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World Cosplay Summit Joined by Russia, U.K. in 2012

The World Cosplay Summit (WCS) executive committee announced on Sunday that representatives from Russia and the United Kingdom will participate in the annual international cosplay event for the first time next year.

The United Kingdon's two representative will be chosen at London's Hyper Japan 2012 event, which will take place February 24 - 26. Although the 2012 event will mark the United Kingdom's first entry into the World Cosplay Summit, various European countries have sent representatives in the past. Italy's Luca Buzzi and Giancarlo di Pierro won the 2010 competition, cosplaying as Link and Ganondorf from the Legend of Zelda video game franchise.

Participants in Russia will turn in documents and videos to select 20 finalists by mid-March 2012. Those cosplayers will then perform on stage at a Japanese culture event in Moscow on April 15 to determine the nation's two representatives.

Katsucon, which will be held in National Harbor, Maryland from February 17 - 19, 2012, will host the World Cosplay Summit United States Preliminaries. American cosplayers could submit entries beginning on November 2, and the latest information on the United States preliminary rounds can be found on their Facebook page.

The World Cosplay Summit was launched in 2003 with four participating countries. By 2011, it expanded to 17 participating countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, and the United States. This year's win marks Brazil's third; the country took the grand prize in 2008, and the same team that won in 2006 also won this year. The last three years' grand prize winners were Italy (2010), Japan (2009), and Brazil (2008).

Source: Anime Anime Japan