SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twitch, the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers, today announced several major initiatives at TwitchCon 2016 for its Twitch Creative category, including a cosplay contest with a milestone-setting prize pool totaling $63,000. Other Creative happenings include art galleries, panels, and meet & greets with top broadcasters. Tickets for TwitchCon 2016 are currently available at Twitchcon.com.
Beginning today, broadcasters are invited to enter the cosplay contest by streaming their costume construction progress on Twitch Creative for a chance to win part of a $63,000 prize pool. The contest runs through August 22, 2016, with the top 20 finalists announced on September 9, 2016, and winning $1,500 each to travel to TwitchCon 2016. Four of the finalists will be selected from a community vote that will be active from August 26-29, while the category and overall winners will be determined at the conference. Attending the show and taking part in select phases of the judging process are popular cosplayers Yaya Han and Commander Holly, and streaming personality GiantWaffle, among others to be announced. The event will be emceed at TwitchCon 2016 by Anna Prosser Robinson.
“Cosplay has long been a staple on Twitch, whether it’s dressing up to mirror a character in a game that’s being played or showing viewers how more elaborate costumes are made,” said Bill Moorier, Head of Twitch Creative. “We are offering the largest prize pool in the history of cosplay to celebrate the effort that goes into creating these works of art which will then be spotlighted at TwitchCon 2016. With such high stakes, it should be pretty amazing to see what our community comes up with.”
In order to enter, participants must broadcast, archive and tag (#CosplayContest) a minimum of 15 hours of content via Twitch Creative by August 22, 2016. They will be competing in one of four categories--Needlework, Armor, FX, and Larger Than Life--with an overall winner also being selected. Finalists will get to show off their creations on the Kappa Stage at TwitchCon 2016 on Saturday, October 1 where the winners will be announced. The contest is only open to legal citizens of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec) with full contest rules here.
Winners will receive medals and trophies hand-crafted by cosplayer and Twitch Creative broadcaster, Harrison Krix of Volpin Props. Watch the making of each award on Harrison’s Twitch channel every Wednesday at 11:00am PT starting on June 29: twitch.tv/volpinprops. To see all of the TwitchCon 2016 cosplay entries in progress, visit the #CosplayContest community on Twitch Creative for a menu of all live broadcasts.
TwitchCon 2016 will have over 70 panels, most of which are applicable to all types of broadcasters, and there will be several specific to the Twitch Creative community. This includes the following:
- Twitch Creative Origin Story with Bill Moorier (Head of Twitch Creative), Kyle “Mos” (Creative community manager) and Darren “GeersArt” Geers (2D illustrator, Twitch): This panel charts the history of Creative on Twitch from its Justin.tv days to where the category is heading.
- Setting Up a Professional Multi-cam Live Music or Creative Broadcast on a Budget! with SceneOfActionMusic
Twitch Creative has attracted so many talented artists and there will be a large gallery displaying a collection of the community’s masterpieces with arts and crafts available for purchase in the Artist Alley*. There will also be a number of other Creative broadcasters taking part in events, such as Dethskulpt, MissCoookiez and PianoImproman.
TwitchCon 2016 will take place September 30-October 2 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA. To assist with accommodations, Twitch has negotiated travel discounts and secured a limited number of reduced-rate hotel rooms near the convention center. Since rooms at the group rate are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis, book early for the best selection and price through Twitch’s online booking system.
For more information on Twitch, TwitchCon and Twitch Creative, visit:
Twitch:
Blog,
Facebook,
@Twitch, #Twitch
Twitch
Creative: @TwitchCreates, #TwitchCreative,
Twitchcon.com/creative
TwitchCon
2016: @TwitchCon, #TwitchCon2016, Twitchcon.com (newsletter signup)
* Artist Alley is not yet accepting submission requests. Follow @TwitchCreates and Twitchcon.com/creative for updates regarding taking part in Artist Alley.
About Twitch
Twitch is the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers. Each month, more than 100 million community members gather to watch and talk about video games with more than 1.7 million broadcasters. Twitch’s video platform is the backbone of both live and on-demand distribution for the entire video game ecosystem. This includes game developers, publishers, media outlets, events, user generated content, and the entire esports scene. Twitch also features Twitch Creative, a category devoted to artists and the creative process. For more information about Twitch, visit the official website and blog.