DC World Record Philippines: The Good and the Bad

Fans around the world celebrates the successful conduct of the DC World Record Event as heroes from the world of DC Comics set a Guiness World Record in 24 hours. The event is done in a 24-hour time period across the globe in an attempt to stage the biggest gathering of DC heroes ever.

DC Superheroes waving the Philippine flag during the DC Superheroes World Record event at SM City North EDSA, The Block last April 18, 2015.

This epic and momentous event had indeed been successful and in doing it there had been both good things and bad things. While writing this blog article I had been thinking what angle to take and how to express my observation regarding a first ever event for Detective Comics (DC).

I would like to commend all the cosplayers that paticipated and registered for the DC World Record Event Philippines. They have invested time, effort and money just to be part of the event. The kids who were there were really admirable, I know most of them was not even paid to participate and they event spend money for it.

It was the greates sight I have seen as a DC fan specifically of the Justice League, Superman and Batman. Seeing that many people clad in your favorite superhero was simply amazing. I also learned that Watchmen, one of my favorite graphic novel was part of DC.

The cosplay competition was amazing as well. Cosplay contestants have really prepared for the finals and they have such amazing performances. Kids were also there to compete and I will always remember the young boy who rides a bat mobile and that amazing Superman kid whose abs really fit him. All the winners were indeed deserving, Ashley Misaki, the grand champion was amazing when she emerge as Batgirl riding the signature motorcycle of the hero and then her amazing characterization was really superb.

Now, why did I inclued the bad in the title? Well it has something to do with my personal experience and some things that I found out during and after the event.

My experience with the DC World Record event will be one of my most memorable experiences both because I had been part of the success of the event and also because it had challenges my beliefs and my tenacity as a person. I first seen the DC World Record Event online and I had been invited to its launching at the City of Dreams although I was not able to attend that time.

Girl power of DC Superhero universe

My first participation to the DC World Record Event was when I was invited by a blogger friend to judge the DC Heroes Cosplay Competition at SM Southmall on April 4 which I gladly obliged. It was a fun event and of course I had been very keen with the rules and mechanics. After the scores were tallied I saw the overall score sheets with markings on top. I though that there was a tie since 5 numbers were specifically marked. When I checked it out there were contestants with higher scores which was not included in the list. This prompted me to ask my co-judges what was going on. Then they told me that Pacific Licensing specifically picked those contestants for us to choose who is our pick based on their scores.

I tried to reason out with the judges that we have to give the awards to whoever the score says it should go. However, a judge told me that Pacific Licensing said that they want new entries to win since some of those with higher scores already joined previous legs. When I check the rules of the competition there previous contestants were allowed to join and there was no disqualification rule. Later on another judge told me that we cannot do anything because it was the client's request... and so I rested my case.

I got to judge 3 other competition at SM City Masinag, SM City Sta. Mesa and at SM City Fairview. The characters provided by the organizers in all those legs says that, "all qualified characters are the ones contained in the photos presented," howver there was another clause which says that any DC hero present in accepted media such as television, comics and movis is acceptable. A confusing rule that left the judgment to whoever will be the judge of the competition.

Epic DC Superheroes at SM City Sta. Mesa

I was even more excited when I was asked to help the organizers by providing 12 people who will act as brand ambassadors. They told me that their role is to register and check if the participant who will register for the world record satisfies the costume requirement. However, this excitedment turned into frustration after we had been told that we were replaced right at the date of the event. My group and I never saw that coming and we were left to wait instructions from the organizers. All the day during the actual DC World Record event the organizers eluded us, left us starving and left us on our own. They did pay us still on the end, well because I insisted that these people had committed already and they cannot just cancel their commitment to us.

Two of our members, Emerson and Ferrari had been asked to act as marshalls for the event and later on they even fill the duties of other marshalls who seem not even prepare nor trained to handle events. The task that was given to them was more than what they have signed up for.

Later on, Ie also found out that:

We were actually replaced and there were new people assigned to do the checking and registration at the 2nd floor.
Some cosplayers have been paid to attend the event and even participate in the competition.
There was a higher budget than what was told to us.

Besides the bad experiences that we have, I also found out that winners were not given their prizes. I kept on hearing during all the legs which I had been a judge that prizes will be given on April 18, unfortunately they were asked to wait by Monday then by Wednesday then the latest I read is by Friday, April 24.

Batman, Hawkgirl and Cyborg wins the SM Fairview leg

Knightwing, Samurai Batman and Superman wins the SM City Masinag leg

How can a professional company like Pacific Licensing and Creatif Events not be professional enough to honor committments? Will things like this be just ignored because Pacific Licensing holds a very important role in the DC Universe? I do not thing that it was Pacific Licensing's fault as a whole because I believe it is that "she" which made these mistakes because of her indecisiveness and unprofessionalism.

The events organizer that should have run the event should had been someone that is trained well in things like this. They should value their commitments as well and bear in mind that we are doing this event together with the world.

Update: Just two days after this article we were reached by Pacific Licensing and clarified some issues with us. Read DC WORLD RECORD EVENT PHILIPPINES: THE GOOD AND THE BAD PART 2 for the update on what really happened.

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