The World Cyber Games Cosplay Champ

There is actually a person inside this costume of
the cartoon version of the "Transformers"

There is a craze that has been happening the past few years and is gaining popularity mostly because of the influx of movies with fictional characters. Let’s just say that if you were a kid and you dreamt of being Superman or Batman, then you would come out corny coz these guys I am talking about can create costumes of Scar Predator, Iron Monger and even Optimus Prime. Then after creating these costumes they gather together, party and sometimes create a competition to see who the best is among each other. This is what stimulates the world of COSPLAY.

Optimus Prime sizes up with Sustagen Prime

While attending the 1984 Los Angeles Science Fiction World Congress, Japanese Nov Takahashi was so impressed by the hall and masquerade costuming that he reported about it frequently in Japanese science fiction magazines. Takahashi coined the word “COSPLAY” from the two words Costume Play. The word fits in with a common Japanese method of abbreviation: combining the first two moras of each word. "Cos" becomes kosu and play become pure hence becoming the nearest Japanese approximation of cosplay, which is kosupure.

Mark's movie version of Optimus Prime

When cosplay came to the Philippines a lot of enthusiasts created different costumes and practiced well to perfect their craft. One of the standouts from that group is Mark David Cerezo who happens to be a student of STI College Ortigas – Cainta. I met Mark last when we asked him and his friends to join the STI Anniversary celebration in Aliw Theater. His creativeness inspired him to create the ultimate robot – Optimus Prime. After the Transformers movie came out last year his group came out with various costumes with Mark coming out with the best design. Because of his ingenuity Mark was tapped by the city of Marikina to help them out last Christmas since the city’s theme was “The Transformers of Marikina City” referring to the local city government as the people who transformed the City of Marikina to what it is now.

The Champion

Just recently Mark added another feather on his cap as he joined the World Cyber Games at the Mall of Asia. The World Cyber Games is the World’s first Cyber Game Festival designed to build a healthy cyber culture. The Best gamers around the world gather into different cities to share the excitement and fun of the game tournaments. One of the competitions included costume play. Mark created the movie version of Optimus Prime which was very rich in detail and taller at 7 feet and 5 inches. Mark won the grand prize and is now in the hall of fame of the World Cyber Games. (http://ph.worldcybergames.com/hof.htm ) I hope that this will propel him to greater heights and if things go as planned he will be able to go out of the country to compete and hopefully make the country proud.

MARK CEREZO - World Cyber Games COSPLAY Champion