GameXpo & the Finnish Cosplay Championships 2016

Hooray for a week late expo update! Oona also covered the same expo in her blog since we went there together but nevertheless - here's another look at the expo!

On Friday 4th I kinda ex tempore decided to order a ticket to GameXpo's (4.-6.11.) Saturday in Messukeskus, Helsinki (aka. the previous night before the actual expo. Yes, I do that a lot). My reasons? To be honest, my main push behind the decision was to see the second Finnish Cosplay Championships (FCC) live since after last year they decided to not stream it on TV anymore. Of course I was also interested to see what the expo and the other expos held at the same time -mainly DigiExpo- would offer me, but since I didn't really know what would be in there I didn't know...what to expect?

After confirming my ticket I spent a portion of the night trying to familiarize myself with the expos and their offerings, but interestingly enough they didn't have their own websites and what information was given through Messukeskus' website was the very minimum. Therefore after a couple of confused hours of scrolling through the Messukeskus website and their mobile application I managed to make a very basic battle plan for the day:

11:30 - Nintendo Show

16:00 - Creating game worlds and characters

17:00 - Finnish Cosplay Championships

Aside from the FCC competition which took one and a half hours, the rest of the presentations and panels took half an hour. See that huge gap over there in the very detailed schedule? That was threatening to become a very big question mark, especially since one day tickets didn't permit exit from the venue. Bummer.

And in the end due to complications with time management, I ended up only seeing 1/3 of the scheduled things. Even bigger bummer.

So, what DID I get from the expos?

Despite being slightly sceptical towards the offerings of the expo I did get to watch a couple of entertaining presentations and an insight to Microsoft HoloLens. I personally find the HoloLens technology intriguing and I've watched a good deal of videos of its usage, but seeing it being used live was naturally another thing. Sadly, and also very oddly given it was a TECHNOLOGY centered expo, the connections for HoloLens and also XBox One kept crashing every half a minute which didn't make following the programs the most fluent experience. Nevertheless, I did sit through and rather enjoy the HoloLens presentation and part of XBox Show, had a dance break with Just Dance, took selfies with Super Mario and snatched a free flying XBox t-shirt. Could have been worse.

HoloLens in action

"Not suitable for ages under 16" it says next to a screen literally anyone can see without entering the restricted area. Good planning right here.

Aside from that I also got to see, as you might have guessed, the main goal of the trip: the FCC competition. It took a lot of rather aimless wandering around the venue before we made it to 5pm since the expo didn't really have THAT much to offer, but boiiii was it worth the wait.

To anyone who still might be wondering what the heckie exactly is Finnish Cosplay Championships (also known as Cosplayn SM in Finnish): It's a competition where cosplayers (=people dressed up as comic/movie/tv-show/book characters) compete over their skills of costume making and skit performing either alone or in a group of max. 3 people. This year the stage was taken by eight solo contestants and six groups who all competed for the title and for a chance to represent Finland in the Cosplay World Masters & Nordic Cosplay Championships (the solo winner), or to win a trip to Paris and Japan Expo in 2017 (the group winner). Didn't think cosplay would be a serious sport? Better think again - we live in the era where professional cosplayers get paid a lot for making costumes and appearing in various conventions around the world!

But wait, the FCC isn't just about the competition: it's a full package of guest performances, good (and bad) jokes from the narrator and a whole lot of entertainment for the audience. This year the interval acts were performed by an odottemita dance group PUREmode (go check them out, they're amazing and very very cute) and the amazing, gorgeous, talented narrator Elina Cosplay who never ceases to entertain me (and hopefully an audience full of other people as well) with her stage presence.

And indeed, even if this year's FCC wasn't as big of a spectacle it was last year with broadcast TV streaming and all, it still was highly entertaining and a very good experience. The skill level of the competitors was generally high, skits and costumes were well thought out and the winners of both the solo competition and the group competition were amazing - special standing ovation to the solo winner and his Captain Barbossa skit that made me develop a perfect six pack with all the laughter it caused. Seriously, it was top notch entertainment filed to perfection and synced seamlessly between voice record and the action on stage. I wish I had a video of the performance to show but, alas, official recordings are not yet out and all I have is pictures. :'C

Pictures don't do justice to the epic winning performance

(It indeed is Barbossa commanding Gyarados from Pokémon.)

It's still unsure if SkateExpo was trying to sabotage the FCC by first blaring their music unnecessarily loud and then summoning a Finnish rapper to perform at the same time with the competition, to which the Cosvision team answered by turning up their volume - but despite all that the one and a half hours were worth the trip to Helsinki.

"We apologize for the volume. We are battling the rapper Aste. #CosplaynSM" tweeted the official FCC organizer Cosvision

Will I visit GameXpo/DigiExpo again next year? Probably not. Not unless they again make the decision to have the FCC in a cramped space between gamers, skater teens and skiing enthusiasts, which frankly speaking was not a very good choice to begin with. Hopefully they won't choose to do it again since the competition deserves a good stage with no unnecessary background noise.

#gamexpo #digiexpo #fcc #finnishcosplaychampionships #cosplay