I is for Insiders

illoria
Apr 10, 2018
3 min read

Competitions. They are such a big part of the cosplay community. A method of validation or showing off. But anyone who has competed probably has asked themselves the same thing, “Why did that person win?”

There are ugly sides to competitions. However not all wins are due to subterfuge or bias. Most awards are won deservedly. However, this isn’t always true. There are insiders. By insiders, I mean the people who know the judges and are their close friends. It’s very hard for a judge to be objective when they may be intimately familiar with how a friend put their cosplay together. Or they may be biased simply because they like the friend personally. Not all judges are unfair. I’d say most are fair. Some may be fair but completely out of their depth so they are at a disadvantage and can’t judge properly. It also varies from country to country as to how objective judges are or their particular biases towards or against cosplays or cosplayers. Professional judges don't let friendships affect their scoring however.

So what should you do when you suspect an insider of winning? What can you do? Honestly? Not much. If you embark on a smear campaign for either party then you risk your own reputation. No one likes a whiner. And often times what people see as insiders winning, actually isn’t. Maybe it’s a hidden detail or technique that snagged them the award over you. No one can know for certain why one cosplay was picked over another unless they were in that judging room with the judges.

But here is what I recommend for you to do:

1) Keep your mouth shut. Don’t complain, don’t smear. If it’s an unfair win, that will become apparent quickly enough without you adding fuel to the fire.

2) If you are successful with #1, track down the judges at the con and ask for feedback on how to improve. Take it at face value, don’t give excuses, and say “thank you”. Then walk away. You may disagree with their opinions but at least you now know how they were judging you and possibly what crucial detail knocked you out of the top. If you can't successful keep your mouth shut, don't ask for feedback at all. You risk saying something that can't be taken back.

3) Move on. Enter your cosplay at another con’s contest (if it’s eligible). See if you win something or get the same feedback. Each contest is judged differently so you may get a different award or different feedback.

4) If after all that you still think the awards were rigged, just don’t compete at that convention or with those judges anymore. It’s hard to tell which factor is at fault so it may take you a few times of entering to determine which to avoid.

5) Don’t take it personally. Win or lose, fair or unfair, learn what you can and keep crafting. Deriving your self-worth from whether you win or not is dangerous and unhealthy.

I think by doing all that you can once again find the joy in cosplaying and entering competitions. Yes, it hurts to lose or just barely miss out on that top spot, but sometimes it’s out of your control so let it go and move on to the next project or competition.

Have you run into insider judging before? What did you do about it?

(I'm a few days behind on uploading posts but don't worry. They are written. They just need some editing before uploading so I'll catch up soon.)