I have a 3 Cons I host across North Carolina and I'm also sometimes one of the judges at our shows, these are just one day shows so they are not huge. The costume contest is always one of the more popular events at our shows. I feel compelled, as someone from the other side of the judging table, to explain things a little. Your costume is without a doubt very screen accurate and as you said took quite a bit of research to get to that point. The costume contest however does not judge on how accurate your costume is, it is judged, at least at our shows, on how creative your costume is and creativity often times equals homemade. It is done this way to be fair for the vast majority of cosplayers. Remember in the contest you will have characters from many genres, Sci-fi, Horror, Movies, TV, Video Games, Anime, and Comics as well as some custom characters. The judges are not experts in all these different genres so could not judge how accurate a said costume is with any fairness. We judge by how creative a costume is be fair to everyone. We also don't want anyone to just be able to buy their way into winning so the more of the costume you've made then the more points you've received. The costume doesn't have to be 100% homemade to win but we like to see the vast majority being made with only the detail pieces being bought.