Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-11-29/Wikicup report

2020 has seen many difficulties and challenges around the world, but for the WikiCup, it has been an excellent year, with several new entrants to the contest doing exceptionally well. The earlier rounds were dominated by Epicgenius, who achieved 113 good articles during the course of the competition, and the coverage of New York's buildings and other locations improved dramatically! However, the score is reset to zero at the end of each round, and the final round was very productive, with 15 high-scoring featured articles being achieved. The eight finalists also performed 75 reviews of FA candidates, achieved 88 good articles and performed 108 reviews of GA nominations during the last round. The scores achieved by Lee Vilenski and by Gog the Mild this year were nearly three times higher than the score that gave last year's winner first place. Altogether, Wikipedia has benefited greatly from the activities of WikiCup competitors all through the contest. Well done everyone!

Signups have opened for the 2021 competition. To join, click here.

A sampling of the finalists' work...

We can't cover everything (and if we did, it'd probably have an awful lot of overlap with the Featured Content report), but just to give a quick sampler of the finalists' contributions in the last round....

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  First-place Lee Vilenski managed an incredible four featured articles in the last round alone, all related to snooker. In addition, he had a featured list, a good topic, and thirty good articles (also mostly snooker related). If only other sports had such dedicated Wikipedians!
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  Hannibal took war elephants across the Rhône and through the Alps to invade Rome in the Second Punic War. By his efforts to bring all the articles on the constituent wars of the Punic Wars up to Featured or Good Article status, Gog the Mild created a new featured topic. A newcomer to the WikiCup, Gog was in a close second place and certainly made a memorable showing!
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  ...On the subject of other sports having dedicated Wikipedians, third-place The Rambling Man had four featured and eight good articles related to football in England, covering key matches from various seasons.
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  Fourth-place Epicgenius had nineteen good articles on places in New York, such as Coney Island (pictured), 1 Wall Street Court, the former New York Times Building, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge Number 878.
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  Fifth-place Hog Farm did a lot of work related to Missouri in the American Civil War. Several of the battles he brought to good article status in the last round of the WikiCup can be seen on this map.
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  The rulers of the Emirate of Granada, the last independent Muslim state in the Iberian Peninsula were the focus of sixth-place HaEr48, with two featured and three good articles. Pictured is a dinar from the reign of Yusuf I of Granada, one of HaEr48's featured articles.
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  While seventh-place Harrias worked mainly on articles related to sports, which sport varied: he collaborated with The Rambling Man on one of the aforementioned football featured articles, had three good articles related to marathons, and had a featured list on the goals scored by Alfredo Di Stéfano (pictured), who played on two different national teams officially, and one unofficially.
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  In the News has a reputation as being one of the most selective and difficult sections of the main page to get into. Which is why eighth-place finalist Bloom6132 having thirty-one "In the News" credits in the last round (one hundred thirty-six in the competition as a whole!) is so impressive. Many of them are for recent deaths, such as the death of David Graeber

  (pictured), who died on the 2nd of September this year.