The Truth Behind Heroes Of Cosplay: New Orleans

Heroes of Cosplay is a popular tv series on SyFy that showcases certain cosplayers at conventions across the US. But what you might not know about it is how this show treats the people at conventions… the ones that aren’t the “elite” few, the cosplayers and convention goers behind the camera. I never had to deal with them until they came into my town - New Orleans. I thought it would be a great opportunity to see this show in person but my opinion quickly changed.

The way they treated my fellow cosplaying friends and the way they took over our beloved costume contest was completely inexcusable. There were a few mishaps on the convention floor but a majority of the issues came around the time of the Costume Contest. This was my third time attending Wizard World New Orleans and usually the costume contest is done in 1-2 hours. This one took over 2 hours just to get through the individual category. It was clearly being staged because only certain cosplayers were being allowed to talk about their costumes on stage, everyone else was rushed off. I didn’t realize it at the time but the ones they stopped to chat about were mostly Heroes of Cosplay participants. They didn’t care one bit about anyone else. It became really painful to watch/participate when I saw beautiful and elaborate costumes getting rushed off because they weren’t one of the “elite few” from the show.

After the contest was over, my friends and I went on to enjoy the rest of the convention as much as possible. Some of us completely shut out the competition because it was the black mark of the whole show. I began gathering stories from my friends and fellow Wizard World convention goers. Then other people began approaching me with their account of what happened. Here are our collected thoughts:

Encounters on the Convention Floor:

1 - This happened Saturday around 2:30pm the Cosplay Circuit Digital Hall Awards photobooth, where they take your photograph and post it on the Wizard World site. Jesse Lagers tried to cut in line in front of me. The obnoxious camera crew’s goal was to cut the “Costume Contest Winner” into the line. I was sandwiched right between him and the AVP guys. The costume contest didn’t happen until later that night. They decided the winners for the contest before the show even started.

2 - I just want to chime in for a second here… I have always loved Yaya, she was always nice to me over the last 3 years and I really admired her up until WW New Orleans. Now I’m a photographer at alot of Cons and I’ve worked for Wizard World for years. This year I wasn’t working for them because I was working exclusively for a very well known website. When I passed by her just in walking around the con floor she pretty much stopped me and was like Oh you ARE going to take my picture now. I was crazy busy running to the green room to do a few photo ops with other guests celebrities before the Matt Smith panel and I said sorry I can’t (oh and I was munching on a huge ass burger while running). She was like why not, you NEED to take my picture. I just walked away. She was so rude demanding I take her picture when I was busy. I have never gone up to her while she was busy or eating.

3 - Throughout the years, I have had to deal with Yaya Han as a fellow vendor (which is a majority of the times), a judge, a bystander, and as a cosplayer. The first time I met her was at Wizard World New Orleans January of 2012 (well before Heroes of Cosplay). She didn’t want to talk, she just wanted to pose for the camera and have people buy her things. I tried chatting with her but there were others around me and she completely ignored me. I walked away and left it at that. The most memorable encounter was a few years ago, I was vending at an anime convention in Atlanta. It was right after the floor closed and I was going around talking to the other vendors like I usually do. I went up to her and started talking… she completely ignored me. There was literally only me and her. I tried talking again and she continued to ignore me. Not even looking in my direction at all. I thought, “Okay, maybe she’s having a bad day” but after multiple encounters and receiving the same treatment, that says a lot right there. Especially after the 8 times I’ve met her (including Wizard World New Orleans 2014). And the way she treated cosplayers who were overweight, crossplaying, genderbent, or special… is outright disgusting. I have witnessed it firsthand. She did a complete 180 (from polite to acting like you don’t exist) when she noticed one of my friends pulling off a very convincing male costume. No human being should treat anyone the way she does. It’s not her as a cosplayer that bothers me, I could care less about what costume she’s over-sexualizing, it’s simply the way she treats others. I am friendly towards everyone, every single one of my friends can attest to this. I have met thousands of people, attended dozens of conventions, and I have never met anyone like her. The foul attitude she has continued to have towards me, fellow vendors, fellow cosplayers, and my friends has proven that she needs a personality check.

The Costume Contest:

The judges were:

Ryan Frye

Ivy Doomkitty

Ivy Doomkitty Jason David Frank

Yaya Han

The winners were:

Honorable Mention (Ivy Doomkitty): Doctor’s Worst Nightmare

Doctor’s Worst Nightmare Honorable Mention (Yaya Han): Shazam (Heroes of Cosplay)

Shazam (Heroes of Cosplay) Honorable Mention (Ryan Frye): Radagast

Radagast Honorable Mention (Jason David Frank): Green Power Ranger

Green Power Ranger Best Male Hero: Thorin (Heroes of Cosplay)

Thorin (Heroes of Cosplay) Best Female Hero: Hawkgirl

Hawkgirl Best Female Villain: Female Loki

Female Loki Best Male Villain: Arkicide Demonicus

Arkicide Demonicus Best in Show: The Dalek

The Dalek Group Honorable Mention: Soul Calibur Girls (Heroes of Cosplay)

Soul Calibur Girls (Heroes of Cosplay) Group Best Skit: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Group Best in Show: Peter Pan’s Labyrinth (Heroes of Cosplay)

Here is the rough summary of what happened during the costume contest:

The whole thing was staged. There people almost 200 people who entered (about 120 in the individual category alone) and of the 12 winners chosen, 4 of them were awarded to people from Heroes of Cosplay. That is a third of the awards!

- For singles - The Best Male Hero winner was Heroes of Cosplay’s Jesse Lagers. Which they decided he was winning before the contest even started. With Miguel Guifarro (Miggy) getting an Honorable Mention.

- For groups - The Best in Show winner was Heroes of Cosplay’s Chloe, Holly, and Jessica. With Katie, Riki, and Indra getting an Honorable Mention.

The winners’ reactions were filmed BEFORE making their appearance on stage.

The contest was one day, not two. They filmed the entire thing on Saturday night and forced all the participants to wait around backstage an hour between the singles and groups just so the judges could change costumes. Yaya Han took the longest at 45 minutes. Some contestants waited 6 hours just to go up on stage.

Costume Contest Stories:

1 - “Heroes” of Cosplay, and Close encounters of the horrible kind…



The Costume Contest from Hell



My children and I (and a friend with a tin dog) spent months working on costumes and thousands of dollars in fees, costume supplies, hotel room, rental van, food, and more fees to attend Wizard World Comic Con New Orleans. We were really looking forward to entering the costume contest as a group, not as serious competitors, but for one purpose and one purpose only: to help my autistic son have life experiences that are memorable and worthwhile that move him forward and help him grow and be happy. He LOVES Doctor Who and conventions and cosplay. LOVES them. So, in my naivete, I decided that even though the SyFy channel’s questionably ethic’ed show Heroes of Cosplay was filming at the venue, we would be okay if we kept our focus and stayed true to our family goals of fun and cosplay.



See, without a goal (a costume contest), it is hard to get anyone really to finish something at any sort of level of excellence. I want my children to understand that hard work is its own reward, and that we work hard so that WE will gain the benefits of the work. Winning is really not a goal in and of itself, and if it happens, it is simply one extra bit of fun. So, I had practiced with my son what he would do, helped him visualize how it would be, and prepped him for some waiting in line work (which is excruciating for autistic kids, but VERY important to keep experiencing so they develop strategies and skills for doing it on a small scale in daily life).



Here is the timeline of depraved indifference shown to the contestants of the Group Costume Contest, courtesy of “Heroes of Cosplay” and Wizard World Comic Con New Orleans:



6:30 PM—the call time. We arrived early (6:00 PM) so we could get in the front of the line so that my son would be done as quickly as humanly possible.



6:55 PM—the line is told we are in the wrong place and moved further away from the entrances to the hall.



7:20 PM—cameras following some people I did not recognize came through the line and did some interviews with line members and what I presume were cast members of the show. They stayed for a few minutes and departed.



7:25 PM—first encounter with anyone official from Wizard World Comic Con New Orleans and we are told to line up in number order, groups on the wall side, solo competitors on the opposite side by the escalators.



7:45 PM—the solo competitors were called individually by name, which took forever, and marched into the backstage area. We were told we would be waiting approximately 45 minutes until we would get to go on.



8:15 or so—someone came out who worked for Wizard world and said it would be 20-45 more minutes, without really explaining why.



Then, everyone official just vanished, like they’d gone backstage and friggin’ died.



9:15 or so (I’m starting at this point to lose track of time, as my son decompensates further and further and we have to work every single minute to keep him calm and focused, thinking “surely, since the audience is leaving in droves that any minute now we’d get to go do our 1 minute thirty second thing and go home”)—an official from Wizard World Comic Con New Orleans came out and informed the groups that there would be a 45 minute break while THE JUDGES CHANGED COSTUME.



Wait, what?



I cannot stress this enough: this was the most ridiculous moment in the whole evening for me. My son had not been out of his costume for well over three hours at this point. He had not been able to eat dinner exactly because we figured we could get food when we were done, since we had gotten there early on purpose so we’d be in the front of the line, and to hear this was offensive and hurtful. The judges were changing costume, presumably getting refreshments and having a smoke break. We’d been sitting on the floor for hours.



At this point we also discovered that the awards ceremony for the solo competitors had already happened, which explained the audience leaving in droves we’d witnessed earlier.



10:00 PM—yep, that’s right, 10:00 PM and we’re still in the hall. A dude brought us some water and there was some perfunctory apologizing from the Wizard World Comic Con New Orleans staff, and the stars of the Heroes of Cosplay were wandering around now in our line a bit.



10:30 PM—we are hurried (wait, give me a break, NOW WE are expected to hurry because you are barking orders at us) to a backstage area, where the line is informed that there is not enough time for anyone to be allowed to do their skits. The line behind is growing restless, if not possibly murderous…



I went to a Wizard World official and begged them to let my son just go do his thing. He was crying, overwhelmed, and traumatized by all that had happened and all I wanted at that point was to get him on stage, let him do the skit and go home. I chose to sacrifice actually competing so that he could have some closure on the evening, and to Wizard World’s credit, they did in fact let us do just that. There were no judges to see him, because they were still not out yet, but that’s okay. My son had made it through four hours of all of that and only lost it when the adults were chanting and stomping “Let us Go! Let us GO!”



10:50 PM We are allowed to do our skit for the audience members, but not for the judges, who were not there yet.



I would like to thank the Wizard World person who made the decision to let our little skit happen. I feel for the people in line who went through all of this and were not allowed to even do what they came to do. I will never watch Heroes of Cosplay again, and I plan on sharing my story with SyFy, all of the shows sponsors, Wizard World, and anyone else who loves cosplay.



Before anyone asks me “why don’t you just put him in the children’s contest?” I’m going to point out that by and large the children’s contests I’ve seen are not about excellence and this one was no exception. It was a photo op for parents and a toy grab for kids. No awards were given. I cannot teach my children about excellence if there is no standard to aspire to. Besides, I prefer to cosplay as a family whenever possible, for reasons that have more to do with his disability than anything else. We do this together because it means something to us. It’s fun, it’s worth it, even when it’s hard and disappointing.



A final bit of opinion from an angry, hurt mom: There are a thousand better ways to handle this. If you are having two separate contests (solo and group), schedule them at different times. If you want to show off your television show prowess, do it as an exhibition at the end, publicize it as such, and make it special for everyone, and then you can make it perfect and beautiful and knock the socks off of all the competitors and set a standard all of us would like to aspire to, but please don’t pretend you are competing with us. One of the many people I know, forward this to Yaya Han and she replied – “ I have forwarded the post to the producers. It’s a horrible unfortunate situation and that night was incredibly stressful for many many people, including Wizard World staff, contestants, crew, judges etc. Costume contests can be very tough and in my many years of attending cons and being a part of contests, either as entrant, judge or hosts, I’ve seen a lot of similar situations. Costumes are hot, uncomfortable and sometimes painful. Contest are long and mishaps happen. Right now you can not blame any one group in particular, because there are so many components to a contest and so many factors involved, and as much as everyone was trying to hurry and rush, delays happen. As easy as it seems to assign blame, please everyone think logically and know that every con and every situation involving costuming can be painful, stressful and frustrating. That’s the nature of putting on a costume, and to partake in a show. And please understand that no one wanted to be there for 6 hours straight. Every person in that theater wanted to get the show going and then go eat and sleep.

In the future, I sincerely hope lessons can be learned from this situation.“

2 - At first I was happy that there wasn’t much interference by them on the Con floor, aside from one or two instances. One of them being a camerawoman from the show who literally snatched a chair out from underneath a guy as he was trying to sit in it in order to film Yaya at her booth over the heads of the crowd. I thankfully stopped him before he fell flat on his ass and gave him my chair. The camerawoman practically flung it back at us. The other on-floor incident directly involves Yaya as she was leaving her booth. I stopped to let her pass in front of me due in part because I like to be polite and I was trying to be a little in character. Yaya even said, "Oh, thank you,” in this sweet tone, and I told her “you’re welcome”. Not the key thing is that I am a girl in a very convincing crossplay who absolutely stinks at disguising her voice, which it’s quite obvious I am a girl. After that little turn, she looked like I’d just taken a shit on the floor and hurried past. As for the contest, it was a total clusterfuck. I don’t know if they guy running it was with the show or not, but it was clear he’d never done this before. We were all given numbers when we signed up on this little cards, so it was easy to tell who was in what order, but NO he wanted to do it. He wanted to say it himself even after several people suggested that we just get ourselves in line BECAUSE WE ARE ALL CAPABLE OF THAT. He was constantly threatening people, too, saying that if we didn’t stop talking he’d kick us out. They had a megaphone, but this guy just seemed to prefer to just scream as much as he could. He also made some leery comments towards certain woman dressed in very attractive costumes. Backstage wasn’t so bad at first, but coupled with the fact that we’d been standing in line and doing literally nothing for more than two hours (on top of being at the Con all day), and there was little to no circulated air back there, it quickly grew miserable. The Heroes of Cosplay people, from what I understand, had very early numbers and were able to get in and out rather quickly. Unlike the people with their number being +100. There was a bit of a double standard with the judging, too. Those people that you saw being talked to on stage were the ONLY ones spoken to one-on-one. There was no prejudging or any other way for them to really see if our costumes were quality or store bought. How the people were chosen seemed entirely random aside from the obvious Syfy show cast. When it came to where our stopping points were on the stage several of us asked staff about them and while we eventually found someone who could tell us, most of us got a very rude “figure it out” from other staff backstage. After we did our stage thing and left, we were ushered out into a lobby area so that we could circle around and sit in the audience. It was there I met some of the other cast from the show practicing their skit. We chatted for a moment and they’d literally just gotten there, as opposed to the people who’d been waiting around for at least 2-3 hours at this point. I can’t really fault them for how the show chooses to usher them around, so I chose not to bring that fact up. After getting something to drink and going into the doors where the singles were to go, we were all crammed in one small hallway because no one bothered to make sure we had seats. After all that time in line, we were crammed in a very small and very hot hallway. My only relief was that I was lucky enough to get an honorable mention and I joined the rest of the contestants up on stage. We were all very happy and all very excited, and I even had a very brief chat with the gentleman dressed as Shazam and the green ranger before they announced the winners for the singles. After exited the stage again, we passed a staging area used for photographing all of the contestants in the contest. Everyone who walked on stage exited near this spot and had their photo taken. When we exited after receiving our award or honorable mentions we were rushed by a guy with a mike and camera. I told them I was just an honorable mention, and was basically shoved aside because I was not “wanted” or “needed”. While they handled it with absolutely no professional etiquette whatsoever, I can see why they rushed. The whole event started an hour late and they wanted the trophy winners for their segment. It wasn’t until the day after the Con that I saw that none of the singles honorable mentions are “mentioned” at all anywhere, but the Heroes of Cosplay group who got the exact same honor are basically treated as if they’d won best in show. I had to leave at that point, due to my dumb shoes having sharp enough edges (after I added to them) to slice up my foot pretty well. I’d been standing on them for so long my feet were already achy and sore so I didn’t realize how bloody it was until I sat down. patching myself up was a priority and I wasn’t about to go bother the staff for help. Given their track record I would have bled to death before I’d gotten help. I think that about covers my experiences. I’m sure there’s something I am forgetting, but there are FAR more interesting stories from the poor folks who were screwed over during the group/skit segments. Because the event started late and because the judges decided to do something as silly as change costumes mid-event, no one was allowed to do their skits at all. All except for a sweet woman and her children who’d begged to do it because her son (with special needs) had already gone above and beyond and just wanted to do it. They did it, but not for the judges, they were too busy changing to do their damn job. Oh, and of course the HoC people got to do theirs, too. Obviously.

3 - “Joliet” Jake Blues and the WWNO Costume Contests Where do I begin? Let’s start with the previous Wizard World New Orleans from November-December 2011. It’s my first time cosplaying any character, so I go with one that people have been begging me to do, “Joliet” Jake Blues. I pull it off in spectacular fashion. Everyone is raving over it. Wizard World actually wants me in the costume contest so much, that they send three different people to ask me to partake in it. One problem: I already have a prior engagement for the time of costume contest, so I promise them that I’ll partake in it when they come back in 2014. Flash forward to February, 2014. My main cosplay was going to be the 4th Doctor from Doctor Who. That didn’t materialize. No problem. I fall back to “Joliet” Jake, and buy a Court of Owls mask to have a comic book cosplay. Again, people are eating “Joliet” Jake up, along with the backstory that Elwood thinks he’s a physicist and what not and left me to fend for myself. Naturally, I enter the costume contest. While entering, I run into a cosplayer cosplaying as Bane from “The Dark Knight Rises” that I met earlier in the day on Saturday. We decide, on a whim, to get a Batman villains group together for the costume contest. Pretty cool, right? We get a group together before the Matt Smith panel that’s at 6:15. Now here is where everything gets tricky, so pay attention. I’m in the individual and group costume contests for the night. We’re all being told that we need to be in line for the costume contests while the Matt Smith panel is going on. I, having bought a Matt Smith vip ticket for the con, ignore that bit and go. Smart move on my part. From what I heard from my group for the costume contest, no one from Wizard World did anything during the Matt Smith panel for the costume contest. People who had also bought Matt Smith vip tickets and were in the costume contest were disgruntled that they chose to wait in the costume contest line instead of the panel. The panel lets out, and there is a flood of cosplayers rushing to get in line for the contest thinking that they were already de-queued from it because they chose Matt Smith over the contest. There was no need to rush though, as I explained earlier. That should have been the first sign something was up. Now to get into lineup, and how disorganized it was. What I’m about to say is not an understatement. It made a Michael Bay’s plots look organized. It took them a good twenty minutes to get everyone to listen, then another twenty to call the first 50 cosplayers for the individual contest, due to Heroes of Cosplay inserting their own people. It didn’t dawn on us that that was what was going on until it took another fifteen minutes to call the back 75 or so cosplayers for the contest. I was number 107, there were at least 15 people behind me. Once we were lined up backstage, it was another hour until I was able to strut my suit and tie. During that hour, we were informed that no one can do an individual skit unless the judges asked you questions. Those were signs two and three that something was up, especially since most of us said we wanted to perform a skit. Well we carry on, cause that’s we do. We just took that as another obstacle. Now it’s getting close to 9pm, the con after-party is about to get underway, and there are still about 50 cosplayers, including myself, backstage, just standing around waiting to walk the stage and show themselves off. Some of us are getting texts from audience members, telling us that Heroes of Cosplay and Wizard World are making the audience cheer for certain cosplayers, and that those same cosplayers were being asked questions about their cosplays. It’s now past 9, and they have finally gotten to the 100s. It’s now my time to strut. Again, I’m in costume as “Joliet” Jake Blues, so I do what comes naturally for Jake. I dance my way through the walk on and off, and do cartwheel to get through the catwalk. It was awesome, the crowd ate it up, and I got a thumbs up from Jason David Frank. Better than I expected, but the night was still young. The group costume contest still loomed ahead, and boy was that a complete and total disaster on all fronts. Part 2 to follow

4 - I first showed up to the cosplay contest a few minutes after 6:30 and got in a random line with the rest of my friends. There was no order to this line just get were ever you wanted to be and it was like this for an hour or so. Someone finally comes out and tells us to get into our line but it wasn’t your typical line where you got your number then get in numerical order, even though when you first signed up you got your number , your name was called out and where you were placed you stayed even if the numbers did not matched. To me this already sound like it has already been set up and the contest hasn’t even started yet! If you were not fast enough to get into line they would kick you out of the contest, yes you heard right KICKING PEOPLE OUT. This was a long line and not everyone can hear all the way at the end and before they could even complete the line they were sending people out to start the contest. At first off was like, “finally we are getting us on stage I mean why else they would be YELLING at us and rushing us, right?” WRONG. After all of that yelling and rushing we get behind god knows where to wait…. For a few more hours just what I signed up for guys!! Nothing like being bullied around for some TV show that Im not even apart of because all I want to do is show off my costume that I spend hours getting into and I could give a damn about winning I just wanted to show off my work. But this allowed me to be next to one of the cast cosplayers for HoC so I was able to see FIRST HAND what goes on with the cosplayers/staff of HOC. Now I have nothing against this cosplayer at all, I had no idea who he/she was in till after the con but he/she was really nice to me and asked me if I was feeling fine since I was off to the side sitting down not talking to anyone (which I was just tired of the waiting which have been hours by this time and he/she wasn’t actting since at this point of time there were no cameras/ staff around). However the staffs of HoC were HIGHLY rude! Hitting Cosplayers with their bags and gear and not apologizing for it, NOT ONCE! At one point I was gonna go off on them since I had something placed closed to my back and head so every time they hit me my head would jerk with it ( WHICH HURTS!! This happened for at least 3 times). They would also pull other cosplayers out of line and place them somewhere else and set up scenes with another cosplayer, once done they would bring said cosplayer back to where they were pulled. After all of this I can see the stage and I’m started to get nerviest because at this point I know people are fake cheering because the TV show is making them, I mean who wouldn’t after going through that entire BS. I get on and off stage and get back to the floor of the contest to see others. I didn’t pay much to the others on stage because at this point I did not care anymore, my fun has been ruined. Then the contest ends and the judges do their thing. Boom done people have been judge and winners have been picked time for the group to show up on stage, right? WRONG AGAIN! No the judges have to leave to change into new costumes… ~LOL forget about the people who have been waiting HOURS to get on stage to be judge by us. Who cares about them its all about ME!~ You couldn’t wait in till tomorrow to get into your surprise cosplay… you couldn’t wait to be in the lime light again that you had to stop the contest to go change into a different cosplay, eat, whatever the hell you guys were doing as other cosplayers where stuck behind closed doors for their chance to be on stage just so it could be all about you.

5 - I was part of group 1. We waited nearly 6 hours to go up on stage. I watched for 45 minutes as Yaya Han had between 6 and 8 people backstage putting that hideous costume with the wings on her. She kept delaying the show because they didn’t have a smoke machine. Finally the guy I believe was their cosplay contest coordinator ducked behind the partition and sprayed a can of hairspray so the would just go up on stage. They then sent us out to stand and watch while all HOC contestants had special front row reserved seating. Because of this show I will not attend another wizard world event. It’s clear they value money over their attendees experience. I do appreciate the local staff who were apologetic and wonderful to us. I understand that this was out of their control. And I’d enjoy being named. These jerks need to be called out way harder on their bullshit.

6 - First, I have to say my experience with them was fantastic. However, I also completely understand what happened in the group division was an atrocity. I was lucky enough to be in the singles group and I placed as a winner so of course my experience is biased. I got to talk to Jesse from the show at length and had a good chat with Yaya, both of which we’re extremely nice and complementary which leads me to believe the show runners are the ones really making things awful as opposed to the people themselves. I don’t think it’s right to blame the cast when, although they may be part of the problem, aren’t really at fault for what the producers do. That said, I don’t have first hand knowledge of what happened during the group completion but I do know that the show caused some major anxiety for the singles group. Many of the contestants didn’t know they were going to have to do a big production on stage and were very intimidated by having to do the whole last minute catwalk bit. I heard a few people dropped out because of it there was a lot of confusion during the line up which could have been avoided but I think that was caused by Wizard World more than the show. The thing I found most concerning was the interview portion after the walkon. I heard from several people that they were asked leading questions designed quite clearly to get hostile answers. One girl was asked if her cross play was designed to be a feminist statement. When I heard that I was floored. My interview questioned whether I thought I was going to be best in show, which although I was extremely flattered, it was pointed out to me later that this could have meant the winners were largely already selected. I can’t attest to the truth of that but it does make you wonder. I do want to say as a closing note that I do actually enjoy the show but the way it’s filmed is unacceptable. I believe the cast had good intentions which have been warped by the corporate demands. Overall, the show is a good thing because it exposes people who don’t know anything about cosplay to the art and it has the effect of making the hobby socially acceptable to people outside the community. I’m an attorney and because of the show the senior partner at my firm was actually thrilled to find out I was a cosplayer because he watches the show with his daughter. 10-5 years ago, that would have been unheard of, so there are good aspects in theory but not necessarily in execution if you know what I mean? I’m truly sorry to hear that others had such a terrible experience. I’m looking forward to hearing what else you find out and hopefully it’ll make a difference for future filming of the show. If this continues it’s going to alienate cosplayers and in the end, that’s the worst thing something that is supposed to support cosplay could possibly do. Thanks for putting up with my ramble!

7 - At Wizard World New Orleans the individual & group costume contests were held back to back Saturday night. All contestants were told to line up by 6pm. The judges took a break to change costumes between the contests. The ‘Heroes’ groups were added to the line around 10:30pm. About 15 minutes before going on the groups were told that due to time constraints they would not be able to do skits. Only 3 groups were allowed to do their skits even though there was an award for best skit. The award was still presented. Maybe Syfy needs to check the dictionary for the definition of 'Hero.’ I learned early it isn’t heroic to lie & cheat.

With that final statement, started a movement among the Louisiana cosplayers to speak up about these so-called “Heroes” of Cosplay.

More experiences you can read about –

In closing, Wizard World New Orleans is still a sour note in many of our memories. Heroes of Cosplay ruined the costume contest for many of us. We hope they (meaning the production crew) never return to New Orleans and we hope that other cosplayers never have to deal with them ruining their convention and/or costume contest. I also want to make it known that this is not against the cast of Heroes of Cosplay. I know many of them as friends and they are truly wonderful people. The point I wanted to convey was how a reality television crew changes many things at a convention and what to expect. If you have a story you want to share from a convention that Heroes of Cosplay was at, please share it! The more people know about the truth behind the scenes, the better!

Responses from the cast of Heroes of Cosplay:

Carl Martin - Hey Laura, this is Carl, we’ve been friends on Facebook and talked way before I was on the show. I just read your article and all I can say is that I’m sorry. I agree with a lot of what you and everyone has to say. I’m sorry to everyone that got hurt by what happened at that convention. I had no idea about these things going on and I don’t endorse nor stand by those decisions or actions. I stand for making the community a better place for everyone and I’m just so sorry this happened.

(Thank you, Carl! I’ve known Carl for over a year and he’s an absolutely sweetheart of a guy. We met when I noticed his Mass Effect armor at a local MLP convention. I know he wouldn’t want any of his fellow cosplayers to have to deal with this and I know he would have spoken up if he saw any of this happen. He is indeed the kind of guy who wants to make the cosplay community a better place. Put the “play” back into cosplay.)

Responses from the crew of Heroes of Cosplay:

(None so far)



