recent posts...
-
inaugural post
20 May 2025 - digitalily
If you have somehow found yourself here, welcome! This is the inaugural post for this small web project. As of posting, much is still in flight, but I wanted something to replace the default jekyll post, so here you are.
...
ACEN & Combo Breaker 2025
26 May 2025 - digitalily
Another year, another ACEN, and this time a surprise last minute decision to visit Combo Breaker after. It’s been a busy couple of weeks!
My first ACEN (Anime Central- a Chicago area convention) was, wildly, 10 years ago. Haven’t been to 10 ACENs though, mostly due to the covid years, but this year was the first year myself or any of my cohort had anything to do with the Masquerade.
Oddly enough, we had gotten it into our heads the Masquerade was more of a formal dance, not a combination cosplay/skit show + award ceremony. We don’t make it to many conventions, so the general convention concept of a masquerade wasn’t known, but in the aftermath of the event on the Sunday morning, where we got together with some of the runners/organizers of the Masquerade for further info/feedback, we were informed that indeed one year there was a formal dance, and it was known as ‘The Masquerade.’ Certainly a little gratifying to technically have been correct, but I imagine by the time we were more generally concerned with the goings on of the convention a few years in, we latched onto this idea and tucked it off in a corner of the collective con knowledge repository.
It’s unfortunate that that happened, though, because in many ways I feel that the Masquerade is -the- main con event; I mean, after walking the floor and visiting artists alley and all that, what else could be more central to the convention than an annual show celebrating cosplay, performance, and even AMVs? And celebrate it certainly does- if there’s anything I came away with after the aforementioned Sunday meeting, it’s that a lot of care and effort goes into ensuring those who wish to walk the stage can, and that they have their time. A very heartening sentiment, and one that greatly motivates future participation.
mr. secretaryMy journey to the Masquerade certainly wasn’t conventional. Unfortunately the decision to revamp this website and begin using it in a real way came much too late for meaningful documentation purposes, but everything began with the decision to cosplay Goldlewis Dickinson, of GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE- - a series that deserves some more words, another time.
Most of my cosplays historically have been what I would describe as ridiculous, sort of meme-level ostentatious displays. If you’re familiar with Superfly the album turned electrical tower (yes, that one) Stand from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable- that is one such cosplay I have done. Admittedly quite shoddy in terms of construction, and certainly not something to have on the floor (though wearable with bungee cord straps!). Having relatively recently gotten into Strive and not wanting the pressure of producing absurd results in the gym, Goldlewis with his giant Area 51 laden coffin was an easy choice.
concept artGUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-
After a lengthy and laborious process that would have benefited greatly from more forethought and which in hindsight has taught me much about construction and appropriate material choice, a coffin was born.
the resultThe construction itself began with several laser cut boards of plywood, macguyver’d together in the most unholy of fashions. I knew from the start the general shape required the most precision, so once I had that in place and knew it would work, I could move onto affixing a lid. I initially wanted the coffin to have depth, and possibly line it as in the concept art. Due to how it was put together, though, that would have been structurally infeasible, so I settled on a smaller area covering, but still hinged lid that could open and actually have things inside (which were received more highly than I could have asked for!). I then painted it black, added the silver trim, and began painting and affixing the rings, signs, and spikes, all of which except for the Area 51 sign board itself and the warning poster, were 3D printed! All models designed by me as well, except for the font of ‘AREA 51 UNITED STATES,’ which I was able to find the original of to use as a base. Fun fact- the font is actually Impact, of advice animal meme fame. Finally was the spiky lid, which was a wooden base, velcroed on, with 3D printed & painted spikes, and the wheel assembly the coffin rested on (not pictured). Those 4 little red wheels have done their duty and then some over the miles they rolled, and hours they held strong, locked in place.
I had initially planned on taking and sharing more progress photos of the coffin’s construction in my friends’ private ACEN discord server, but elected not to after 1), it became inconvenient to plan around, and 2) settling on the surprise factor of it being finished being more worthwhile. My usual DND group saw the progress anyway as they gathered for session (and sometimes kindly lent a hand for a couple bits of construction), but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks before ACEN that another friend, who was in the discord server but not a DND regular, came over for an impromptu mass tonkatsu frying session and was gobsmacked enough to immediately begin looking into the cosplay contest at ACEN and how to enter, that entering any sort of cosplay contest even entered the mind. Unfortunately for us, registration for the Masquerade proper had already closed, but he found that there were Hall cosplay contests one could enter on Friday and Saturday instead- for a bit of a judge’s eye on your cosplay. I almost didn’t even enter the Hall contest because the coffin had already been deployed and brought back to the hotel room once, and needing to rope in two people to assist moving it again while I was in cosplay was a tall order, but my legendary friends are legendary, and after a bit of encouragement from the friend who suggested entering in the first place, we rolled it back over to the con floor only to find that the space for the Hall contest was not in the main floor’s Hall F, but a different Hall F in the hotel basement.
r.i.p., as they say.
What we didn’t realize (or at least, what I certainly didn’t fully grasp) at the time was that Hall cosplay had its on set of awards that would be presented at the Masquerade, so I was quite surprised when, while in the middle of an episode of Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji, I received a text message informing me I won ‘Best Prop’ for Saturday and to meet at the Masquerade info desk at 5pm for info on seating for the show itself, and accepting my award on stage. I was also surprised, because I hadn’t really considered such a thing as possible. The coffin was a very high effort construction, sure, but as far as I was concerned, I was very much a cosplay novice; surely I shouldn’t be winning an award for something, right?
Well wrong, I suppose, but I know also that I shouldn’t be too full of myself here- I am decidedly an amateur! The project as a whole is riddled with ‘eh, good enough!’ decisions. In the after meeting on Sunday, I learned more about what’s expected from higher level competitors- a thorough documentation of how their cosplays are made, challenges overcome, and innovations to make it over the finish line. I haven’t touched a needle and thread in my life, for one, and the non-coffin parts were by and large bought and only lightly modified- patches sewn on, by a friend- hemming of chaps, by a local business- prescription glasses I mangled with kiss-mark laden sunglass cutout, courtesy of Pearle Vision. There’s a long way to go in the world of cosplay, but I can say for certain after nonchalantly entering the Hall cosplay contest and being recognized, I’m more eager to learn more and refine my craft than ever.
A pair of friends I was with also won an award on that Saturday, which made the whole thing even cooler. Thank goodness they did too- moral support while not quite sure what the Masquerade entailed was much needed.
All in all, ACEN was a rousing success, and I had a bunch of lovely interactions with other con-goers on the floor, asking for photos or otherwise complimenting the cosplay. One question I got a couple times was if I would be at Combo Breaker, which was taking place the following weekend. My response was more or less ‘No, no, ACEN is my con of the year so that’ll be that,’ but in the aftermath of the con, receiving an award, I asked around to some friends if they thought it was worth entering the Combo Breaker cosplay contest, and ultimately pulled the trigger.
Combo Breaker
My intention at Combo Breaker was to have a focused trip centered on the cosplay contest, allowing for a bit of time to visit artist booths and catch some rounds, and by and large, that’s what happened! Since it’s an event explicitly focused on fighting games, and STRIVE was a main title on offer, recognition of the cosplay itself was much more frequent- I was stopped for quite a few more photos than I was used to and got a few shots with some other GGST cosplayers as well! While driving all the way over to the convention center in cosplay, hair coloring and all, was less than ideal, it was a very worthwhile experience for a few reasons:
First, it’s a very different style of event. The tournaments are the main draw, and participation and viewing of them is central. It is also inherently more niche, and not as large, so all parts of the process were quite smooth. Parking literally in front of the convention center’s entrance without hassle and walking in, for example (no fee!), smooth badge pickup and security entrance, and wide open halls with lots of seating (and several not super busy grab & go food options, right there). It was exceedingly easy to hop in, head over, and enjoy. Also as mentioned, it’s a tournament. While my (again legendary) friend helping me with the coffin and I were catching some sets of GGST while waiting, we happened to catch a pool match between two very prominent names, certainly in the STRIVE community (and definitely a little bit beyond). It was mostly just crazy seeing these two recognizable people walk up for a random pool match in front of a not super filled audience section and play impactful rounds. The result was also not expected, but I digress.
Second, the level of cosplay was on another level. I think this is mostly due to the narrower range of potential cosplays, and the requisite passion cosplaying a character at such a specific event naturally entails. Nearly every cosplay I saw was super on point, and the quality of craftsmanship was inspiring. I luckily had the opportunity to handle some handcrafted foam weapon props, which blew my mind both in the level of detail, but also how light and wieldy they were, especially in comparison to what I’ve done in the past. The 3D printer is nice, but plastic is heavy- foam is much higher on the list of skills to begin to learn now, I can say that much. Expectations for my own results in the contest itself were certainly tempered going in, but even more so when I saw what others had done. Of particular note, there was a Dizzy cosplayer who had a novel inflatable setup for Necro and Undine, with articulated hands so they could be moved around by the cosplayer trivially- this particular cosplay was one of the winners, and well deserved! That’s the kind of build I’d hope to be able to design one day, that’s for sure. As of writing, I don’t believe photos have been posted yet, but I’ll be keeping an eye open.
Finally, it was just nice to be able to do something very specific, go in, go out, and have a restful evening back home. As mentioned, the decision to attend Combo Breaker was super last minute and ad-hoc thing, which induced some unanticipated (in the wake of a normal ACEN) stress of making cosplay repairs, adding some details, and so on, so keeping it short, so I can retire for a couple months helped to maximize enjoyment while also keeping the stakes low.
I can definitely see myself attending future Combo Breakers, at least in part, but hopefully not laden with huge props that require a handler!
And with that, that’s that! It’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything resembling a blog post for real, so thanks for bearing with me here. My main takeaway from all of the above is that I’m more motivated than ever to design and work on cool cosplays with my friends for next year, and dabble in the new skills needed to do so to my satisfaction! My hope is to document some of the progress on new cosplays here at least in part, but we’ll see what happens. For now, a little bit of cool off time is needed. More work to be done on this site, and more work needed to be done on my in-progress games.
‘til next time!