The best of the Intermagic Beans Challenge!

Since we were all still in a lockdown at the beginning of the challenge, it all started at three pick-up points in Eindhoven. Participants could come by one of those points with their pots/cups/bins and we would provide them with everything they needed to start the challenge. Everyone got 3 kidney beans and a bit of potting soil. This way, we could make sure that everyone started the challenge with the same materials and no one would have an advantage. On this day we also launched the first challenge, which consisted of bringing the most creative flower pot you could find or make.. We have seen a lot of cool 'pots' such as a coffeepot, trash bin, handpainted mug, a wok pan, and even a 3D-print based on the story of Jack and the beanstalk (which was unfortunately not done at the end of week one, so it didn't win). The person that did win the first challenge was Kari with her pot that was painted specially for this challenge!

The challenge for the second week was to give your beans a name and introduce them to someone. Again, we got a lot of creative submissions such as Maxima, Obi-Wan Boonobi, Pfizer, and Chonkie. This challenge however was won by Lisa since she was the only one the actually introduced their plants to someone and therefore fulfilled the entire challenge. We are sure that Belinda, Josh, and Eddie are very happy with the new friend they made that day!

The third challenge was the first one that actually dealt with the well-being of the beans. In this challenge, we asked the participants to feed the beanstalks in an original way that would maybe make them grow faster. Surprisingly, in this group of students, alcohol was quite popular. We also saw people feeding their beans tea, fancy water, Caprese salad, and there was even someone that tried to make a cannibal out of their beans by feeding them beans. The winner of this challenge was Eileen who was sharing a nice glass of wine with her beans by some candlelight.

'Take your plant with you on a daily activity.' That was the challenge for week four. The pictures that were handed in, gave a pretty good view of what everyone was doing for most of the past year since a lot of people were studying at home with their beans. However, some people took their plants with them in public transport, listened to music together with the plant, or made music. This week's winner was Maxine who played a game of Boonanza with her boon (bean). As you can see, we appreciate a good pun ;).

The second to last challenge was dressing up the beans in a brand new outfit. We have seen a lot of pretty dresses, sunglasses, and bras, but the winner of this challenge was Kari! She dressed her bean in a beautiful orange outfit to support the Dutch national soccer team at the EURO 2020. Unfortunately, the support wasn’t sufficient for the soccer team to win... Nevertheless, the spirit of Kari's beans was definitely right!

The sixth, and last, challenge was to sing your plant to sleep with a beautiful song. The winner of this challenge was Inge, who, together with her roommate, a ukelele, and a violin, sang a beautiful 'Slaap kindje slaap' to her bean. 

By now, you are probably wondering who has won the Intermagic Beans Challenge. There were two prizes to fight for. The first prize was for the overall winner of the challenges. Each week we assigned points to the top five and the person with the most points wins the prize. The winner of this prize was Inge! There was actually only one of the six challenges in which she did not get points and she scored pretty high in all the other challenges so Inge is definitely a worthy winner! The second prize was for the person that could grow their beanstalk the highest over the span of six weeks. There were a lot of people that managed to grow their plants around 80 to 100 centimeters. However, no one seemed to be a match for Morris whose beanstalks had grown 163 centimeters! This made him, and his beans in his wok, the winner of the height competition.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in the challenge. We really loved seeing your progress and creativity and also really enjoyed the small updates and interaction in the Whatsapp group. Furthermore, we would like to congratulate the winners and wish them a lot of luck with their prize (which is a little tree)!