Image credit: DreamHack/Swipe Right
When was the last time you saw a cosplay that made you stop dead in your tracks? While I was at DreamHack Birmingham 2026 earlier this year, I saw a slew of them; the event was a celebration of gaming and esports, certainly, but it was also a divine showcase of artistic talent.
I sat down with creative Trine, who sat on the judges panel for DreamHack Birmingham’s Cosplay Championship event, to discuss the craft of creating characters, looking at everything from her own experience with cosplay to the event itself.
DreamHack was a celebration of cosplay excellence
Cosplay made up a big part of the DreamHack Birmingham 2026 experience, with a fiercely competitive championship running throughout the weekend, and a whole host of talented artists showcasing their work across the event floor.
Trine, known online by the handle @trine.k.n and as the owner of TrinesTreasury on Etsy, was one of the judges for the Cosplay Championship event – and with good reason. She’s a seasoned cosplay artist and prop maker, with a stunning portfolio of work, and I sat down with her to learn more about the craft that goes into prop work.
To start things off, I wondered if Trine had a wishlist of cosplays that she was hoping to see around DreamHack – we spoke the day before the Cosplay Championship, so some artists hadn’t revealed their work on the showfloor yet.
“Oh, there are many, but I love seeing armor, especially,” she mused, “…Elden Ring, Dark Souls, or Zelda, I would definitely love to see.”
I asked how the event had been so far for her and if she was excited to see people’s work with the Cosplay Championship. Judging seems like a fun experience as an observer, but I imagined it must be even more meaningful as someone who also creates cosplays.
“I’m also always really excited about the competitions, because, like, I compete myself, so I know what it’s like to be nervous and work so hard on a costume,” Trine explained, “…I know how personal it is for people to compete and show off their work.
“…Usually people invent new techniques or try new materials that I’ve never seen before, and that inspires me. So I’m always super excited about the competitions.”
She described the cosplay community as being generally very open and supportive, saying that she usually came away with bags of inspiration after judging an event, along with a whole heap of new Instagram pages to follow.
“I mean, there’s always some people who fear that if they share how they did a thing, then other people will steal it or whatever, but I would say generally, people are very nice about sharing their techniques and how they made things because that’s also part of the fun,” she added.
Taking cosplays from dreams to realities
Looking at the process of judging a cosplay competition, I wondered what Trine was looking for when analyzing costumes and props.
“I’m looking for, obviously, craftsmanship…that the cosplay is well made overall,” she mused. “But also the amount of techniques, because I feel like you can definitely sew a cosplay that is almost purely sewing, and it is incredible and really well done, and that definitely deserves recognition, but I want to see more.
“Like, I want to see what else can you do? If you’ve mastered this, that’s really great, but can you intrigue me a little bit more with something else? Or mixed mediums or whatever.”
It seems the quality of cosplay work is strong across the board with the various fandoms and communities that Trine has seen work from; when prompted, she said that no particular series or game came to mind as a definite answer, but that she wanted to say Elden Ring.
We then focused on her personal projects and cosplay portfolio; I asked if she had a favorite project that she’d worked on, before realizing that may be somewhat akin to asking a parent if they had a favorite child.
“Yeah, it’s like picking a favorite child, for sure,” She laughed, “I have a current favorite, I’d say, which is, I made a Seikret, which is a dinosaur, like, three meters long…That one is my favorite at the moment.
“But before that, it was probably my Hoslow armor, which is, like, big silver armor, with a really cool helmet, which I love the design of so much. Just because that was the costume where I was like, okay, I have proven to myself that, like, if I can make this, I can do anything.
“ …And I was so proud, and I won my very first international competition with it. So it’s very dear to my heart.”
The Seikret, if you’re unfamiliar, is from the Monster Hunter franchise. When I queried which one of her projects had taken the most time and effort, she highlighted the dinosaur again, pointing to the huge variety of techniques that were needed to bring the creature to life.
Looking at the most valuable tools and skills in her repertoire, Trine pointed out foam smithing as something she couldn’t work without.
“Every time I make a new cosplay, usually foam is involved, and just being able to nail those foam pieces makes everything so much easier. And it is also one of my favourite mediums to work with,” she explained.
As someone who’s barely dipped their toe into the world of cosplay, learning more about the craft was an absolute delight and stood out as a highlight of the event. The monumental effort that goes into making cosplays astounds me, whether that’s with make-up, sculpting, sewing, or something else entirely.
FAQs
DreamHack Birmingham 2026 ran from March 27 to March 29, 2026.
DreamHack Birmingham 2026 took place in the National Experience Centre, also known as the NEC, in Birmingham.
While DreamHack does feature a huge amount to do for video game lovers, there’s also plenty of esports, tech, and pop culture programming to get excited about.
The best video game events in the UK will be subjective, generally, but I’d recommend DreamHack, MCM Comic Con, and Debug Festival based on my own experiences covering these events for Kyusai.
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