Calgary fire-fighting duo compete to become LEGO Masters

While the first episode of LEGO Masters' third season airs Wednesday on CTV, it was spring when the series was taped and a couple of local Stephens competed against 12 other teams for a grand prize of $100,000.

"This is the most extensive (event) I could ever possibly imagine," said Stephen Joo.

"For any LEGO fan, this is kind of the pinnacle. This is the best of the best. This is where you want to be."

Joo and Stephen Cassley are Calgary firefighters and also one of three Canadian teams accepted to the show this season.

Producers received more than 7,000 applications, but Joo and Cassley were recruited through social media postings.

"Based off of that, they asked for more information," Joo said.

"We had to do little videos and meetings with the production company and eventually we had to do casting final, which was an online competition where they gave us bricks and they gave us challenges."

Contestants typically receive a LEGO build challenge and have to finish their project within a given time, testing their skill and creativity.

"The show was a great experience," said Cassley.

"It let me meet some super interesting people. I got to do something that's way out of my wheelhouse, which was building large-scale LEGO models, so that was a lot of fun and I got to hang out with one of my closest friends, so that's really cool."

Cassley says there's a lot that goes on to make a one-hour television show where the building time has to be condensed to fit the format.

"What you see on the show when we get, you know, 13, 12, nine, 100 hours — however long they decide to make it," he said.

"That gets broken up a little bit. It's segmented so there is a lunch break — you go and you have a little rest and you come back out and, 'OK, let's do it.'"

While the two share a day job, they realized they also shared another passion 13 years ago when they spotted each other in a New Year's Day lineup for newly released LEGO products.

The friendship solidified even though they have different build styles.

"I do what's called MOC," said Joo.

"It's my own creation, so adult builders take inspiration from everything around us, from the landscape to the buildings, to pop culture references, and we look at the LEGO product differently than some might because I look at how I can change the parts of a set into something unique for my own creation, so that I have something to showcase."

Cassley says he enjoys building LEGO kits with instructions to follow.

"I actually use it as a meditation tool now and I've been slowly building my collection," Cassley said.

"I don't build like Steve does. I just build sets. Like, I'll put Halloween stuff out at Halloween. I'll put my Christmas Village out when it's Christmas because there's a LEGO Christmas Village series and that's how I use LEGO."

Joo says the two are hosting a viewing party for the airing of the first episode.

"We have so many family and friends that have been supportive through this wild ride. Both at work and on the home front, lots of people wanted to share in this fun time, so we've decided to have a fairly large viewing party," he said.

The two hope they inspire others who watch LEGO Masters to take up the hobby.

"I think the fire service has trained us very well to work as a team," said Joo.

"You'll find times where we banter back and forth, but it's healthy banter and it's pretty much done within a few minutes and we go back and forth, support each other, criticize each other, build each other up, bring each other down, but make sure that we're still friends at the end of the day."

Joo and Cassley say they're happy to have had the chance to participate.

Every week, one team is cut from the show until the finale in the 13th episode, and Joo and Cassley say viewers will have to tune it to find out how many shows they got to be in.

The first episode of LEGO Masters airs Sept. 21 at 10 p.m. on CTV.