Here at ESL, we love cosplay, and with gamescom having had its own dedicated cosplay village, our photographers were bound to capture some on film sooner or later.

While we may not have been able to recognize all of the characters (alas, our combined pop culture knowledge is not yet infallible), we were certainly able to appreciate all the time and effort that went into these costumes across the board - here are a few of our favorites.

Jigsaw

This guy certainly came to the right place to ask people if they want to play a game.

A mage who means business

You can’t argue with a staff that size.

The Grim Reaper

Because somebody’s going to snuff it from exhaustion sooner or later.

Mercenary Katarina

This faithful rendition of League of Legends champion Katarina’s mercenary skin is spot on.

Anime characters aplenty

Big hair and even bigger personalities.

Edit: Actually Ragnarok Online - thanks for the help in identifying these two, Fox!

Black mage

A vital addition to any party of adventurers.

Miqo'te

A great portrayal of one of the members of Final Fantasy’s iconic cat race.

Battle Bunny Riven

Never was a carrot more deadly.

The ladies of Borderlands 2

As seen in this article's header image, these awesome Borderlands 2 cosplays couldn’t be more perfect.

Alices and LeBlanc

An unlikely trio (although they do have roses in common), this three’s costumes are from Alice: Madness Returns and League of Legends respectively.

You can check out our full gamescom cosplay album on Facebook, and our other cosplay content here. You can also find more photos of the event on our Flickr account.

Please get in touch if your cosplay is featured in this article or our Facebook album and you would like us to link to your fan page!