Cosplayer Of The Month: Schrei205

World of Warcraft is a game that I love and hate all at the same time, this is definitely a story for another time, but how it works into the article is that I follow everything about the game which includes fan creations. One genre of those creations are cosplays, and we all know how much I love my cosplay. I saw and have seen a high-quality cosplayer come out with cosplay after cosplay that was jaw-droppingly fantastic, I never found out the name and continued on with life. I covered local conventions and did whatever I could to help support costumers in Arizona, during that time I took a photo of an Ashe from League of Legends cosplayer and chatted with her after the convention online a bit as I gave her the photo we took. It’s then that I connected the dots and figured out that amazing cosplayer was from my very own home state and had met her in person!

This, of course, is Schrei205 who is both a wonderful human being and an incredible cosplayer. I just had to reach out to her for an interview and she said yes! I am so grateful and loved her answers!

Without further ado, here is our interview with Schrei205:

The Geek Lyfe: Although I am a fan of yours, there may be a few readers who have not seen your work before, would you be alright introducing yourself?

Schrei205: Yup, of course! I’m Ana, or more commonly on the interwebz, Schrei. I’m 24, and I’ve lived around Phoenix all my life. I’ve been playing video games the whole time too! I’m a huge fan of World of Warcraft and League of Legends. I’m really into anime as well, with my favorites being Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist (both series!), Code Geass, and Psycho-Pass.

TGL: I’ve followed you for some time yet never learned the origin story! Could you tell us how you got into cosplay and what led you to where you are now?

S: Ever since I was little, my mom would always make me and my brother Halloween costumes. I think one of my earliest ones was Alice in Wonderland. She did such a great job! It was a natural progression that when I wanted to create a costume of Sherwood Forest Ashe from League of Legends, I asked her to help me. The first iteration of Ashe was super rushed, super stressful, and not very good. I wore it to the League of Legends Season 2 finals, and the reaction I got despite it not being great was amazing. Everywhere I walked people recognized me, asked for pictures, and lots of “dat Ashe!” was yelled out. I was hooked. Since then, I’ve become more independent on making my costumes, but all of the sewing done for Ashe is still by my mom.

TGL: When you aren’t doing awesome cosplays, what do you do?

S: In my free time, I play lots of games! Mostly WoW and LoL, but I’ve been trying to branch off into other stuff too. A big part of my free time is also devoted to my stream,twitch.tv/schrei205, where I broadcast all my gaming as well as a lot of the cosplay work I do. I did many 8+ hour streams of work on my warrior t8 costume on there!

TGL: What geek medium (Video Games, Cosplay, books, movies, etc.) would you say has impacted the most and why?

S: Video games have definitely impacted me the most. They were always there for me, regardless of how chaotic life was at the time. I spent tons of time on my N64 playing Ocarina of Time. I played a bunch of random stuff on the Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn that were given to me when I was really young. A lot of my time in World of Warcraft got me through some tough stuff. It’sjust so wonderfully therapeutic to escape reality sometimes and be a pretty blood elf, or a pink-haired kitty girl on a unicorn, or a badass Spartan.

TGL: What has been your favorite moment in your cosplay career?

S: It’s really hard to pick just one, but I have to say a big defining moment happened for me at Blizzcon 2013. I chose a project that was really ambitious for what was my first “real” costume ever, priest tier 13. I ended up having my mom overnight some sewn pieces to my hotel, and the first time I had everything on and assembled was noon on Friday of the convention. It was crazy. I was basically on my own, too! No handler! But, I got into the walk (non-competing) list for the contest. I was so nervous. That moment when I walked out on stage and heard real, genuine, thunderous applause and excitement for my costume that I struggled so hard with made it all so worth it. I love looking back at the recording of it and seeing the big grin on my face.

 

TGL: What was one major conflict you have faced or do face and how did you resolve it?

S: Something that every cosplayer will tell you they struggle with is time. For some reason, we just all procrastinate SO HARD. So much sleep lost scrambling to finish a costume! This time for Blizzcon, I put myself into cosplay crunch time mode way early, and I actually had time to test stuff out and be comfortable the night before the convention. I’m getting better!

TGL: A zombie apocalypse occurs and you are able to put on one cosplay and take the power of that character and make it your own. Which cosplay do you choose and why?

S: I definitely think that Nidalee would be the best choice here. She’s a ferocious jungle cat-woman, so all I’d have to do is escape away into the wild and I’d be perfectly fine!

TGL: Do you have any projects in the near future that we’d be excited to see?

S: I’m actually about to get started on my female Graves from League of Legends! I’ve been putting this one off for literally years. I’ve got tentative plans for Goth Annie, and Winry Rockbell from FMA as well. I’ll be doing something for next Blizzcon too, but not sure what it’ll be yet!

TGL: I see you’ve made some amazing League of legends cosplayers and World of Warcraft cosplays, what would you say is your all-time favorite moment from either game is?

S: It’s so hard to pick one moment since I’ve played both games for so long, WoW since 2006 and LoL since 2009. The moment where I was probably the happiest was in WoW when I got my Invincible from heroic Lich King. We worked so hard on this boss, and I adored the model and story of Invincible so much that I just knew I had to have that mount. He’s my pony, and I love him very much. If I ever have a horse in real life, I’ll probably make an Invincible cosplay for it!

TGL: What advice do you have for any aspiring cosplayers out there?

S: Cosplay is hard, there’s no doubt about it. But don’t be discouraged! Keep going! Do your research, reach out for help, and you can do anything!

A huge thank you to Schrei205 for taking the time to answer a few of our questions! We can not wait to see and support her in all future events! Check out and follow her on Facebook and Twitch!