Amin Abbas Dubai

The UAE preliminaries of World Cosplay Summit was held at MEFCC 2020 in Dubai to choose the winning team who will compete in the upcoming World Cosplay Summit championship this summer in Japan.

The competition for the main prize was between three cosplay teams: Super Smash Bros, Final Fantasy and My Hero Academia.

Each team made performed on stage and attempted to get an accurate representation of the characters they were cosplaying.

The Super Smash Bros team that consisted of Princess Peach and Rosalina, from the video games series, won first place.

Soumaya Awadh (SumiCosplay), who played Rosalina, said: “I didn’t want to participate in the competition until my friend Cherry, who played Princess Peach, told me to be with her in the competition a month before. I had to work very hard to finish the cosplay costumes and video sketch for our performance in time.”

“There were some issues at the competition like no volunteers backstage, but overall everyone was happy with our performance at the competition,” she added.

“I had participated in WCS 2017 but nothing was prepared for us. We had to pay our own visas, flight tickets, accommodation and none of the UAE organizers came with us to the championship at that time, so this year we are planning to prepare everything and looking forward to the full experience of World Cosplay Summit in Japan this summer,” Awadh said.

Tokumaru Oguri, founder & CEO of World Cosplay Summit organization said: “The level of the UAE WCS preliminaries this year was above average. We wanted to have more talented cosplayers at the World Cosplay Summit championship as the current number isn’t enough to satisfy the fans who are excited for this special event to all cosplayers around the world.”

Ayman Akaily, MEFCC marketing executive and community manager said: “The cosplay competition this year was an eye opening experience and people are passionate for it, but there are still a lot of improvements that have to be done in terms of nurturing the talents that exist in the UAE for a better cosplay experience.”

“The preliminaries of UAE WCS this year was better than last year in terms of commitment and passion towards cosplay costumes and performances. We are looking forward for more talents to be part of WCS preliminaries in the upcoming years.”

World Cosplay Summit Championship 2020 will be held between July 25 – Aug 2 in Aichi Arts Center, in Nagoya.