The first round of the 2024 WikiCup, English Wikipedia's annual editing competition, has just concluded, and it's turning out to be an exciting one! This year saw 135 participants, the highest since 2017. Due to the high number of participants, a total of 30 points were needed to qualify to the next round, the most since 2014, and the third-highest of all time.^[1] Due to a tie for the last spot, 67 users advanced (normally 64), including yours truly, the defending champ, who made it as the 30th spot!^[2]

See also: The WikiCup 2023.

The WikiCup began humbly in 2007 with 12 competitors, scoring being based primarily on edit counts and unique page edits. The competition adopted its present form in 2009, with points awarded for featured articles (FA), lists (FL) and pictures (FP), along with good articles (GA), In the news (ITN) and Did you know (DYK). There were 60 contestants that year and 120 the next, and the contest has taken place annually ever since.

135 users entered – 83 scored points – only 67 advanced. Here we have some notable scores and participants:

• 1st – Generalissima (submissions) – a rookie WikiCup participant who led the pack through two months of competition, scoring 915 points, which included a featured article on John Littlejohn (preacher), a leading 15 good articles and 16 DYKs.
• 2nd – Vami_IV (submissions) – who sadly passed away earlier this month. Scored two FAs (leading the round) along with a number of reviews (tying for the lead in featured content reviews), two GAs and a DYK for 790 points.
• 3rd – AirshipJungleman29 (submissions) – a finalist from last year, scoring 580 points in several categories including an FA on Hö'elün.
• 4th – Sammi Brie (submissions) – another WikiCup veteran and finalist from last year, totaling 420 points, mainly from GAs and DYKs relating to radio and television stations.
• 5th – MaranoFan (submissions) – scoring 351 points, mainly from music articles including an FA on Holidays (Meghan Trainor song); had the largest – and only – featured topic (nine articles) of the round.
• 6th – Skyshifter (submissions) – scored 345 points, mainly from an FA on the game OneShot.
• 7th – voorts (submissions) – totaled 270 points, primarily from an FA on the song Running Out of Time.
• 8th – SounderBruce (submissions) – who's off to a flying start in round 2 with a featured article already, but who placed 8th in round 1 with 247 points, mostly from FLs, GAs and DYKs relating to sports.
• 9th – Hey man im josh (submissions) – active in the featured list process, scoring 235 points while being the leader in both FLs (4) and joint-leader in featured content reviews (with Vami IV).
• 10th – Elli (submissions) – 235 points, mostly from a featured article on the 1964 Illinois House of Representatives election (an interesting election in which over 500 million votes were cast...in a state of 12 million?).

• 11th – Muboshgu (submissions) – a WikiCup veteran who led the first round in ITN entries, scoring 195 points from 15 ITNs and two DYKs.
• 22nd – Lee Vilenski (submissions) – 2020 and 2022's champion; can Lee Vilenski be the first three-time winner in WikiCup history?
• 30th – BeanieFan11 (submissions) – yikes! I'm tryin' to defend my title and this is the best I can do? I'm going to have to step it up if I want to have any chance of being the third back-to-back champion!
• 31st – Ealdgyth (submissions) – the current leader in good article reviews, scoring 65 points on 13 of them.
• 52nd – TonyTheTiger (submissions) – as far as I can tell, the earliest WikiCup participant in this year's competition; was the runner-up in 2010. Can Tony finally do it after 14 years?

Thank you to all those who have been greatly improving Wikipedia in the competition! Good luck to the remaining 67 in your (and my) quest to be the 2024 WikiCup champion in the remaining four rounds until October 31!