THE FINNISH COSPLAY CHAMPIONS 2021

Pinja won the individual Finnish Cosplay Championship in 2021 wearing a Purah costume. Pinja told us a frankly haunting tale of her winning performance. She was very proud of the wig in her costume, it was the first time she had ever crafted a wig of that size. When it was time to perform, Pinja went on stage as planned, started her performance and as she went to shake her head it suddenly dawned on her that the wigs fastener bands inside this massive wig were not fastened at all. “I almost tore the whole wig off my head during the performance! It was quite an adrenaline rush”, she proclaims.

Her advice to new representatives therefore comes from personal experience:“Always remember to check that all the parts of your costume are attached before the live performance!”

Pinja is also a former Finnish Cosplay Champion in the pair category from 2019, and she hopes that won’t be all. She says that she definitely wants to compete in the Championship again and is in fact already planning new costumes. She has a lot of love for the Finnish Cosplay Championships and hopes to see more representation opportunities for talented Finns in the future!

Despite all her performance experience, Pinja says that this time she was extremely anxious to go on stage, as this was her first time performing alone. “And when I won, I thought I misheard!” she adds. Her performance was a comedy and it really caused her some distress over the audience’s reaction. Would they laugh at the performance? The final joke of the performance needed to land, it was crucial. And in the end when she heard a wave of laughter rising from the audience, she was filled with utter relief and a smile spread immediately across her face.

Photo: Nyymix

Tamameru won the Finnish Championship in the Cosplay Photograph of the Year category in 2021. Tamameru was unable to attend the Finnish Cosplay Championships in person. They recall the moment when they were informed of the win and messages started flooding their phone: "I was on a lunch break during the CMV shoot preparing for the next take. My production team had also participated in the CMV of the year category and the news of the victory in both series came one after the other. I don't even remember which series I was told about first." The situation seemed unbelievable to Tamameru, and they couldn't help but shed a few tears of joy. The moment has also been recorded on video.

The Cosplay Photograph of the Year is built from several images, and tamameru says that they planned the post-processing of the photo before the shoot. The photo is still one of their favorites. Tamameru hopes that the Cosplay Photo of the Year will return to the Finnish Cosplay Championships. Cosplay photography is an important and visible part of the hobby, and in Tamameru's opinion, photographers deserve even more praise in competitions as well.

Tamameru wants to send greetings to all photographers and those interested in photography: "Take a lot of photos and boldly try different things. You can only find your own style by doing a lot. It's also good to remember that not every shot has to be the greatest masterpiece!"

Photo: tamameru Model: torucos

T&T Productions won the CMV of the Year Finnish in 2021. T&T is a group founded by two people who decided to participate in the competition after a spontaneous idea. The entire production team could not make it to the event because another group's CMV filming happened to be on the same day. When they heard about their win, the atmosphere was joyfully overwhelmed. The production was a passion project, where the group got to try out new equipment and challenge themselves in their first big project.

The production team has considered participating again and encourages others to participate if CMV of the Year returns as a series! The group says that the CMV competitions motivated them to implement ideas and gave cosplay a new creative angle.

T&T Productions sends encouragement to everyone interested in CMVs: "Every CMV production has left us one experience richer - and best of all, we have learned something new every time. Don’t be afraid to ask people to join when a suitable idea comes up and have fun!

You can find The Mercenery CMV on T&T Productions YouTube channel. > Watch the video <