ANNIVERSARY OF THE FINNISH COSPLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
The Finnish Cosplay Championship 2018 | Photo: Nyymix
2025 is the 10th anniversary year of the Finnish Cosplay Championship (CSM)! It has been 10 years since Cosvision ry organized the historic competition for the first time in 2015
The first Finnish Cosplay Championships were held at Gloria in Helsinki, and YLE broadcast the competition live. The first CSM winners were Päivi and Satu aka Uruhara FC in the group category and Helena Alajärvi aka Hellucosplay in the individual category. The competition was smaller in many ways back then. Gloria's facilities were cramped, there were fewer competitors and the audience could only accommodate around 200 spectators. Over the years, CSM has been held at GameXpo in 2016-2019 in the Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Centre, at Malmitalo in Helsinki in 2021-2022, and most recently at the Cosvision con event in 2023 in the Espoo Cultural Centre.
The Finnish Cosplay Championship 2015 | Photo: Timo Virtanen
Besides the locations, the number of competition categories has varied as well. From the beginning, there was an individual category and a group category. In 2017, the Cosplay Photo of the Year Award (VCK) was established. A few years later, in 2019, we responded to new developments in the cosplay community by awarding the Cosplay Music Video of the Year (CMV). To date, there have been eight individuals, five groups, six cosplay photographers and two CMV production teams that have held the title of a Finnish Cosplay Champion. Now, in 2025, we are happy to bring back the sorely missed group series — this time for pairs as an ICL duo series. In addition, we will be starting a new craftsmanship-style category, ICL solo. Finnish cosplay is known internationally for its craftsmanship and the quality of the costumes so frankly it’s high time that it gets reflected in the CSM.
Our Finnish cosplay champions have also been successful on their representative tours. Hellucosplay (2015) placed third at the Cosplay World Masters (CWM) in Portugal in 2016. Hapsu (2016) won the CWM the following year in 2017. Faroni (2022) won the Nordic Cosplay Championship (NCC) in Sweden in 2023.
The Finnish Cosplay Championship 2019 CMV of the Year winners | Photo: AG
The Finnish Cosplay Championship 2022 winner of the Cosplay Photograp of the Year Jenni Suominen | Photo: Nyymix
The goal of the Finnish Cosplay Championship has been to celebrate Finnish cosplay, improve the awareness and appreciation of cosplay among the mainstream and raise cosplay enthusiasts' appreciation for their own work. Several high-level cosplay competitions are organized in Finland, the winners of which get to represent Finland in prestigious international cosplay competitions. Unfortunately it is still quite common for cosplayers to have difficulties in getting acquaintances or relatives to understand the level of their achievements. At Cosvision, we place a lot of importance on words, and by choosing to specifically talk about the Finnish Cosplay Championship, we show both ourselves and others that cosplay is a hobby to be taken seriously. The costumes and performances seen in cosplay competitions are not just any arts and crafts, but the culmination of a multidisciplinary hobby combining craftsmanship, visual artistry and a variety of performing arts disciplines, and are invariably the result of hard work.
The value of the Finnish Cosplay Championship title is widely understood outside of the cosplay community, around the dinner tables and in the workplace. The stories of our former Finnish Cosplay Champions confirm this to us. Many of them tell us that the CSM title has changed attitudes among acquaintances or relatives into a more appreciative and positive direction. In addition, most of the former Finnish Cosplay Champions say that they find the title personally meaningful to them and we couldn't be happier to see the impact.
The Finnish Cosplay Championship 2016 | Photo: Mikael Peltomaa
The Finnish Cosplay Championship 2012 | Photo: Jenni Suominen | Cosplay: Tor-Leif, Faroni Cosplay, tolkuncos
This year, the competition returns to the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre again now partnered with Heroes Comic Con Finland and bigger than ever. Four championship titles will be awarded.
We will form a five-person national Cosplay team from the CSM winners, the 2025 Finnish Cosplay Championship team. The CSM team will next represent Finland at the Nordic Cosplay Championship (NCC) in Sweden, the Europa Cosplay Cup (E2C) in France, and the International Cosplay League (ICL) in Spain.
We at Cosvision are very pleased that we’ve been able to highlight and reward various aspects of the cosplay hobby for a full decade. This has been made possible by Cosvision's dedicated volunteers — managers and staff alike. Among us are trusted regulars, some old, some new, many guest stars, people who were with us for a short while and some without whom we’d surely be lost. And of course one or two cornerstones of cosplay comp organizing. The circumstances around us may change and have changed, but our faith in this group's performance and ability to adapt is unwavering.
We are excited to be able to increase the size of CSM with the help of Comic Con Finland. We are proud of all the Finnish Cosplay Champions in the individual series, the group series, the VCK and the CMV of the Year. We are grateful to every cosplayer who has wanted to compete for the CSM titles over the years. It is a great joy to see that today both new and old enthusiasts are united by the dream of one day becoming a Finnish Cosplay Champion.
If you want to see whose dreams come true this time, we warmly welcome you to watch the 2025 Finnish Cosplay Championships on Comic Con Finland's Heroes Main Stage on Saturday 10.5.
Hear the thoughts of the new CSM team live at Comic Con Finland on Sunday 11.5 on the Heroes Talk stage.
The Finnish Cosplay Championship 2019 | Photo: Nyymix | Cosplay: stark_will_fix_it_all