The Champions of the World Cosplay Summit Philippines National Finals were announced during the 16th Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention (Toycon 2017 + Pop Life Fan Experience) held last July 1 and 2 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.
Team Symphony of Swords from the Zamboanga Peninsula will represent the Philippines to the 2017 World Cosplay Championship (WCS), which will be held this August in Nagoya, Japan.
The team, composed of Lara Florentes and John Daryl Pioquinto, performed a fighting skit cosplaying as Xingcai and Cao Pi from Koei Tecmo’s hack and slash, action game Dynasty Warriors 8, defeating the other winners from various preliminaries nationwide.
This year’s WCS Philippine National Finals is composed of 7 teams: the Champions Team Symphony of Swords, (Zamboanga Peninsula), the Runner-Up Team Kanor Cubes (Manila), Team Excalibur (Bacolod Prelims), Team I-Craft (Bicol), Team Reality (Manila), Team Pudding’ (Davao) and Team Weapon and Mask Destruction (Davao).
All seven teams were judged based on their costume craftsmanship and stage performance on the first day of the Finals. The judges of the competition are as follows: last year’s WCS Philippine representatives Yukari Nina Guerzon and Gomer Taboada, 2014 WCS Philippine representative Angeleah Mejo and Japanese cosplayer Hiro Saeki.
Team Symphony of Swords, the winner of the WCS Zamboanga Preliminaries held last March 24 at KCC Mall de Zamboanga, will be the sixth team to represent the Philippines coming from Mindanao.
The World Cosplay Summit 2017, now on its 15th year, will happen on July 29 to August 6 in Nagoya, Japan. Team Philippines will be in Group C competing against other countries such Indonesia, Russia and France in the World Cosplay Championships, which will happen on August 5 and 6.
