Reptile's Random Review: C2E2 Sunday Masquerade

Hey everyone! I have been absent for a while, but I’m back and this week I’m reviewing the C2E2 Masquerade which was held on Sunday, March 1st. I like to think of it as the Crown Championship Lite.

Be sure to check out the rest of our C2E2 coverage:
Adam Savage Sightings 
Interview w/ Writer Gail Simone
Interview w/ Cullen Bunn
Friday Cosplay - Part 1
Friday Cosplay - Part 2
Saturday Cosplay - Part 1
Saturday Cosplay - Part 2
Saturday Cosplay - Part 3
Saturday Cosplay - Part 4
Saturday Cosplay - Part 5
Saturday Cosplay - Part 6
Sunday Cosplay - Part 1 
Sunday Cosplay - Part 2
Sunday Cosplay - Part 3
Sunday Cosplay Masquerade

ReedPOP, the owners of the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), did something new this year and held a smaller costume contest they called the Sunday Masquerade. I had the pleasure of getting a very up-close, inside look at the contest first-hand. Being Reptile, I used my powers of disguise and teamed up with a couple of friends and entered the contest.

The Judges

C2E2 partnered with the charity group Costumers With A Cause (CWC) who handled signing up and organizing part of this event.

C2E2 also offered some decent prizes for the event.

Best in Show: $500 & 2 badges to C2E2 2021

Best Individual: $250
Best Group: $250
Best Junior (13-18 years old): $250
2nd place – $100
2nd place – Group: $100
Judges’ Awards (4): Swag bag with C2E2 Merch.

The Winners

C2E2 2020 Sunday Masquerade Final Winners — The Best in Show

The contest was open to ages 13 and up, which was probably a wise idea or we would have all been upstaged by a toddler dressed as The Child. They also limited it to 60 entries, additional entries were placed in reserve in case of no-shows.

Our group was number 24 in the queue.

During prejudging, the four judges looked at the costumes and asked questions. We each described in detail how the costumes were made, what materials were used and how much of it was made by ourselves, purchased, or made by others. They looked at craftsmanship and creativity, though the costumes only made up 50% of your score. The other 50% was your on-stage performance.

I have to admit, we were a bit overzealous signing up and neglected to read all of the info before entering and didn’t notice the part about performances. As they say though, the show must go on and we did what anyone in our situation would do. We improvised while heading from prejudging to the main stage. Being 24th in queue gave us a little time to discuss our battle plan.

We watched some really good costumes and well-prepared individuals enter and leave the stage to rounds of applause. The groups ranged from a couple that did a dance, to a large Rocky Horror Picture Show group that mashed the show with The Doctor and his companion Donna. From what I saw, the Rocky Horror group killed it. They were a tough act for us to follow. The 3 of us were in armor from the DreamWorks “How to Train your Dragon 3” movie. We paced out and performed our improvised skit which entailed our characters (Astra, Valka, and Fishlegs) trying to find our missing dragons. The three of us were pretty new to this and didn’t expect much, but did it for fun. Afterward, we moved off to the side of the stage with the other contestants who already performed.

Masquerade Entrants

After the performances, the judges went backstage to deliberate. Meanwhile, the Emcee wandered through the audience asking fans in costume questions and awarding them small tokens for their effort.

When the judges returned, they announced each of the 4 judges personal favorites, then moved to the 2nd place winners for each category. This was followed by the 1st place winners and finished up by announcing the Best in Show Award; which went to a couple who had created a very detailed Joker and Harley Quinn Victorian Masquerade Ball costumes.

Us? We were shocked when the Rocky Horror/Who group placed 2nd and they announced our group as getting first place. So I guess the Reptile and friends still have those awesome disguise skills.

As a reviewer on the inside, I would have to say the CWC did a first-rate job of handling their part. Their admin member, Jen, did a great job of keeping us informed on what to expect every step of the way. I feel that ReedPOP/C2E2 did a good job of running everything on their end also, which was all the technical things and the actual judging and emceeing of the show.

For me, I want to see this at C2E2 again next year and I give it a 5 out of 5 Stars.