After ten months of writing, editing and reviewing, the annual Wikipedia editing championship, the WikiCup, has finished. Across the course of this high-scoring competition, editors achieved 689 good articles — smashing the all-time record by nearly 75 — close to 1,500 reviews, hundreds of DYKs, a record 78 featured lists, and almost 50 featured articles.

After all this, we have a new champion, who is also an old champion. Two years ago, I wrote about my surprise at winning the 2023 WikiCup. After heartbreak in 2024 (see related Signpost coverage), I set out with determination to win my second world championship in 2025. And 10 months later, my goal has been accomplished. Our medalists this year are Arconning in 3rd place, Gog the Mild in 2nd place, and ... BeanieFan11 (myself) in 1st place.

Notably, this edition of the WikiCup was the first under major rule changes implemented after the end of last year's Cup. While previously, the competition featured elimination of contestants each round before the highest scorer in the last round was declared victor, under the new rules, the top 16 of each round receive a varying number of "tournament points". This starts at 1 point, for 16th place, and rises up to 256 points, for 1st place. The winner of the tournament is ultimately decided by the participant with the most "tournament points".

1. BeanieFan11 — This new rule change meant that I couldn't continue my old strategy of barely advancing in rounds 1–4, followed by exploding in round 5! Instead, I exploded across every round, finishing 3rd in round 1, followed by 1st in rounds 2, 3, 4 and 5. Writing primarily about sports (with a sprinkling of obscure politicians), I concluded with a tournament-leading 100 good articles, 147 DYKs, and 20 In the news articles, scoring me 1,604 tournament points, putting me ahead of:
2. Gog the Mild — who placed 2nd with 1,075 tournament points. Gog the Mild led round 1 in scoring, followed by placements of 4th in round 2, 2nd in round 3, and 4th in round 4. Writing about many ancient and medieval wars and treaties, he led the competition with a remarkable 12 featured articles, including four in round 1, as well as posted a tournament-leading nine featured topics. Gog, who was also runner-up in 2020, and myself were the only two contestants to score above 1,000 tournament points. We were followed by:
3. Arconning — the tournament's leader in good article reviews with 68, who wrote mainly about Olympic athletes, totaling 860 tournament points. Outside of the first round, Arconning was top five in each round, including 2nd place in round 4. Close behind was:
4. History6042 — who scored 804 tournament points, to finish 4th. History6042, who wrote about everything from American football players to the Olympics to battles to Væb, was the overall leader in featured article reviews (127), tied for the lead in ITNs (20), and was not far behind Arconning in good article reviews.
5. Sammi Brie — At 635 tournament points is Sammi Brie, a WikiCup veteran, who scored mostly from many good articles about radio and television stations, and is also one of only three to score tournament points in every round (along with myself and Arconning).
6. TheDoctorWho — in 6th is TheDoctorWho, who scored 386 tournament points and led the competition in good topics from writing about Doctor Who.
7. AirshipJungleman29 — last year's champion, who beat the author in 2024 in a photo finish, placed 7th with 373 tournament points, doing work on various topics including Rani of Jhansi and Al-Altan. He also achieved one featured picture, the first by any WikiCup contestant in two years.
8. Thebiguglyalien — scored 362 tournament points to place 8th, with a best performance of 2nd place in round 2. Achieved three featured articles during the competition, including two on U.S. First Ladies.

• After Thebiguglyalien — Pokelego999, Reconrabbit, Hey man im josh (the featured list winner), vigilantcosmicpenguin, Generalissima (withdrawn), TheNuggeteer and LEvalyn round out the top 15.

A big thank you goes out to all the contestants, who greatly improved Wikipedia over the course of this year, as well as to the five judges: Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs · email), Epicgenius (talk · contribs · email), Frostly (talk · contribs · email), Guerillero (talk · contribs · email) and Lee Vilenski (talk · contribs · email). Sign-ups for the 2026 Cup are open here. Will anyone be able to dethrone Beanie next year?