event.
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