How do you win a cosplay catwalk competition? Honestly — you stop thinking of it as a costume contest. When I won Best Performance as Jinx at the FanFes Circuit Cosplay Catwalk at Ayala Malls Circuit in Makati, the costume got me on the stage, but the performance got me the award. The character has to walk out, not just the outfit.
Still feels like a dream, honestly. 🥹
The build got me there
The Jinx look was a full build — the blue braids, the ripped top, the belts and bullets, and the oversized rocket launcher that started life as something much humbler (that’s its own story — see the props page for the Fishbones build alongside the Vi gauntlets my duo partner wore). Everything was made to move, because I knew from the start this wasn’t going to stand still in a hallway photo.
That’s a real fork in the road when you build: display costume or performance costume. A display costume can be delicate. A performance costume has to survive me — running, kneeling, swinging a prop bigger than my torso, a full day of con floor before the stage call even comes.
What “performance” actually means on that stage
Jinx isn’t a pose. She’s chaos with a walk cycle. So on that catwalk I committed to the unhinged grin, the head tilts, the sudden snaps from playful to menacing — the stuff that makes people who know Arcane point at the stage. The clip of that moment ended up hitting 153.8K views on TikTok, which is more people than I ever imagined watching me do anything.
The lesson I’d give anyone competing: the judges have seen a hundred accurate costumes. What they haven’t seen is your version of the character alive for ninety seconds. Practice the walk more than you practice the pose.
It didn’t stop there
That Jinx kept working. A year later I got invited to an official Arcane event — “Jinx’s Safehouse,” run with Riot Games PH — and walked out of its cosplay competition as champion. Same character, same philosophy: perform the character, don’t wear it.
If you want a character built to perform
This is the part of the craft I love most — building pieces that hold up under movement, lights and a crowd. If you’ve got a character you want brought to life for a con, a shoot or a stage, tell me about it. I’m open for commissions, and performance-ready is my default setting.