Cebu Cosplay | Cosplay Tournament of Champions (ToRCH) II

The nationwide competition rounded up it's Cebu Leg last August 13, 2011 at the SM Event Center. The event was huge but the venue was... well... not fit for events like these. It was held at the food court which made it so cramp. Little space for cosplayers to move and photographers to shoot.>.>

I went to the event to watch the competition and take pictures but the place really discouraged me. If you stay in one place for more than a minute, you get shoved off by people. So i just decided to watch the competition. There were only a few chairs around the stage and the front row floor was full of photographers. I went scouting for a front row seat and found one>=] It's a good thing that i had only one partner in crime that day, it made it easier to move together and squeeze our way to the front row>=] Just when we sat, the competition started.Such a great timing.

First pair was from Bleach. Hollow Ichigo vs Ulquiorra in his 2nd form. the costumes were ok but the skit was so dragging... Correct me if I'm wrong, skits should only last for 5 min. they also should have used an  English dubbed audio so that the audience can follow their skit. All i can see were fighting scenes and lots of pauses. And if I heard right, they only met 3 months ago, made their costumes and became friends.

2nd pair was from Kingdom Hearts. Maleficent vs Sora. It was the best skit among the contestants. They were true to the game. The audio was perfect and the audience can understand both their dialogs. Both the  cosplayers' acting were very outstanding. I really love their fight scenes especially when Sora dodges Maleficent's attacks. roll. roll. roll. roll. wig falls off. picks it up and continues rolling.XD They even imported some Heartless in the fight scenes. The costumes were ok except for the falling stuffs.XD Being honest about your costume is fine but i think you don't have to reveal its' faults to the judges.

The final pair was from Blaz Blue. Hakumen and Mu-12. Their skit was uuhh... I.. uuhh... i'm confused.XD If I were a judge that time, I would definitely ask them what is the connection of the dance number to the their story. Hey, I know you can do what ever you want in skits but make sure the audience can understand it too. The dance number was well prepared. The fight scenes were a little off since at times, the audio was not synchronized with the cosplayers actions. I would have suggested that they use the props more often. As what I have observed, they only used their swords at the final seconds of their skit. Mu-12's weapon was so huge, it deserves more air time.XD

It saddens me to see that only 3 pairs were able to compete. Most aspiring contestants got stuck with the passport thing, some didn't finish their costumes on time. If you ask me why all my comments about their costumes are all 'ok', well,  they are really not the greatest I've seen within Cebu.

It's good to see that the judges have a lot of cosplay experience but sometimes they just asked the wrong questions.XD And the contestants being nervous and all, gave wrong answers.
Example:
Judge: how long did it take you to finish your costume?
Contestant: we just finished it last week/yesterday.

I congratulate the Kingdom Hearts pair, Rayland and Leandro, for bagging the title to be Cebu's representative for Cosplay Mania 2011.^________^

i gotta wrap this up because my boss is gonna kill me.XD i'm already 30min past my break time.XD
/*pictures will be posted later or never.XD*/