The fondue of victory. No, Eric and Alex did not win Top chef but the second season of Lego Masters this Tuesday evening. The two Swiss candidates, aged 29 and 24, performed a series of performances during the brick competition of
M6 this year, until the final test evoking their love for their homeland and its local specialties. Their table (motorized, nothing less) of a caquelon filled with cheese gone mad convinced the jurors and the panel of voters. For 20 Minutes, Eric and Alex reminisce regarding how the final went and talk regarding their passion for little colored bricks.
How did this final twenty-five hour test go?
Eric : The hardest part was coming up with the basic idea, we racked our brains for a while. Being Swiss, we wanted to do something a little mechanical. We mightn’t think of “THE” idea. Alex told me that he was tired of being in the hotel where we ate junk food, far from Switzerland. He wanted to make a fondue, and that was it. We made a super cartoon thing, with a living fondue pot, which stirs itself. The more I argued, the more I saw his smile grow.
Was it stressful?
Alex : Frankly, it was not more stressful than that. We had until seventeen hours for the other races, which is already a long time. It still allowed us to have more time for the details. Frankly, from my point of view, it was pretty quiet.
Eric : The first five tests allowed us to settle on what we were able to do and in how long. At first, we wondered if we weren’t looking too big. Or on the contrary, if we were going to finish in fifteen hours and what we were going to do following. We adapted our time according to three principles: what should we do? What can we do ? And what would be fun to do?
Eric Antoine ends up declaring you the winners. What is going on in your heads at this time?
Eric : I have my brain that is gone. At the time, I was speechless. The first thing that came out of my mouth was a curse. I saw the confetti falling, the friends slapping us on the shoulder. I admit that I no longer knew my name at that time.
Alex : At the time, it was a bit surprising. What we did was cool but it started off so much bullshit that I didn’t expect it to be like that much.
The two brickmasters, Georg and Paulina, both voted for your work. This is the icing on the cake ?
Eric : It touched me a lot to know that our universe had convinced. I was very surprised to receive so many votes because I said to myself that stupidly “we are France, we are Swiss”… In addition, we had clearly marked our structure with a Swiss flag. I wondered if people were going to ignore the fact that we are Swiss. Satisfying the judges on aesthetics and technique, that’s a bit of why we took part in Lego Masters, to share what we knew how to do, our sense of detail, aesthetics and technique. We went there for fun anyway, but I also wanted to show what I knew how to do.
The French are chauvinistic but fair!
Eric : That’s it (laughs). Already, when we answered our registration email, we had already won a little something. Afterwards, we were able to participate in the casting, we went to Paris for that, it was even crazier. We were taken, we went through all the tests. At each step, you added one more degree to the madness. Behind, quite honestly, in my guts, I was convinced that the Swiss might never win Lego Masters France. I still have trouble understanding now!
Georg explained that it was difficult for some people to assume that they were playing with Lego. Do you understand it?
Eric : It’s true that at one time, when I was studying… I’m not going to say that it was frowned upon, but when I told people that I was making Lego, they looked at me in “you’re still playing” mode. , you are a kid ”. I had withdrawn into myself a little, I kept it to myself. At one point, that changed. I told myself that this was my life and that I was doing what I wanted. Today, I share it and I gladly show it, I am proud of our journey at Lego Masters. It’s part of who I am.
Alex : Me, I don’t care what other people think (laughs).
Eric : With Alex, we did twelve exhibitions in our village. Before, friends or colleagues told me that I was very nice to my bricks and that they would come to make me happy. When they saw a room packed with 25 square meters models, structures weighing several kilos with several hundred bricks, they usually had a jaw drop. It always made me happy to see the surprise on people’s heads.
What are you going to do with your 20,000 euros in earnings?
Eric : They will be reinvested in brick for the most part. We have a little dream: Every year, Lego organizes the “Lego Inside Tour”, a visit to factories and design studios in
Denmark, it’s a trip that costs quite expensive, around 2,000 euros. Only 800 people go there each year, it’s by selection. It is a dream that we would like to realize.
