Ero Cosplay Awards Creator of the Year
A juried portfolio of three to five eligible works from 2026.
This is the last juried award of the night on the working run of show. It looks at the portfolio together.
First Annual Ero Cosplay Awards · Las Vegas · April 22, 2027
Countdown to April 22, 2027, Pacific time.
. Pacific time. The count ends at midnight as the day begins.
An independently produced awards gala recognizing sensual and adult cosplay creators.
Las Vegas. The venue will be announced when it is under contract.
Jurors and a public contact address are still to be announced.
Entrants must be 21 or older on April 22, 2027.
If a personal invite is coming to you, this page is the briefing before you decide. The first edition looks at work from 2026. Entering is free. You can be judged without traveling. Attendance has no effect on eligibility or on the score.
Ero Cosplay Awards is a working title, pending trademark clearance.
Founding Class
Founding Participant
A limited badge for creators who join the first annual class. The number of badges, the artwork, and how a creator receives one will be announced. It is not a cash prize, and nobody has been awarded it yet.
Illustrations on this site are AI-generated placeholders until participating creators join. They show original characters, not real people.
The wall is the founding class. Real cosplayers replace these frames as they join. The open frames are unassigned.
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Red-carpet awards night
A seated ceremony on April 22, 2027 in Las Vegas. The carpet, the trophy, and the winner pages are the night. The room is not booked yet.
Finalists who want the carpet get a scheduled walk and house photography. You can also take a quieter option: group carpet only, ceremony without the carpet, a remote acceptance, or no appearance at all. Attendance does not change the score.
Winners leave with a trophy and a public winner page under their stage name. Edited portraits and a short winner clip follow the ceremony.
What the night is set up to give a winner
- A trophy
- A winner page that stays up, under your stage name
- Edited portraits after the ceremony
- A short winner clip
- A carpet walk only if you choose one
Sponsors are not named, because none are signed. The venue is not named, because the contract is not signed. Jurors and a public contact address are still to be announced.
What a finalist actually receives
The first year is meant to leave you with a record, portraits, and a ceremony that keeps your legal name and your copyright in your hands.
Every finalist receives a credential for themselves and one guest, an assigned seat, a credential-controlled green room, a portrait package, and eligibility for the winner pages.
If you attend and appear on the carpet or in ceremony media, the package adds a stipend of $250 to $350.
Six need-based travel grants, up to $600 each, are reserved for finalists.
The professional assets promised with the ceremony are:
- A scheduled private check-in and a named creator liaison
- Secure, camera-free changing rooms
- Consistent portrait lighting and color treatment
- Fact-checked nominee title cards
- Your pronunciation written into the presenter script
- Five edited portraits within five business days
- A vertical winner clip within ten business days
- Permanent finalist and winner verification pages
- Downloadable 2027 Finalist and 2027 Winner marks, with usage rules
Marketing, sponsor content, meet-and-greets, and merchandise are separate from the award. Each one needs its own agreement and its own fee. You can be a finalist and decline all of them.
The awards do not rank bodies, attractiveness, follower counts, earnings, or subscription sales.
Seven recognitions
Five awards are juried. Audience Choice is the only public vote. The Founding Icon Honor is not a competition. The plan is four finalists in each competitive category.
A competitive category needs four eligible entries that are unrelated to each other. If it falls short, the standards committee may combine it with another category or withhold it, under a rule that will be published. Committee members will be announced. They cannot enter competitive awards while they serve.
AI-generated imagery is ineligible in the inaugural edition.
Costume and Character Design Award
Juried on construction, styling, makeup, wig work, fit, technical contribution, and sensual character reinterpretation.
A purchased costume can be entered when the maker is credited. Design scoring covers the entrant’s documented contribution. Process images are part of the planned submission package for this award.
Cosplay Editorial Award
A juried still-photo series.
The entry needs complete credits for the creator, photographer, costume maker, stylist, retoucher, and set team.
Cosplay Motion Award
Juried. A short video, a narrative film, a performance reel, or a motion editorial.
The planned submission package allows one video under three minutes. Public and judge-facing video cannot show sexual acts, and nominee reels cannot contain nudity or explicit sexual conduct.
Breakthrough Creator Award
Juried. For a creator whose first public sensual or adult cosplay work appeared in 2025 or 2026.
The window is January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2026. Other categories still require the entered work itself to have first appeared in 2026.
Audience Choice
The only category decided by a public vote. One verified ballot per person. Running totals stay hidden.
Campaigning is allowed when ordinary affiliate and sponsor disclosures are made. Paid votes, vote raffles, vote exchanges, automated voting, and purchased accounts are not allowed. The controls are written out on the rules page. Total valid ballots and total invalidated ballots are published after the event.
Founding Icon Honor
A noncompetitive recognition for sustained contribution. The standards committee chooses the honoree and publishes its reason.
There is no entry form for this honor. The committee and the honoree will be announced.
How an entry is scored
Five jurors are paid for the work, and one alternate stands by. The seats are three sensual or adult cosplay creators, one costume construction and styling specialist, and one photography or video director.
Names, biographies, category assignments, the compensation policy, and conflict disclosures will be published before nominations close.
Each entry receives at least four independent scores. The packet a juror sees does not include your legal name, your income, your follower totals, ticket sales, sponsor purchases, or Audience Choice totals.
Category-specific definitions of execution will be published with the nomination rules. This page will add them when they are ready.
A juror or committee member steps aside from an entry or a category when there is a current or recent romantic, family, management, employment, investment, dispute, or paid-collaboration relationship. If that leaves fewer than four independent scores, the alternate scores the entry.
A Nevada accountant, attorney, or independent awards administrator checks that every required score is present, that recusals were honored, that ties were handled, and that the final results stayed in custody.
Sponsors have no say in nominations, eligibility, the jury, scores, the vote, appeals, or custody of the results. A ticket or a table does not help an entry. Sponsor staff do not learn the winners before the public does.
A separate three-person ethics panel hears procedural appeals. You can appeal the process. Artistic scores cannot be appealed. The grounds for removal, and the five business days to respond, are on the rules page.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Concept and character interpretation | 30% |
| Execution | 25% |
| Visual coherence | 20% |
| Entrant contribution and authorship | 15% |
| Documentation and contributor credit | 10% |
Your name, your images, and how you appear
Public materials use your stage name: the website, the ballot, the trophy, credentials, seating cards, the press release, graphics, and the permanent winner pages.
Legal identity, identification records, addresses, tax documents, and private safety notes are stored apart from the public profile and apart from anything a juror sees. This interest form does not ask for your legal name.
When nominations open, age will be checked. Where a third-party verification service is practical, the production keeps the result and not the document underneath it.
Press are not to ask about legal identity, home location, private earnings, medical history, surgery, family, or private sex life, unless you have agreed to that topic.
You keep your images. So does anyone else who shares the copyright, such as the photographer. The license the awards ask for is narrow. Unpaid promotion of the awards may use a submitted image through May 31, 2027. One approved winner image may stay on the permanent archive. Paid sponsor advertising, merchandise, sublicensing, and any paid placement need a new written approval and payment to the copyright owner and to the creator who is shown.
Before the event, you pick one media level:
- Full press line
- House photographer only
- Group carpet only
- Ceremony appearance without carpet
- Remote acceptance
- Complete absence
Between now and the night of April 22
The ceremony date is Thursday, April 22, 2027. Other dates below are either fixed eligibility rules or the working production calendar. Where a date is not set, the line says it will be announced.
Now
Invites and this page
Creators are being invited personally. The form on this page records interest. It is not a nomination and it does not put you on a ballot.
Work from 2026
What the first edition can consider
Eligible work must have first appeared between January 1 and December 31, 2026. Breakthrough Creator also looks at whether your first public sensual or adult cosplay work appeared between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2026.
To be announced
Nominations open and close
The day nominations open, and the day they close, will be announced here. Juror names will be published before nominations close.
To be announced
Venue, jurors, and the standards committee
The gala is in Las Vegas. The room is not contracted, so the venue will be announced after the agreement is signed. Juror names and standards committee members will be announced. The committee approves categories, rubrics, eligibility, the Founding Icon honoree, and later rule changes.
February 18, 2027
Finalists, on the working calendar
The production calendar plans to name all finalists together on February 18, 2027, with four finalists in each competitive category. That date will be confirmed on this page when it is locked.
Through March 7, 2027
Audience Choice, on the working calendar
The verified public vote is planned to run through March 7, 2027. Running totals stay hidden. Valid and invalidated ballot totals are published after the event.
Thursday, April 22, 2027
The gala
The working run of show has general doors at 7:30 p.m., the ceremony at 8:30 p.m., and the room clear around midnight. Those clock times follow a venue agreement that is not signed yet, so treat them as planned. The first edition will not be livestreamed. Finalists who may be absent can pre-record a short acceptance.
April 23, 2027
Winner gallery, on the working calendar
A winner gallery is planned by noon on April 23, 2027. Five edited portraits follow within five business days. A vertical winner clip follows within ten business days.
Leave your interest
If you have a personal invite, or you are waiting on one, send the stage name you publish under, links to work the public can already see, and an email. If the invite included a code, add it so the note can be matched. Nominations are not open on this form.
The interest form is loading.
Questions before you decide
Is it free to enter?
Yes. Self-nomination is free. Nominating someone else is free. A third-party nomination does nothing until that creator opts in and completes a submission.
Travel to Las Vegas is optional. It is not part of entering, and it does not change your score.
Do I have to attend?
No. Attendance has no effect on eligibility or judging. The media levels include remote acceptance and complete absence. Finalists who may be absent can pre-record a short acceptance.
If you do attend and you appear on the carpet or in ceremony media, the finalist package adds a stipend of $250 to $350.
Who owns my images?
You do, along with anyone else who holds copyright in the photograph or the video, such as the photographer.
The license requested for a submission is narrow. The awards may use an image in ordinary unpaid promotion through May 31, 2027. One approved winner image may remain on the permanent archive. Paid sponsor advertising, merchandise, sublicensing, and paid media need a separate written approval and separate payment to the copyright owner and the depicted creator.
Who sees my real name?
The public site, the ballot, the trophy, credentials, seating cards, the press release, graphics, and winner pages use your stage name. Jurors do not receive your legal name.
Legal identity is stored separately and is used to confirm that you are 21 by April 22, 2027. This interest form does not collect a legal name. Press are not to ask for it unless you have agreed to that topic.
Is this connected to LVL UP EXPO?
LVL UP EXPO takes place April 23–25, 2027 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Ero Cosplay Awards is produced independently. A LVL UP EXPO badge is neither required nor included with an awards ticket.
Can I nominate someone else?
Yes. Third-party nominations are free. The nomination stays inactive until that creator opts in and completes the submission.
Use their stage name and links to public work. They supply legal identity themselves, after they opt in. This interest form is not the nomination.