The fact that she picked a Trinity Blood cosplay of all things is the most baffling because genuinely there aren't that many cosplays of the series let alone ones of such a high craftsmanship quality. People in a small fandom are gonna make the connection faster than a larger fandom would so you think she'd want to fly under the radar if wanting to cheat so blatantly!

Cheating in multiple cosplay contests with a bought cosplay is absolutely wild 😨

I feel bad for Lina, she talks on her page how not a day passes by that she wouldn't regret selling this costume, that she only sold (for about half what it cost to produce) because of the desperation and uncertainty about the political events in russia. And her hard work was used to lie and cheat, like rubbing the salt into the wound

No actually we NEED to name and shame art thieves. Especially grown adults who knew what they were doing. 10 years in the business and you claim she just misunderstood? Nah.

Only 3 months to complete? I bet it took closer to a year to complete by the original creator.

You know what makes me mad about this whole situation.....the fact that she glued rhinestones onto the chest and arm plates. Like that right there......that was a sin against the world.

The fact that cheater thought she could get away with it is genuinely embarrassing 😭😭

Saw your video on tiktok and then realized someone had STOLEN your video and posted it there! So I found you, subbed, liked, and now commented and will share.

This scandal is wild but also I just have to respect the original costume designer for making that. You aren't kidding about the "what the fuck is he even wearing" step, as a regular artist having to figure that out on that design makes me sick already. Shame that intense amount of work got used in a malicious manner

I'm the Black Panther, one of the judges in the Anime NYC Cosplay Masquerade. I can assure you, she did not mention that she bought this cosplay and altered it. One thing we found suspicious was when she took off her hat, and it was stuffed with newspaper. We actually saw the backplate and nearly chose someone else because of the unfinished back. The one thing I have a problem with, is the fact that I brought this up to AnimeNYC before it went viral and proposed that we chose a new winner, but they never got back to me despite my efforts.

As someone who buys their cosplays from artisans and tailors, why would you ever enter a contest? Even if I made the prop or styled the wig, whatever...most of the stuff, I bought. I used money (which is fine!) not skill. That's okay, but cosplay contests aren't about who has the most money so you can cheat. This is so wild to me.

I’ve never heard of contests allowing a model to wear the costume but it’s such a nice idea for creators who may be shy or get stage fright!

Very Ex-“Friend” of hers here. I’m so glad this video was made. She’s even worse than this, if you can believe that. There’s so much behind the scenes.

what makes it funnier to me is that i think the rhinestones are UGLY

The fit was a dead giveaway for me, if YOU made a cosplay, why not make it to fit yourself? I’m a much larger person and when I make my cosplays I measure my patterns to myself and test fit EVERYTHING..

16:09 as someone who draws a lot of fanart its like having a stroke to figure out what their wearing when it super complicated like that lol

When you said 'the people don't understand' I truly felt that. Last year I was talking with a cosplayer who was in front of me in the catwalk line and I told them that I was preparing for an upcoming coscompo. They said 'I would love to compete one day but then I would have to commission someone to make it for me but that feels a bit unfair'. They were dead serious and I just replied with 'umm yeah that's not allowed'.

Edit: just want to clarify that I’m from the Netherlands Aka a small country. We do not have a lot of coscompos and these are also not split into master or novice. There aren’t a lot of prices or con opportunities to compete. Maybe it’s different in other countries but here they do not allow you to model someone elses work

I’m 54 years old and do not mean any disrespect, but I had no idea about Cosplay and assumed people just ordered costumes made in China.  
I happened across your video, and I was mesmerized.  I really appreciate the way you did not assume your audience were cosplay experts and thoroughly enjoyed your video and learned a lot.   A lot of great artists out there.  

Thank you!

She knew full well what she was doing. She has done this multiple times with at least two cosplays. She probably has done it even more that no one ever noticed. She blocked the original creator. That alone screams she did this all on purpose. She should be blacklisted from any major cosplay competitions going forward.

21:07 I WAS HOPING YOU WOULD SAY THIS! I could tell it looked a little small on her. Such as the front armor piece not covering her full chest, or it just generally looking tight in general. If you made your own cosplay, heck even a basic pair of pants or a t-shirt, and it was made by you, for you, it should FIT YOU.