Competition Divisions

Craftsmanship and Performance Categories

Junior: 15 years old or younger. Any number of awards. Any number of costumes. (Craftsmanship)/performances. (Performance)
Novice: 16 years old or older. Won up to 2 Major Awards. Won up to 5 Minor Awards. Has made 5 costumes or less. (Craftsmanship)/Has created 5 performances or less. (Performance)
Journeyman: 16 years old or older. Won up to 4 Major Awards. Won up to 10 Minor Awards. Has made 9 costumes or less. (Craftsmanship)/Has created 9 performances or less. (Performance)
Master: 16 years old or older. Won up to 6 Major Awards. Won up to 15 Minor Awards. Has made 11 costumes or more. (Craftsmanship)/Has created 11 performances or more. (Performance)

Found Item Costume, Original Design, and Musical Act Categories

Youth: 15 years old or younger. Any number of awards. Any number of costumes. (Craftsmanship)/performances created.(Performance)
Adult: 16 years old or older. Any number of awards. Any number of costumes. (Craftsmanship)/performances created.(Performance)

Major Awards are considered Best in Show, Best in Division, or the like. Minor Awards are considered Honorable Mention, Merit Award, Judge’s Award, and the like. Only awards that you have won at conventions are counted. Craftsmanship Awards count for Craftsmanship Competition Only. Performance Awards count for Performance Competition Only. Awards won in a Hallway Contest are NOT counted. Awards won at events (e.g. clubs/organizations, stores, 1-day mini-conventions, etc.) are NOT counted. If you placed as ANYTHING except Honorable Mention at WorldCon or Costume-Con, you MUST compete in the Master Division.

Participants may compete in a Division higher (Junior can compete as Novice), but cannot compete a Division lower (Novice 16+ cannot compete as Junior). If in a group and all participants are Novice, but one participant is Master, the group must compete in the Master Division (as no one may compete in a Division lower than their own). You cannot compete lower than any Division award you have won. If you won Best in Division - Master, you cannot compete as a Journeyman (or Novice) even if you only have one 1 Major award (which would typically qualify you as Novice).

To allow participants who have not won before a chance at winning an award, participants may NOT compete a costume that has previously won any Major Craftsmanship Award at any convention.

These are GUIDELINES to follow when making a decision regarding which division to compete in. Junior and Youth divisions are solely reserved for participants 15 years of age or younger regardless of awards or skill level. In order to have a more fair division system, we ask that cosplayers to take in account BOTH awards and skill level (we use number of completed costumes as a guideline) when making decisions regarding divisions. If there are any questions regarding Divisions or you cannot decide which Division you should compete in, please contact Cosplay Department Head.

Revised 07.29.07