DRESSED UP: A file photo of the cosplay event at a previous Ajyal.

By Anand Holla


It’s not just a treat for film lovers. The third edition of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival at Katara features some exciting breakaways from movies and into the world of video games and pop culture goodness.
The Ajyal Creativity Hub is packed with a lot of Qatari talents’ participation as sellers/exhibitors, even as young Qatari talents are hosting the tournaments. The exhibition features a gaming lounge and a space for Qatari collectors and video-game lovers to share their interest with others.
Participants include the Qatar Animation Centre, The Gaming Lounge, AnimeQtr, the Qatar FIFA Players, Khalasta Gaming and the Youth Hobbies Center, and this is being held in Katara Building 18, from 10am to 10pm.
One of the participants, The Gaming Lounge (TGL), for instance, is the first gaming centre in Doha Qatar to offer all consoles and PCs that are available 24 hours and 7 days a week for all ages.
The Ajyal FIFA Tournament is based on the world cup video game. “This event is in collaboration with Qatar FIFA players, who are a group of young men who organise FIFA tournaments with the community and partner up with different brands,” said an official from Ajyal.
As for Cosplay or Costume Play, it is now well-known as a performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplay applies to any costumed role-playing; the favourite sources of inspiration include manga and anime, comic books and cartoons, video games, and live-action films and television series. This event is in collaboration with AnimeQtr.
Dressing up in full-fledged comic book-inspired costumes has been happening long before the annual Comic-Con propelled it into the mainstream. However, it was reporter and manga publisher Takahashi Nobuyuki who first used the term ‘Cosplay’ after attending Worldcon in Los Angeles in 1984, and encouraged his Japanese readers to partake.
Through the 1990s, Cosplaying skyrocketed in Japan and by the turn of the millennium, it even hosted the first World Cosplay Summit featuring four countries in 2003. Meanwhile, Qatar had its first brush with Cosplay in 2012 when local group AnimeQtr held a cosplay event at the Virginia Commonwealth University.
Ajyal Pokémon Tournament is a live event that gives one the opportunity to compete against other players in the Pokémon video games. Pokémon tournaments take place worldwide and offer a competitive atmosphere where players can demonstrate their Pokémon gaming skills. This event is also in collaboration with AnimeQtr.
“Ajyal Super Smash Tournament puts Super Smash, the video game with a global following, in the spotlight. In collaboration with AnimeQtr, this is a competition involving a group of players designed to produce an overall skill ranking of the involved players, typically by arranging them into a structured bracket where players engage in individual matches to raise or lower their ranking,” the organisers say.
Then, of course, there is the Sandbox, where visitors can step into a unique interactive environment to experience hands-on access to the latest digital gadgets.