Zach Scuderi is the King of Cosplay
The first time I heard about League of Legends was at Fan Expo Canada, about six years ago. Some of my friends that I was attending with were cosplaying their favourite champions: Varus and Bloodstone Lissandra. I had no idea who they were, but I was super impressed by their costumes.
Over the course of the weekend I also meet a Nami, Zilean, and Shyvana. These names meant nothing to me, but their costumes blew me away. The amount of time, effort and love that was put into bringing these characters to life always stuck with me.
Fast forward four years to when I started playing League (2016), and just couldn’t get enough of people cosplaying their favourite champions. From watching streamers—shout out to BoxBox and Pokimane for always keeping me entertained—to hardcore fans at conventions, I just couldn’t get enough of seeing my favourite champions from the Rift come to life.
There is one guy, though, that stands out from the rest: Zach “Sneaky” Scuderi, Cloud9’s ADC, has stolen my heart and made me fall in love with League of Legends cosplay even more.
Those First Impressions Set the Bar High
My first memory of Sneaky was watching him play (I don’t remember if it was regular season or not), and thinking, “What kind of summoner name is ‘Sneaky?’ Does he just go around trolling everyone all the time?” I quickly learned that, yes, he kind of does.
To make things even better, though, he was playing Twitch, so I just kept thinking of him playing a champion with a dialogue line saying “Sneaky, sneaky” and could not stop laughing. This still makes me LoL when I think about it.
Soon after this saw Sneaky cosplay as a French maid. It was tame, but hilarious. His “Professional Maid Streamer” had fans going nuts, but little did they know, this was only the beginning.
In 2017 he showed the world his interpretation of Star Guardian Urgot. Even I, someone who absolutely despises Urgot (what even is he?!) thought this costume was incredible. If anyone can make Urgot look good, it’s Sneaky. What came next, though, was even better.
Sneaky’s Cosplay is Flawless
This year Sneaky broke the internet, not once, but twice.
In March, he showed the world how good Dark Elementalist Lux looks. While many people have cosplayed Lux, no one has ever done it quite as well as Sneaky. His costume was on point, right down to the tiny details. His costume was so accurate that many people didn’t even realize who it was at first. A lot of the initial comments were along the lines of, “Wow, she looks great.”
“I’m on to you!”
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Twitter and Reddit exploded with comments: people praised his costume, told him he looked great, and questioned whether or not they should be attracted to a man dressed up as a female character. The answer, if you’re wondering, is yes: he looked amazing! No one can deny that.
However, he didn’t stop there.
Shortly after Riot announced their April Fool’s Day skins, Sneaky announced he would be streaming as Pizza Delivery Sivir. I don’t think anyone was prepared for what happened, because once again, the League community online exploded.
A lot of people, myself included, didn’t even recognize who was in the photo. He tricked us all, again, but in the best way possible. Sneaky’s Pizza Delivery Sivir does not fall short at all. His makeup is flawless, his shirt has an adorable Poro emblem on it, and he’s carrying a delicious looking pizza.
“Sneaking around really works up your appetite!”
Pizza Delivery Sivir is my favourite skin to date—I have an unhealthy love for pizza, and am an ADC main—so seeing Sneaky cosplay her was just too good. I can’t wait to see what champion he brings to life next!
Multiple Levels of Awesome
I’m obviously a fan of Sneaky. He is a very talented player, and isn’t afraid to be himself. This is awesome for a lot of reasons, but the main one, I think, is that he’s making cosplay cool.
To be clear, I’ve always thought that cosplay was cool, but that was an unpopular opinion when I was growing up (and yes, I consider my early twenties to be a period of “growing up”). Dressing up as a character, especially a character of the opposite sex from yourself, was often something that I saw ridiculed both in-person at conventions, and online.
I always thought, “WHY?!”
These people are incredibly talented, often create their own costumes, and just want to have fun. Plus, they always look amazing! They absolutely do not deserve criticism of any kind, especially not from trolls.
What I’m trying to say is, thanks, Sneaky, for not being afraid to cosplay. Your posts have shown people that cosplaying is amazing, and that anyone can dress up as whatever character they want to. I can’t wait to see which champion you bring to life next!
