Level Up Live 2010 was held last 6th and 7th of November, 2010 at the Wold Trade Center, Pasay City. Compared to hoopla of last year’s RWC festivities, this year’s events were scaled back a bit, but that did not diminish much of the fun that we’ve all come to associate with Live. There were freeplay kiosks, merchandise booths, Level Up’s now legendary Guild market, and the national championships for all major Level Up titles including Ragnarok Online, Rising Force Online, KOS Secret Ops, and many more.

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One of the most popular booths at this year’s event was Atlus Online’s Neo Steam Freeplay kiosk — mostly due to Kune and Patrice, the two lovely ladies in Neo Steam costumes who gamely posed for photos with players. Incidentally, Kune will be flying to Singapore on the 12th of November to take part in Anime Festival Asia’s Regional Cosplay Championships; together with her partner Sese, they make up Team Bajina, representing the Philippines.

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I was humbled and honored when the LU staff once again asked to me to judge the Cosplay competition this year, alongside other cosplay vets and Level Up stalwarts like Hazel Velas, Cheena Que, Tanya Obedoza-Bairan, and Alex Artillero. For this year’s competition, over fifty individual cosplayers and about six groups took to the stage to wow both the judging panel and the crowd.

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This year’s cosplay winners line-up is as follows:

Best Male: Rouvin Denzel Pinga, Genetic (Ragnarok Online)
Best Female: Gemma Navarro, Hecate — Summoned Animus (RF Online)
Best NPC or Monster: Johara Trissa Pecasio, Valkyrie Randgris (Ragnarok Online)
Best Group: Project 8 (Ragnarok Online)

It was curious to note that the costumes of the group cosplay participants were much more impressive than some of the competitors for the individual cosplay. I have a feeling that if the organizers had allowed the members of the cosplay groups to register for the the individual competition, then we as judges would have had a more difficult time selecting the winners.

Congratulations to all the winning Guilds, cosplayers, and of course — the Level Up staff! See you guys again next year!

Thank you very much to Level Up for asking me to participate in LU Live for a second year in a row!