A Chongqing beauty pageant crown lost its luster recently after netizens criticized its top three winners as being "too ugly".  Twenty contestants competed in the 52nd Miss Chongqing China International Pageant, which ended in Hongyadong district in Chongqing on July 6, the top three making their way through several rounds of talent shows. However, after pictures of the winners were posted, some netizens accused the contest of being rigged and called on the organizers and judges to offer an explanation.

@鹏g-Anxiety：Actually, appearance is not the only deciding factor in a beauty pageant. Judges take inner beauty into consideration.

@浮鲤鱼-Kendy: In a beauty pageant, the winners usually are not the best contestants, because organizers do not want be criticized for focusing solely on appearance and not other qualities. So those "real beauties" are eliminated during the early rounds, usually leaving only the average looking ones.

@落花水面皆文章:In my opinion, there must be valid reasons for selecting these winners. The whole contest is totally open. There's no need to be so harsh.
 

@315宏鑫源防伪标签制作:If the winners were real beauties, people would just praise them and soon forget, but if the winners were ugly, that attracts a lot of attention, which must be the ultimate goal of local organizers.

@爱依宝：Nobody believes there isn't any under the table deals at work here. Although appearance is not the only standard in a beauty pageant, the winners should at least look better than normal people. But it turns out they are much uglier!