International Cosplay Day Manila is back for it’s third year at the North EDSA leg of the 2013 Cosplay Tournament of Champions! Held at the Cyberzone Activity Center of the SMNE Annex, the highlight of the event was the awarding of the winner of the ICD Manila 2013 Cosplay Photo Contest.

The ICD Manila 2013 Cosplay Photo Contest offers a huge cache of prizes — a necomimi Brainwave Cat Ears Headset (worth JPY 12,000) courtesy of Toei Animation Philippines Inc., PhP 3000 in cash courtesy of Golgolak’s Den, a gift pack of three pop culture shirts from T-Tees, a gift pack of two Manic Panic hair dyes from Rainbow Head PH, and a framed Winner’s Certificate from Cosplay.PH.

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The first ever ICD Manila Cosplay Photo Contest was held this year to bring something new to the ICD format. The entire competition was done online, with contestants submitting their entries to the magnetic-rose.net FB fanpage contest app. Public votes would then determine the top five entries, who would then move on to the final round of judging.

The final round of judging fell on the shoulders of our distinguished panel of judges, composed of international cosplayers. Leading the group is Crimson from Singapore, an award-winning cosplayer and organizer of ICD Singapore. Also in the panel is Pinky LuXun from Indonesia, an AFA RCC finalist and member of cosplay team The Endless Illution. Rounding out the panel was YukiGodBless from Thailand, a WCS finalist and cosplay partner of JiakiDarkness.

After two months of voting and under intense one week scrutiny of the international judging panel, Kuroyuki Kanade was selected as the Grand Prize winner with his photo of the foxy Ahri from League of Legends. The judges praised the technical merits of the winning photo, citing its excellent foreground clarity versus background bokeh, as well as its effective use of effects editing.

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The other highlight of the double-bill event was the SMNE leg of the Cosplay Tournament of Champions 2013. With the winner vying for the chance to compete with winners from other legs, and ultimately to represent the Philippines in Singapore’s Anime Festival Asia Regional Cosplay Championships 2013, the competition heats up year after year.

Unfortunately, the intense rains over Metro Manila put a damper on other contestants’ plans, and only one team made it to the competition. This, however has little bearing on the winners selection, as the sole team who showed up just happened to be last year’s TOrCH champions Adventure Team. Featuring another action-packed performance, this time from video game franchise Metal Gear Rising, Adventure Team showed off their martial arts moves and flexible lightweight armour construction.

Congratulations again to Adventure Team, and see you guys at the Cosplay Tournament of Champions Grand Finals at Cosplay Mania 2013!