BlizzCon's cosplay triumph took two years to make, but no one saw it

This blows the curve for cosplayers ever hoping to impress at BlizzCon. Cosplay Py took home first place in the event's celebrated costume contest as Grand Empress Shek'zeer from World of Warcraft. However, her triumph ended just as it was beginning.

First, about this costume. It took two years to build all of the parts, some of which even lit up. Shek'zeer is an NPC mantid in the Mists of Pandaria expansion, and the final boss of its Heart of Fear raid. You're not pulling off her look with a wig and some face paint. Pictures on Cosplay Py's Facebook page show her and her husband hard at work — frequently with power tools — getting this just right. BlizzCon 2014 was to be Shek'zeer's debut, Py wrote.

"Please keep in mind that shek is a really physically demanding costume," she wrote to fans yesterday. "I may have to stop posing to rest my feet and back."

However, according to Geeky Red Cosplay and several of Cosplay Py's fans on Facebook, she did not get to the stage to present her work to the crowd and collect the honors. Cosplay Py fell and seriously hurt her ankle backstage, Geeky Red Cosplay wrote, and after all of that work, you can imagine there'd be some tears, and not just hers.

"She hurt her ankle badly, and had to be carried away," Geeky Red Cosplay reports. "I'm super happy that she won. I'm incredibly sad that no one saw this glorious piece of art. Please, please, please, from the bottom of my heart, share this photo. Spread the word. I want people to see this beautiful piece was that truly deserving of first place."

BlizzCon's official site lists her as the winner, but no picture, so here she is. Everyone, a round of applause for Cosplay Py. We hope she's feeling better, and while this isn't how anyone would want it to end, hope she remembers this getup totally threw down at BlizzCon 2014.