Cosplay, Cameras, and Questionable Champion Picks — A Night at Foax Place

Some parties are spontaneous. Others are the kind where the host spends a week hand-crafting personalized cocktails for every single guest, co-organises the whole event with a friend, and somehow still finds time to clean the apartment before twenty cosplayers show up and immediately destroy it. This was the second kind — and it was absolutely worth it. But let's be honest — the party started in the car. A full car. Criminally, suspiciously, impressively full. I'm not going to say we were packed in like cosplay-adjacent sardines, but I'm also not going to say we weren't. Someone had the aux cord. Someone else immediately had opinions about that. And somewhere between the first song and the third, any awkwardness between people who hadn't met yet completely evaporated, because it is genuinely impossible to maintain social distance from someone you've just done an off-key duet with at volume. The karaoke situation in that car was unhinged in the best possible way — a long ride that somehow felt too short, windows probably fogged up from sheer enthusiasm, and by the time we arrived everyone was already friends whether they'd planned to be or not. Foax Place was the venue, and if you haven't been, you're missing out. It's not just an apartment, it's a vibe — the kind of space that makes you want to put on a costume, grab a camera, and not leave until 3am. Foax and Rashamon put this whole thing together, and whatever they're doing as a hosting duo, they should keep doing it. The energy was immaculate from the moment people started walking through the door. A lot of people walked through that door, and I didn't know all of them — which, it turns out, is one of the best things that can happen at a party like this. There's something about a room full of cosplayers and photographers that makes meeting new people feel completely natural. Everyone has something to talk about immediately, whether it's a build they're working on, a shoot they're planning, or an absolutely unhinged opinion about colour grading. I came in knowing a handful of people and left with a considerably longer list of people I genuinely want to see again. That doesn't happen at every party. It happened here. The costumes were everything. Elaborate armour builds, fantasy characters, beautifully hand-sewn pieces that took months of work. The space transformed into an impromptu studio within about fifteen minutes of the first guests arriving, which is exactly what happens when you put photographers in a room with good light and people worth shooting. And speaking of cameras — yes, we need to talk about this. The room was split clearly into two camps: those of us shooting Sony, and the Nikon people. Look, I'm not here to start a war. I'm just saying that when you're trying to nail a tricky low-light shot in a busy apartment and someone nearby is struggling with their autofocus while making significantly more noise about it, it becomes very obvious very quickly which system is doing the heavy lifting. Foax and I exchanged exactly one glance across the room. No words needed. Sony shooters understand each other on a spiritual level. The drinks deserve their own paragraph, because Foax went genuinely above and beyond here. Every guest got a personalized cocktail — and not in a "here's a name tag on a glass" kind of way. Actually tailored, actually thought through, actually delicious. Mine was somehow exactly right in a way that felt slightly uncanny, like being handed a drink by someone who knows you better than you know yourself. It set the tone for the whole evening: someone put real care into this, and it showed in every detail. Then came the League 1v1 drinking game. Which — fine. Fine. I knew what I was doing and I did it anyway. Champion select came up, the room had eyes on the screen, and I hovered my main. Fiora. My beloved, my comfort pick, my signature — and in a 1v1 format where she has absolutely no business being chosen, I locked her in anyway. Across from me, Neuriko — calm, collected, slightly smug — picked Vex. Vex. The one champion in the entire game whose entire personality is "I hate mages and I'm going to make your life specifically terrible." Me with the counter. The direct, personal, targeted counter. I don't know if she planned it or if the universe just has a sense of humour, but every W missed, every dash punished. She drank. A lot. Shame, as they say, does not need to be elaborated upon. Next time it will be Fiora vs Ahri. The real epilogue to all of this — and I think it says everything about the kind of people at this event — is what happened the next morning. Well. 1pm. Which counts as morning when you went to bed at 4am. Rashamon and I ended up in his room, coffees in hand, completely unprompted, deep in a conversation about the latest AI news. Not recapping the party. Not sleeping. Discussing AI developments like two people who simply cannot turn their brains off even after a night like that. It was chaotic and nerdy and somehow the perfect way to close out the whole weekend. The kind of conversations that only happen when a group of creative people are exhausted and comfortable started filling the room. New faces that were strangers a few hours earlier were suddenly deep in conversation about upcoming projects, shared references, future collabs. This is the part nobody photographs and everybody remembers. The good stuff, underneath the cosplay and the camera talk. Big thanks to Foax and Rashamon for making it happen. To the car crew — that ride was already the highlight before we even arrived, and you all know it. To the Sony loyalists — you know who you are, and you made the right call. To the Nikon shooters — we'll be here when you're ready to make the switch. To everyone I met for the first time — I hope it won't be the last. And to Neurikko: well played. Genuinely. I hate it. Rematch pending. Can't wait for the next one.