Strathmore cosplayer debuts on international stage
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Strathmore’s Autumn Desjardins recently returned to Canada after making her international debut in Almelo, Netherlands, at the Clara Cow’s Cosplay Cup (C4) at the end of September.
Desjardins took to the stage with her partner, Conor Anderson, having received invitations to participate after qualifying for the competition at Calgary’s Otafest back in 2019.
“In order to qualify, we had to compete in the qualifier at Otafest in May 2019. We competed against everybody in Canada and we won that competition,” said Desjardins. “The finals were supposed to be held in Rotterdam, but with the pandemic it got delayed and delayed and delayed again. Finally, three years later, we got to the finals.”
C4, hosted as part of this year’s AnimeCon, invited teams of two cosplayers from 17 countries across the globe to participate.
The event is officially described as being relaxed, with having the intention of allowing cosplayers from all over the world to be allowed time to make friends, bond and interact, while also offering prizes and prestige to the winning team.
“We did not place, but really, going is the reward in itself and it’s mostly about the people who you meet and the contacts that you create,” said Desjardins. “When it comes to that, we definitely won. We got to talk to so many people from all these different places – Switzerland, Portugal, Belgium, Romania.”
Though most of the participating countries sent representatives from across Europe, teams from the United States and Malaysia also made appearances.
Desjardins described the experience as “intimidating, but fun,” being her first opportunity to represent Canada on an international stage and is certainly something she would like to do again if presented the opportunity.
“My organizer had to keep reminding us, we were competing with the top cosplayers in Europe, so many of the people that we competed against have represented their countries on numerous occasions and this was our first time,” said Desjardins. “When you’re competing, whether it’s locally or internationally, it’s like everyone is a big family in a way … everyone was so nice and supportive to each other. Even though you’re on an international stage, everyone is just nerds in costume. The moment you start geeking out, everyone geeks out.”
One of Desjardins’ biggest take-aways from the competition is to have been discussing techniques and ways to improve her craft with fellow competitors.
“There’s always something new to learn. You’re talking to all these people with different cultural and individual backgrounds and we all approach techniques so differently, and so we all learn a lot,” said Desjardins, who plans on continuing to travel around Canada competing as opportunities arise, seeking to eventually once again take to the international stage.