“Igroprom-2026”: a brief photo recap of the third day.

Good morning! As it happens, cosplay is once again the main theme of today’s photo report: naturally, since this was the finale of the performances and the awards ceremony! No, there will be room for games too—how could there not be?

I confess: my first move was to hurry to the recording studio, hoping to voice one more character. 

Alas, I was tactfully told that it would be a good idea to give others a chance: there were many volunteers. (And there were plenty of them right up until closing! You might wonder what could possibly be so interesting about saying a few lines from one of the characters into a microphone under the attentive guidance of sound engineers. But… it is engrossing—very much so!).

I managed to have a brief conversation with Vladimir Dorda, the founder of the VoiceBand studio. The studio mainly works on dubbing games, cartoons, and videos: working with books is too labor-intensive, and few people can read text clearly and expressively for more than an hour. According to him, it is quite difficult to find enthusiasts with good voices and proper diction who can convey a character’s personality.

Meanwhile, it was my daughter’s turn to fly, but she had to give up her slot—and to whom, of all people? A pilot from the Strizhi aerobatic team had arrived! (He asked not to have his face photographed without the VR helmet.) All novice pilots were immediately put into flight mode, without taking off from the airfield, but he was allowed to take off. And within the first few seconds, the fighter crashed into the ground! According to the professional, the response between moving the control stick and the aircraft reacting was too sharp. In short, they began changing the settings and suggested waiting half an hour.

And that was when I made a mistake: I went with my daughter to help her complete the game route.

When I returned, I discovered that the aircraft seat was occupied by another pilot, while the staff were enthusiastically discussing the flight of an ace who had demonstrated a cascade of advanced aerobatic figures, flown under a bridge, and spoken very highly of the simulator’s quality…

Pilots aren’t supposed to fly wearing glasses! At least, not ordinary ones.

The job board had filled up considerably: perhaps some people had managed to find work, while others had expanded their teams.

It was time for the cosplayers to come out, the judges took their seats, and the show began.

 

It is relatively easy to cosplay widely known characters: there is hope that the judges and spectators will like the costume, which means one can count on a prize-winning place. It is much harder to portray a hero whom you love yourself but whom hardly anyone else is likely to know. In that case, the cosplayer has practically no hope of winning; knowing this, they perform simply because their heart tells them to—because they cannot do otherwise. That is exactly what Agito Nakamura did when she appeared as the Soulcatcher.

“The rider was short, womanishly thin, and tightly wrapped in worn black leather. A black hood completely hid his face, while black gloves concealed his hands. The sight of the rider sent an icy shiver through me, and some primitive feeling hidden inside urged me to run for my life. The messenger, that horror called the Soulcatcher in ancient legends, a devil more terrible than a dozen forvalaka, burst into mad laughter.” Glen Cook, The Black Company

From my point of view, “Gandalf” attracted attention not so much because of his appearance as because of his skill at controlling the “dragon.”

It was a shame that the cosplayers portraying the main characters from Berserk did not come out on stage as a trio…

But many others came out in groups of three.

Anyone who has played “Divinity: Original Sin II” will recognize her instantly: it’s Lohse!

Those who watched Arcane will not be asking, “Who is that?!” either.

It would have been strange if “Warhammer 40,000” had not made an appearance.

 

The judges went off to deliberate, while we headed to “Patchwork World”: a T-shirt was being raffled among those who managed to defeat the boss. I somehow created a spell that slowed enemies down and made them forget their magic, and I also “crashed” the game (which greatly surprised its creator). Then my daughter sat down at the laptop and made the game need a restart as well.

Then she managed to surprise the game designer once again by casting a spell that exceeded the amount of mana available. (That does not mean it cannot be used: the runes activate sequentially, so the spell will be implemented only partially. But if you stand next to the monolith that replenishes the mana reserve, then…)

Unfortunately, we did not get the T-shirt: the wretched random number generator chose another number. Nor did anything useful come out of the game route. On the other hand, we played “Sadko”!

You had to run around the map, fighting hordes of enemies and collecting resources. Leveling up the hero allowed you to choose “perks” to speed up construction of a monument that destroys enemies. Alas, the experience points we earned were not enough to overtake the winner. In any case, we had to hurry: the cosplay awards ceremony had begun.

There were many categories; details about them and the winners can be found on Igroprom’s VK page. Here are some of the winners:

 

To be honest, I was surprised by the Grand Prix winner. I simply had not played that game and did not really understand what was happening on stage; my daughter, however, was delighted by this pair’s performance.

 

I was also surprised by the placing of another pair; I will tell you more about them later, in a separate article.

And with that, the fourth “Igroprom” came to an end… Well then, we will wait until next autumn. In the meantime—see you at “IgroMir 2026”! Good luck to you all!