ECG FINALS 2016

are there pictures of the winners yet?

I literally cant find any information about who won yet, has anybody heard anything?

ECG Solo

1 - France
2 - Spain
3 - UK

Best Make Up - Spain (Solo)
Best wig award: Danemark

ECG Group

1 - France
2 - Finland
3 - Romania

>>9095409
thanks!

>>9095409
Spain bought her cosplay!

>>9096196
she didnt

I liked the overall show besides a lack of a sense for rhythm of some dancing teams

also I think it is not fair to have judges from participating countries. And that france always wins something

>>9096339
yeaaaaah france wins ecg all the time... and I completely agree with the judges, there is bound to be some bias based on countries going on.

>>Hosted in France
>>French judges
>>France winning all the time
I don't see any problem.

Are there any Videos uploaded anywhere yet?

>>9096595
Part of me wants to think they it's their home city. Its possible for them to create more elaborate things and travel with them easier?
Idk

>>9096595
One judge was French.
Another was Danish but they didn't place.

File: 13443157_1546738508968498_5361980276471898309_o.png (782KB, 1010x646px) Image search: [Google]

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oh look, it's the group that's going to be on 1st 2nd or 3rd, give them a round of applause ladies and gentlemen

>>9096659
winning an award though

I don't get all the "rah rah france is going to win anyway".
Like, I'd get it if the costumes and skits were shitty, but except for this year I thought french groups were all way above their competition.
It helps that they know the stage, have a whole year to prepare for the finals, and they live close by so they don't have to worry about transporting props.

Plus, the skits are as important as the costume, and most of the time, french teams pull out really decent skits.

I'm not a super big fan of the girls who won this year, but their skit was pretty cool and they had spotless costumes.

Plus, french selections are usually way harder to win than the finals.

>>9096704
I'm just overall tired of seeing Hobbit cosplays in these big competitions.. I find them very boring

>>9097567
I wouldn't mind if people made the interesting dwarves. Fili, Kili and Thorin are just so boring looking.

>>9096606
French contestants also have a whole year to make their cosplay, since the selections are the day after the finals. It helps that the level is already really high for these, too.

>>9097567
It's just the fact they are the representatives of France, it's probably the third or fourth Hobbits cosplay in ECG, I'm tired of it as well.

>>9097453
You just said the reasons the French are put in a upper hand. For me it's unfair playing in their own house with the same conditions, everygoddamn year.

>>9097653
yeah, it seems unfair, but I don't see a solution to that : no way the french selections happen anywhere other than in Japan Expo since SEFA owns the ECG brand, so you can't shorten that one-year period. Same for living close-by and knowing the stage, I don't really see a way to make it harder for them.

>>9097567
yeah same, but I find it cool that this year the french representatives are some no-name nobodies. Shows that you can win even when you're not a local "celebrity"!

>>9097567
don't watch the NCC at the end of this month then lol

>>9096196
no she didn't? her progress is all on her page

>>9097567
Me too, anon. The costumes are relatively easy to replicate if you have moderate skill level and everyone knows them so it's a top pick for everyone.

>>9097748
what is SEFA? Is it part of Japan Expo ONLY or like a sponser?

>>9097941
SEFA is the company that owns/organizes Japan Expo(s). They're not exactly organizing the ECG because Epic (cosplay association, everyone's a volunteer, whereas SEFA staff gets paid) does it, but they own the brand and everything.
They're the ones cracking down on filming/streaming the show, too.

Oh and, the french duo won't be doing Hobbit cosplays in the final, or at least not those, since they have to make a new pair of costumes. Hopefully they'll do something different?

Something that's important to know, too, about judging, is that they're all different people with different abilities. This year they had a prop specialist (Volpin), a professional seamstress (Lucioles, the french judge, works as a costumer in an opera I think?), a make up artist that teaches FX make up.
So when you have all three of these things in your costume, instead of say, a big ass armor with no fabric and your face covered, you're more likely to score higher since all these judges will get a bone to pick at.

>>9098105
If I remember correctly, the makeup artist was only judging for the makeup prize, and yeah, LucioleS works as a costumer in the Strasbourg opera

>>9098105
do that HAVE to make new costumes? i've seen a lot of people wear the same costumes and skits they qualified with

>>9098274
I don't think it's a MUST but it's always to bring a new flavor the the stage and besides that, the French have a whole year to prepare themselves for the finals it's be a shame for the whole cosplay comunity to use the same thing. The thing with other countries is that they have different date to qualifiers depending on the con, it's the case of Portugal this year, they only had two weeks before the final and therefore had to use the same thing.

>>9098274
depends on how long the they have between the selections and the finals. French teams have a whole year so they have to make new costumes.
I'm not sure about all the other teams though, a lot of them change costumes from what I've seen over the years.

>>9098228
I thought she was just a regular judge that could also award a make-up specific award? I was pleased to see the range of craftmanship the judges had to offer this year, though!

Where are the videos of the competition posted? Its my first year following ECG.

>>9098938
The ecg YouTube

>>9098940
Do you know when they would be uploaded? They have no activity for the past 2 months on their channel.

>>9099077
should be tomorrow i've heard?

So now France isn't just rigging the contest, it's sending cheaters to the finals.
They selected a pair that literally stole a skit to be their representatives for next year. Well done, France!

>>9099232
??

>>9099487
Not that anon but :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKnMkTBaa7Y
Danish prelimininaries from two years ago
https://youtu.be/KFaM8wm9eFo
French preliminaries.
You can't say they didn't copy it. Same music, same talking parts (except they're in French), same trick/idea with the monster attack.
I hope they get disqualified, nothing against them but that's just not something you can let pass in an international competition.

Videos are up on the ECG youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/ECGcosplay/videos

awesome show. that's what I love about ECG since the first final. also the audience is awesome. some teams are showing off about how much the audience reacted on them but the audience just reacts very nicely to everyone. must be a real cool experience to be on at japanexpo

Talking about stolen skits. Team Italy did exactly the same Card Captor Sakura skit as WCS team germany 2014 Lol

lol yeah and Team Italy was also Team in WCS 2014.... and they got Second as far as I remember hmmmm

stop with your drama everytime you can mention wcs team germany 2014. noone is interested in your fucking shit. get a life

germany is so annoying. and maybe the skits are similar but the italian girls were pretty and nice and no drama seeking old hags. also the music was so much better. don't come here and pretend you invented this kind of skit. it's Card Captor Sakura and Earthy these ideas for the props are not under your copyright

They recreated the same scene from the anime. That's it. Italy did way better than Germany imo.

>>9101028
wcs team germany 2014 is still so full of hate. i don't even get why

So after the contest one of the judges told us straight the performances were not taken into consideration for the final results at all. Half of the score was suposed to be the performance. Thoughts?

>>9101059
Which one told you that ?

>>9101082

I don't want to post it here to not cause them any troubles but I am sure other participants can confirm :)

>>9101102
Heh, stop trying to start drama. I know two of the judges and they definitely took performance into account in their judging (no way france wins without that)

>>9101104

Considering how honest that person is I won't be surprised if they post about it somewhere :) You think I'm trying to start drama while I just wish contests like this weren't so shady, people work months on their costumes and get 2 minutes with the judges + 2 minutes on stage, and still the second gets ignored. I am sure I wasn't the only one expecting professional competition not the parody of a contest we've got. The people were amazing. The rest was a joke. That is all.

>>9101104

If they did, why won't they post a score chart that would explain everything and leave people without doubts?? Obv becuse no such thing exist and thank God this time there was at lest one person not being afraid to speak of this loud, at least for us, people participting.

>>9101102
Riiiiiiight. Salty that you didn't place ?

>>9101116
i think it is really cheap to spread those lies. it is okay to tell your friends how much you deserved to place because of your performance but stop coming to this place and making things up. it is so fucking obvious who you are and I hate this annoying german drama

>>9101151
I talked to three of the judges and the didn't even like the german skits lol

>>9101059
Not saying I believe you but I can imagine that the 2 Asian judges wouldn't have been the best at judging the performances due to not having the strongest English. I'm English and I watched all the skits online and I couldn't understand some of the stuff people were saying because the accents were so strong. Wouldn't be surprised if the Asian judges relied more on the costume than the skit.

>>9101125
>>9101151

Well, we can end the topic here :) I am sure whoever is interested will try to get more info and sooner or later find out the truth.

I didnt expect to win, there were much better costumes, I'm not German too. As I said people there were amazing but they could stop this half is the performance bulshit if they aren't giving a damn about it anyway.

>>9101169

From what we have learnt from that one judge they were the only one actually caring about performances.

>>9101028
Yeah... the interpretation of the clow card and the effects on stage were like 100% the same.

If people want to copy something they should at least be more subtle about it. lol

PS: I'm not from Germany and still think stealing so much from a different skit shows big lack of creativity.

noone is from germany lol sure

>>9101195
It's the same but better. They added a new dimension to the skit with Tomoyo being here, Sakura changing outfit twice, the use of the water card being more obvious and the transformation of the card at the end.

>WCS 14 Germany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a_l1WKtwQM
>ECG 6 Italy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deyNRCLFX7w

>>9101205
the music from the german skit is so fucking bad
also the german Sakura is a very bad actor. I liked german Earth's walking more but the italian had to walk more because of the stage so this comparison seems unfair.
also adding Tomoyo was a very cute idea. quickchanges were also impressive.
overall the italian girls did better. so stop your butthurt drama, Germany

the german sakura is always there when it comes to drama. she is always shittalkting others who are more successfull than herself. she is a frustrated sad ugly untalented and loud person and we should stop talking about her because she will feel famous for it

>>9101207
Also the Earthy had bigass compensated boots, and I know one of them twisted her ankle pretty badly the day before, it might have been her

stop hating on the italian girls. they were so cute and loveable at the ECG events. the german team was so arrogant. stop being jealous they didn't even score.

>>9101212
her private facebook is a gathering of drama, complaining and bitching. she is a very poor and cheap whore

It sounds like a lot of same fagging on here.
Sure the Italian girls had 3 people, WCS is a 2 man competition so stop your crying that they did better by 'adding Tomoyo'. That option wasn't available to the German team.

The fact is two of the Italian girls were in the same competition as the German girls that year. They watched their performance up close and literally ripped it off.

They started so well, but the second half of their skit is IDENTICAL. Deny it all you want, but for the rest of us who are neither German nor Italian - it looks lazy and rude.

>>9101618
the rest of us smells selfpost to whiteknight yourself

Agree with that. It is very lame to steal Ideas for such a big competition. No matter if it was better or not. And if you steal then at least do it with a bit more style.

>>9101693
Not in the slightest actually, though you really do.
Are you literally sitting here waiting for someone to point out your obvious copying?
You're so angry about it, it's awkward.

>>9101723
look at yourself Hannah Eva Anna. Did you really expext 4chan to cheer on you and hate on ECG team italy? I don't really care if the skit was stolen or not I liked the show. and coming here writing in capslock doesn't chance anything about it. a lot of people cheered for italy. and also a lot of people think it is unnecessary to start that much drama just because you and your friends are butthurt. you even started drama on youtube. and there the italian girl explained that they told you that they got inspired by you. Isn't that a compliment? Or is it not enough because you are alone at home and crying about the fact that noone can stand you?

>>9101716
they did it with a lot more style than wcs team germany in 2014. their skit was lifeless and dull. the italians did it cute and full of energy just like card captor sakura is meant to be. germans are just fucking bad actors and apparently sore losers

Why didn't the Italian team place anyway? All the winning skits were awful.

>>9101205
I don't get it. I don't see how the Italian skit is "identical" to this, except for the raising clow card frame. The Italian one is so full of energy and the costume changes and effects are done in a very clever way. The German one is just.. dull.

>>9102260

Someone already said that, the judges didn't give a single damn fuck about peformances in the end.

As for the Italy copying Germany drama, the Italian girls did definitely much better job on stage and their peformance was more pleasant to watch but I think if they got inspired by German girls (and let's be honest, their stage tricks in that Earth part are identical) they should have asked if it's okay to use their effect.

>>9102381
seems like they wrote them about their plan but I don't know if the german girls said yes or no

>>9102367
they gave points for performance I could get a glance at the judging sheets

>>9102427
can confirm, i was the pen the judges used to write.

>>9101059
Personally, I think it's likely you're misinterpreting something. Skits and performances weighed just as heavily as craftsmanship and construction. I know, personally, that the the other four judges and myself had some rather fine debate over who should win and place, and for what reasons.

It's possible the other judge you're referring to was talking about me specifically. I will admit to getting some stick for focusing more on costume construction, but I'm not a great judge of skits since (A) that isn't my background and (B) nearly every skit at an american con blows huge amounts of ass. Even still, I had my favorites and opinions on which performances I thought were most impressive, but I tended to defer to the other judges who had a better eye for those things than me, just as they listened to my recommendations and opinions on props and armor. We all have our specialties, but that doesn't mean we discounted one element entirely.

Someone else here asked about seeing scorecards for each contestant. Those are taken from the judges at the end of the show, and with good reason. I'm all for a bit of transparency in these things but I can't see disclosing actual numbers doing anything but harm. So much of this comes down to a debate between the judges at the end that can't be put into numbers, and it's incredibly difficult to pick (and agree upon) favorites when given a very short amount of time to consider.

>>9102427
>>9102513

I am adding this comment out of curiosity, not to cause any drama, so feel free to ignore it or whatever, but one of the judges as well as one of the organizers posting in the similar discussion on Facebook said there's no points given on ECG just a discussion, can you clear this out?

As I said I don't want my comment to be taken offensive, I was just curious. And thanks in advance!

>>9102565
There's categories (I don't have my sheets so this is from memory) but things for the cosplay itself - 3 categories like accuracy and complexity out of X number of points, as well as 3 performance categories like use of props and originality out of X points as well.

Both sides tally up to the same number of points, but at the end of the day these are taken as more of a guide than a hard and fast rule.

During judging, you tend to be a little kinder to the first contestants and harder on everyone else once you see the whole of the entrants. Because of this, numbers can be a little skewed in favor of the first people across the table. In the end, it's more of a blend of numbers and the overall feel.

I also take photos of all the costumes so I can pull them up after the contestant leaves. My memory is crap and having side-by-side things to compare helps me a lot.

>>9102427
>>9102446
>>9102513
>>9102583
If you watch all the skits that placed in the competition, they're all boring and unimaginative. You can't argue with that in all honesty. I can't come up with any reason other than a costume bias as to why any of them placed because the costumes were really nice, but the skits were bland as hell. Naturally France won by host country status again because both their performance AND costumes were shit, but that's a given and everyone should just deal with that because the French are pissbabies.

>>9101779
>>9101787
no but really, why are you so angry.
I'm not the person you think I am, so chill your vendetta yeah?
Throwing insults about some girl isn't going to effect me since i'm neither her nor know of her.

I can't imagine anyone else getting so uptight other than team Italy itself - or some passionate friend and if so, then you're pretty damn pathetic.

Get off 4chan and maybe learn how to make an original skit :D

>>9102661
not that anon but you seem pretty passionate yourself. if you want to stop this discussion then why do you keep reacting if you are not involved at all...

>>9102583
Tip as a cosplay organisor:
Never discuss what goes on behind the closed doors of judging. Ever.

>>9102770
People tend to make up villains when things are behind closed doors. I think transparency helps. There's no bias here, we're not monsters shoving one team aside and blindly swearing allegiance to another. We're all crafters and cosplayers trying to make the best decision we can about art, which is ultimately subjective.

I think people deserve to know the criteria on which they're judged, and I will absolutely refute the idea that performances were ignored. If you want people to continue to compete in these things, it's worthwhile to show them the judges are putting in their best effort as much as the contestants.

This isn't to say I don't understand your viewpoint as well. People can get touchy about this stuff, which is why we aren't allowed to keep our notes. This is why I'm not citing any specific examples. I'm just trying to give people a better understanding of the process.

>>9102796
I've been a judge multiple times myself and I can say that if you actually want that "transparency", you will come clean with all the reasoning behind each placement. Everyone knows how the judging process works and coming here just to tell the obvious parts about the "we just look at the costumes and discuss them!" routine won't open up a fair discussion concerning the results. I always tell my reasoning behind each placement when announcing the winners so that people have some sort of closure on why the jury made these decisions. Some aspect the viewer might not have noticed themselves. The "I assure you we made the right decisions, you're just being salty!" defensive isn't worth anything in the eyes of the viewer. It just makes you look arrogant and absolute, and the viewer not being worthy of getting an explanation.

>>9102838
I assume you're not the same person who said not to discuss what goes on in judging, then. I was trying to avoid specific examples because I feel like that will only invite argument. My point was to refute the whole "skits don't matter" thing. People should know that they absolutely do matter and judging weighed as heavily on that as the quality of the costumes.

As for "coming clean" - that's difficult since my opinion only represents 1/5 of the overall panel. If someone has questions about one winner's sewing abilities, I can't answer that or speak to their level of quality. I can't sew!

I do wish more conventions had a set up similar to DragonCon. On Saturday the judges attend a panel with the winners of the Friday night costume contest to discuss why each entrant won/placed.

>>9102854
maybe judged should stop going around and telling every contestant how much they liked their performance/costume because cosplayers sure get disappointed when this doesn't result in winning a place

>>9102854

How long did the judging for each costume take? I've heard it's 3 mins but really hope this was some silly joke because you can't judge months of someone's work in 3 minutes.

>>9103064
Actually you can..... It's part of the judging. the Cosplayer needs to TELL about their costume. talking for 3 minutes straight is hard already, imagine more. While they talk, the judges will touch parts of the costume and flip seems. This way, when a cosplayer is super proud of some detail which is normally unseen, they can TELL the judges and SHOW THEM.

I hear this complain a lot but peopleforget how the judging is for the judges. If i'm right they had to Judge 26 contestents (13 solo, 13 group) the groups had 5-6 minutes, solo 2.5.
Thats almost 100 hours of judging at the least. If you give every group 10 minutes, the judges would probably be irritated, tired or just less interrested (which i can imagine!) after 2 hours of judging. Making it less fair to the contestents judged last. 2.5 minutes is fine in my eyes, you just have to know how what to do during those minutes as a cosplayer.....

>>9103588
>100 hours of judging

I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant 100 MINUTES, because yeah by the numbers you gave the total judging time would be 110.5 minutes aka just short of two hours.

>>9103588

I'm not >>9103064 but I wanted to tell no one allowed me to talk about my costume. If the judges made it straight "please tell us about your costume" I would have do that no problem, but they were all around me asking some questions and seemed too busy to care about what I'd have to say.

I understand judges can get tired or irritated. But there's 4 days of JE. Let's say 3 before the contest. They could easily have a few judging sessions and give people more time to show some appreciation for many months of their hard work. Look EC, you have a few minutes to talk, then there's few for costume examination and questions and finally you also have the progress book you're leaving for judges to look through and they have them all to go back to in case there are any doubts when deciding for the winner.

I also think rules like how the judging session will look like should be made clear before people decide for the costumes so anyone will know you have to do a huge armor or a costume overloaded with details and decorations because it's so much easier to "judge" within such a short time.

>>9103588

Thats not even 2 hours when their main job there was to be the judges. Lets add this one hour of the show they had to watch and one hour for deciding the winners. That is 4 hours. Out of 4 days. And you said it like they barely had time for anything else.

>>9103588
2,5 minutes is way to little time.

If you do judging two separate days instead, one day for solo and one day for groups they could've easily been given 10 minutes

I've been a judge several times and smaller competitions with lots of new cosplayers always give a minimum of 5 minutes and larger ones with higher quality have always given us 10 minutes. I've judged for 4 hours without problem, because we were given smaller breaks and drinks through the whole time.

3 minutes to judge a cosplay someone worked 6 months on is just not enough

>>9103064
3 min for solo, groups were 5-6. Timing was kept by one of the convention staff who told us when to start and stop.

We did get all progress images from each contestant about a week before the convention, so it's not really only a handful of minutes per entry. We also had laptops with these progress photos to look at during deliberation.

>>9103994

And how did you get these? Because I was never asked to send any, neither I've uploaded anything special to my fanpage.

>>9104005
you sure you participated? lol

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>>9104005
Your statement is difficult to believe. Just clicked through all 26 entrants to make sure, and each one has submitted progress photos in the google drive folder that was emailed to the judges. The organizers sent this link out to us and asked us specifically to look through the photos (reference and progress) before the competition.

>>9102854
I understand you point.
Now let me explain you my case.

the judging moment of the costume, is a moment where cosplayers are at their most vulnerable position within the entire of a competition. It is when their efforts of months are being looked at by judges, whose goal is to find what he/she did right and wrong.
The moment you get someone at a vulnerable position, you are to take the utmost care and trust. Any comment from what is going on behind the doors of judging can break that trust.

I think that one of the problems is that the audience is entitle to your opinion, to your thoughts. And while transparency sounds perfect at first glance, it is a frictionless slope. Not slippery, frictionless. The reason is that a judge must be able to decide without the slightest chance being influenced. Influences can be direct or indirect. The most common indirect one is to listen to audience responses. To be influenced by the audience is by far the most common pitfall a judge encounters.
One can say that this does not happen, but I can give multiple examples in multiple competitions, in many game or sports where a judge or a referee was definately influenced by the crowd.

I personally discourage judges to discuss rankings. All I ask is direct feedback to the competitiors. The competitor can decide for him-/herself if to go public with it or not.
My judges have never had any issues with it either, they would just refer them to me or the conventions I worked with. At the end, it is not the judges who should defend their opinion, it is the convention who should do that for them. If a judge feels otherwise, the convention does not nearly protect them enough. And I feel sorry for you that you indeed feel that you have to defend your position and the judging system of ECG.

>>9103064
It is tight, but it is quite doable. At the conventions I work with, I clearly tell the contestants to be prepared and make sure what is expected of them during the judging. At the same time, the judges get some instructions as well: come forwards, ask questions and the last half minute the contestant should be able to show what he/she is proud of. Usually this is dome detailed armor word or embroidery, working LED and such.

The time table would be wrong though. If you have 13 groups and 13 solos, with 3 mins for solo and and 5 for groups, I come at 104 minutes. And I would add 2 minutes per group/solo for quick discussion/writing notes and switching contestants. So you would already be at 2.5 hours. Give the judges a break as well so make it 3 hours. Now, remember that judging is done before the stage time, so you need to plan it in as well as an organisor, keeping in mind that you need to put on your costume and do the makeup as well.
Pre-judging is only a part of a competition and the total competitions is quite a logistical feat to pull off.

>>9103597
Did you participate in the same competition as me? They heard EVERYTHING about what I had to say of my costume, and no, I wasn't from the first contestants to be judged.