Cosplay| Punk Sombra

IMG_1292IMG_1172IMG_1182IMG_1214 I'm a huge Overwatch fan. I love the game, the lore, the characters, and all the goofy memes that have been spawned. I've never been into online competitive shooters but I got hooked on Overwatch. Rony, his best friend Marshal, and I play together often and getting placed Silver in competitive was huge for me because honestly I thought I sucked.

One of the reasons I love Overwatch so much is because there is soooo much diversity in the characters and the roles they play. Almost everyone is represented and there's someone everyone can relate to. All nationalities, ages, and personalities are there. When I first started playing, I instantly mained Pharah and D.Va. I loved their style and attitude and how both can be aggressively offensive but can also be good backup.

IMG_1226IMG_1249IMG_1309IMG_1230

Ana, Pharah's mother, was the next new character and she was amazing. An older woman who was a sniper. Rony loved her so much he made one of our Halloween pumpkins into her.

And then the Sombra ARG started. Fun fact: I love ARGs. I actually did Halo 2's Ilovebees and it's still one of my favorite stories. ARGs, in case you don't know, are Alternate Reality Games. They get you involved in real life with the story. In the case of Overwatch, puzzles and codes were implanted in trailers and stills and on the website.

I followed along but don't know code to save my life. I watched all the Youtube videos on the progress and read forum posts. One of my favorite emotes for Sombra now is the "Amused" emote because it's her laughing at the Skycode, a code that everyone tried to solve only for them to have to tell us it didn't mean anything. It was her laughing at us.

Blizzcon came around and in the middle of a video, Sombra hacked it and we got her cinematic and she was announced. I loved her instantly. She was sassy and clever and had her own agenda and was willing to do whatever.

Most importantly to me, she LOOKED like me.

IMG_1282IMG_1261IMG_1235IMG_1306

Sombra is a Mexican cyber-punk hacker with a side shave, purple hair, and a love for puzzles. She's a difficult character to play because although she is in the offense category, she's best played as support. Her powers include hacking other characters and health packs, going invisible, and being able to transport from one area to another.

You have to play her by constantly moving and sneaking. Hack a health pack, go invisible, find the weakest target and shoot while you can, and zip back before your transport timer runs out. Rinse, repeat.

She's very difficult, but I love playing as her. Sombra is one of the most popular design wise, but not gameplay wise. Even though, she's still my favorite The first time I saw her I said, "She looks just like me!"

She's a reminder that representation matters, even to an adult woman.

IMG_1318IMG_1352IMG_1344

Having her be my first actual cosplay was amazing. I even shaved her pattern into my hair and shaved my eyebrows for it. Dedication to the max. Everyone that knew the game knew who I was and seeing people get excited was so rewarding.

One day I'd like to do her actual costume, but doing a punk version still fit her. She was in the Los Muertos gang and I tried to make the jacket and her face paint fit their style.

  • The vest is actually a blazer I found on Amazon and then cut off the arms and sewed it to fit my body better.
  • The tights are purple to pink with another layer of black ripped up leggings on top.
  • The gloves I got on Amazon and then sewed pink bungee cord to make the wires and then attached gold picture from hangers to make her "circuits". If you didn't look too closely, you couldn't tell!
  • The shoes were these spiked rubber like flats that Rony thought looked super cheesy but they matched pretty well
  • I made her back patch with acrylic on a blank shirt and did her facepaint with water activated facepaints. I added purple contacts and ta da! Sombra face!

I love this character so much and I can't wait to work on it more and do it again. I'd love to figure out her jacket and do her justice but this was a good start :)

IMG_1366IMG_1347IMG_1357IMG_1369IMG_1311

Boop!

-Sombra/Sam <3