Ready your cameras and prepare your sewing machines—it’s time to start your preparations for this year’s BlizzCon contests! All contests from BlizzCon 2015 will be returning once again—Costume, Talent, Art, and Movie—and we’re eager to see what you talented folks have in store!

Registration info and official rules are coming soon, but if you’d like to start planning your creations in advance, here’s a bit more information on what to expect.

Live Contests

BlizzCon 2016 Costume Contest

The Costume Contest is back in full swing, and we’re already chomping at the bit to see you take center stage. After an incredible showing at the 2015 contest, we’re eager to see what sort of elaborate and imaginative creations you all pull off this year.

As in prior years, we’ll be opening up online signups for the contest in the coming weeks, so sit tight! The number of contestants will be limited, and those who don’t make the initial cut will be placed on a wait list. This year, however, those who wish to just walk the stage and not compete will also be able to do so without taking up competitor spots, though space will also be limited.

Final contest registration and participation confirmation will take place on Friday morning at BlizzCon, so please make sure you have a purchased BlizzCon ticket in hand, secure your place in the contest or on the wait list during the online sign-up, and have your costume finished well in advance.

This year, we’re dialing up the costume contest to 11, and inviting winners from other select global Blizzard costume contests to compete alongside the 1st place winner of the BlizzCon contest to be crowned the Global Grand Champion! Stay tuned for more details.

Remember: Safety, safety, safety! If you are unable to easily maneuver without assistance or see out of your costume, please consider altering it in order to do so. You don’t have to be able to do cartwheels or see in the dark, but walking the stage confidently in your incredible creation is the idea. In addition, no real weapons, dangerous materials, or large motorized costumes will be allowed.



2015 Costume Contest Winner: Papa Cosplay—"Medieval Marine"

BlizzCon 2016 Talent Contest

The Talent Contest will also be returning to the stage at BlizzCon 2016! From aerial acrobatics, to a cow-powered swing band, last year’s competition featured our widest variety of acts to date—but we bet you can up the ante. Whether you’re a juggler, dancer, hoola-hooper, or magician, we want to see it all. Even if you can’t carry a tune, your other skills might carry you to the stage, but you’ll never know unless you enter!

If you’ve got serious performance chops, you could have a chance to showcase your Blizzard-themed talent live on stage at BlizzCon in front of a massive audience and win great prizes (including a trip to BlizzCon and lodging). We’ll be accepting video applications of your performances in the near future, so start rehearsing!

BlizzCon 2015 First place Winner --Cow King Swing

Whatever you choose to show us, please make sure your video is two minutes or less in length, choose a good resolution (higher is better), and keep it simple—we want to see you just as you would be performing live. Since your audition video could be shown onstage at the show, please make sure that there are no non-Blizzard brand logos present in your shoot.

Online Contests

BlizzCon 2016 Art Contest

The Art Contest offers talented artists a chance to showcase their work at BlizzCon. As you prepare your pens and paintbrushes to craft your work of art, please keep in mind that you’ll need to submit high-quality jpegs no larger than 5MB. Also, the content of your work must be of your own original creation, so no PhotoShop manipulations of existing work will be accepted.



BlizzCon 2015 First place winner-- Cairne Bloodhoof by Birdman

BlizzCon 2016 Movie Contest

Aspiring auteurs in animation, machinima, live-action filmmaking, and more—we are prepared to be entertained! Get those creative juices flowing now, just keep in mind that your film should be 3 minutes or less and the size of your file no larger than 100MB. If you’re shooting a live-action piece, please make sure that there are no non-Blizzard brand logos in your video.

BlizzCon 2015 First place winner -- The Heroes of the Store by Chris Kellett

Complete rules and more information on all of the upcoming contests will be available soon. Signups begin in the near future, but there’s no better time to start preparing than now!

Have BlizzCon contest-related questions? Email BlizzConContest@Blizzard.com

Need more inspiration? See more of BlizzCon 2015's winners and runners-up here.