2014 WikiCup enters round three
- The views expressed in this report are those of the author only; responses and critical commentary are invited in the comments section.
Round 3 of the 2014 WikiCup has just begun; 32 competitors remain. Pool G's 
Adam Cuerden (submissions) was Round 2's highest scorer, with a large number of featured picture credits. In March/April, he restored star charts from Urania's Mirror, lithographs of various warships (such as SMS Gefion) and assorted other historical media. Second overall was Pool E's 
Godot13 (submissions), whose featured list Silver certificate (United States) contains dozens of scans of banknotes recently promoted to featured picture status. Third was Pool G's 
ChrisGualtieri (submissions) who has produced a large number of good articles, many, including Falkner Island, on Connecticut-related topics. Other successful participants included 
Cliftonian (submissions), who saw three articles (including the top-importance Ian Smith) through featured article candidacies, and 
Caponer (submissions), who saw three lists (including the beautifully-illustrated list of plantations in West Virginia) through featured list candidacies. High-importance good articles promoted this round include narwhal from 
Reid,iain james (submissions), tiger from 
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) and The Lion King from 
Igordebraga (submissions). We also saw our first featured topic points of the competition, awarded to 
Czar (submissions) and 
Red Phoenix (submissions) for their work on the Sega Genesis topic. No points have been claimed so far for good topics or featured portals.
192 was our lowest qualifying score, again showing that this WikiCup is the most competitive ever. In previous years, 123 (2013), 65 (2012), 41 (2011) or 100 (2010) secured a place in Round 3. Pool H was the strongest performer, with all but one of its members advancing, while only the two highest scorers in Pools G and F advanced. At the end of June, 16 users will advance into the semi-finals.