Hello everyone! Yes, you understood correctly: the second day was cosplay day! Of course, not exclusively, but mostly—yes. And unfortunately, it was also the day of the game route: in my view, an absolutely disgraceful undertaking, dreamt up by who knows whom… It’s all the sadder because I remember the days when there was no such thing, and people played games for pleasure, not for a stamp and the faint hope of winning a prize. Sorry, I got sidetracked. Let’s begin!

I miscalculated the travel time a little and arrived very early; even the booth owners were only just starting to show up, so I had to wait. (I took up a position at the recording booth and ended up voicing a couple of evil characters.)

Naturally, a little later the venue began to look different.

People gradually arrived and started doing whatever interested them most. Some bought keyboards they liked (personally, I wasn’t particularly inspired by the prospect of drumming on keys bearing portraits of their favorite heroes), while others got down to board games. (Attend an event held once a year just for the chance to play a board game? Still, where else can you meet like-minded people and even put together a new team?)

Not happy with the shape and size of your own ears? Go ahead—buy new ones, in any style you like!

Tired of driving ordinary cars? No problem—race washing machines instead!

A respectable queue had formed at the flight simulator; before my eyes, a girl carried out the first ramming of an enemy aircraft that day.

You could try playing something fun—on the drums. (To be precise, using drumsticks—the force and rhythm of the strikes—the drummer controlled Mario!)

Find out the release date of an eagerly awaited game. (I mentioned it in my article about the “CRI”; it’s due for release in February of next year.)

Many people took on the game route: until late in the evening, gamers dashed back and forth, looking for places where they hadn’t yet queued, played a game, or received another stamp. I also took a “route sheet”—not for myself, but for my daughter.

Of course, the “game route” didn’t appeal to everyone; many people simply played.

Want to clean and treat a crocodile’s teeth? (If there’s a game like that, there’ll be someone willing to play it.)

When the hosts appeared on stage, it became clear that something interesting was about to begin.

The Jedi and antagonists were the warm-up act.

 

Got you!

According to the rules, the red sword should belong to the “evil” character. But which one of them is evil?!

Then it was the cosplayers’ turn. Unfortunately, many amateur photographers ran into two problems… First, cosplayers quite often accompanied their performances with a screen backdrop, which did little to improve the sharpness of the photos. (Even so, the stage was an order of magnitude better than at last year’s “IgroMir”!) Second, previously their professional colleagues would simply stand beside the stage, but now they constantly darted back and forth, waving their equipment around as though there were no one else there. Here, “admire this”! (All they had to do was install a camera crane—and everyone could calmly get on with their work.)

Still, by catching moments when no one was getting in the way of the shot, I did manage to photograph a few things.

The elf girls are attacking!

Winged girls:

That’s Guts himself! Though he’s wearing armor… Then again, it’s unlikely we’ll ever get to see Berserk without his armor…

Boy, please hack this… unpleasant person… with your sword! So he won’t appear on stage or anywhere near it again!

The hosts are tired, so it’s time for us to go home too. See you tomorrow!