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SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake Comic Con is just days away and cosplayers from all over are gearing up for their biggest cosplay competition yet.
The final competition takes place during the annual comic con and entrants will compete for trophies, medals and cash prizes.
With a limited amount of stage time during the competition, cosplays are prejudged to narrow down the contestants. According to Ro Malaga, manager over the Cosplay Celebration, there were almost three times as many entrants this year than last year. To ensure everyone can be seen, the con added a full day of prejudging. This will also allow many of them to fully enjoy the convention instead of taking time out to be prejudged.
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Salt Lake Comic Con to attempt world record
Salt Lake Comic Con has already broken several records, but the organizers are going for one more: the largest gathering of people dressed up as comic book characters.The first round of prejudging was held at the Ballroom Utah Dance Studio Saturday and, as expected, there were a wide variety of excited and nervous contestants. After additional prejudging will occur earlier on the day of the contest,the judges will then decide who will walk the stage Saturday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City as finalists.
Prejudging was done by three judges who quickly interviewed each contestant and took time to take a close-up look at the craftsmanship of their costumes. It was easy to see that the cosplayers put many hours of loving work into every detail. Some cosplayers came alone, some as couples and others came as an entire family, coming from far and near.
One family who made the trek from Tremonton made it a family affair — the father came as Indiana Jones, one son as Hawkeye and another son in a homemade AT-ST Walker from Star Wars. Their mother acted as a stage manager, making sure everyone looked their best with everything in place. Another group of friends were excited that, unlike past cons, all their cosplays had the same theme, the popular video game series of Zelda.
The love of cosplay was truly evident here and it is just a small sampling of what is to be expected at the convention where cosplay will be celebrated.
