Mirror Mirror on the wall who is the prettiest of them all?

Miss Intercontinental has been running since 1971. Similarly to all international sized beauty pageants - Miss World, Miss Universe - it is built around voting the prettiest, smartest, wittiest lady from the competing countries. The winner will act as an ambassador of her country for a year . Titleholders have gone on to high-profile careers in government, business, finance, film and fashion. These are women of power and grace, commitment and intelligence, style and substance.Miss Intercontinental's number of competing countries was over 80 this year, including Hungary .

Not just a pretty face...

Miss Intercontinental has been running since 1971. Similarly to all international sized beauty pageants - Miss World, Miss Universe - it is built around voting the prettiest, smartest, wittiest lady from the competing countries. The winner will act as an ambassador of her country for a year . Titleholders have gone on to high-profile careers in government, business, finance, film and fashion. These are women of power and grace, commitment and intelligence, style and substance.Miss Intercontinental's number of competing countries was over 80 this year, including Hungary.

People from all over the globe have been fascinated with the idea of beautiful, confident and intelligent  women competing for a crown. Winning is the ultimate award, but the road to the finals is rocky and often comes with scandals, misleading and confusing situations. 

Hungary prepared to the contest the best way they could. Still the public and the viewers were left largely divided by the quality of the broadcast. On social media platforms,  many of the comments, the public criticised the low quality of the production, the tacky looking clothes that the contestants wore during the final. Additionally, there  was the Hungarian talent show winner - singer Gaspar Laci's show, whose appearence nobody seemed to understand why was it necessary to happen on a live beauty pageant telecast. After all, the guy is neither a beauty, nor a competitor. The icing on the cake was by many viewers opinion, is the unprofessional presentation and the presenters styles that have left a lot to desire for. But the show must go on, everyone has their own opinion and all together it would have been a fairly pleasant entertainment and broadcast up until the winners were announced.  

Annamária Rákosi, 21, 1.73m-tall, from Debrecen was crowned Miss Hungary 2013.  She will compete in Miss Intercontinental 2013.  Annamária has Grand Slam experience: she represented Hungary in Miss Supranational 2012, in Warsaw, Poland.

In 2nd place, Rebeka Kárpáti, 18, 1.70 m-tall, from Budapest, was crowned Miss Hungary Universe 2013 and will compete in Miss Universe 2013, in Moscow, Russia, on November 9.

Korinna Kocsis,Kocsis had also participated in Miss Hungary back in 2009, when she placed 3rd as well and represented her country in Miss Earth. She finished in 3rd place on the contest refused to accept the crown and the 3rd place and offered it to the next contestant.

It happened during the live telecast of the national pageant held in Budapest. Later, after the event she published on her Facebook page that she did not accept the results because she already knew she would not be placed as one of the two winners (going to Miss World and Miss Universe). 

Since the event and her publication, there has been many theories to solve why she made the decision. Korinna divided the audience into two groups: some of them believe that the whole thing was a PR spin and Korinna and throught of it, Korinna wishes to benefit from the 15 minute fame she achieved via the stunt. To stay factual, we must admit that her name comes first in most of the features and articles realated to Miss intercontinental Hungary 2013.

Another conspiracy theory is that the event was a fraud, as Rebeka Karpati winner of the 2nd place, is has personal relations with the Miss Intercontinental Hungary 2013's official legal department's lawyer. Peter Karpati's chief lawyer of the event is the father of the Miss Karpati.  Whether this is a coincidence or a fraud, it is difficult to investigate at this point. Miss Karpati is talented and is a beauty, hence having her in the finals of a beauty pageant would not be a  surprise at all.

But it is well known that most professional competitions -small volume or international- would eliminate similar debates, to remain unbiased and objective with their decisions by stating that people with personal relations to any member of the organisers are excluded from the game. How come this was not the case during Miss Intercontinental Hungary 2013? Is it just bad organisation, unprofessional management, or is there really something fishy going on here?

The situation is not unique - the road to be internationally recognised beauty is rocky and very often there is a lot going on behind the scenes. For instance earlier this year during the finals of Miss Canada 2013 the judges and the organisers miscounted the votes -only realising this AFTER the event when the crowns were handed over and the winners were announced....