WCS Prelims at FanimeCon 2010

So for awhile I've been wanting the World Cosplay Summit Team USA Preliminaries to be held at FanimeCon. From my mind, it would be either be part of the Masquerade as done at the New York Anime Festival in New York City, NY when the WCS Team USA Prelims where at NYAF or be a separate event, probably squeezing it in on Saturday or Sunday before the FanimeCon Masquerade or MusicFest.

For a bit, it seemed that there would be no WCS Prelims at FanimeCon, until today.

Via a LiveJournal post, someone posted that they "*just* inked the deal for the World Cosplay Summit US preliminaries to be held at Fanime in San Jose!" Then the rumor mill started about how it would be done and where it be done. Eventually, Masquerade Coordinator Marisa via the Fanime Forums stated at the WCS Prelims will not overlap with the FanimeCon Masquerade - or not even on the same stage (as some people thought, including myself). Instead, the Prelims will take place in a panel room at the convention, where I'm guessing they'll do the judging in a streamlined manner than having a Masquerade skit.

First off, FINALLY!!! The WCS can have some West Coast representation since Anime Expo in 2005(?). And second, this should bring out the best in cosplayers, especially some well-known cosplayers, for a chance to show off their cosplays potentially to a worldwide audience in Japan in late July-early August when the WCS will take place in Nagoya. I wish those who are going to enter the best of luck, and I hope that everything works out for both the WCS and FanimeCon and that we can move on from the bad publicity that has plagued the WCS and Team USA for quite sometime now.