What lessons can be learnt from The Warwick Tea Big Name on Campus Competition?

On the 3rd of March 2025, The Warwick Tea, an Instagram account that posts confessions and drama at the University of Warwick, decided to host a competition to determine the biggest names on campus.

The contest primarily aimed to discover the most popular people on campus. Whilst it did serve the purpose of fun, I’d like to query the extent of its accuracy.

Another possible purpose of the competition was to stroke the ego of whoever partook in it. Alongside boosting the ego of the tournament’s winner, who The Warwick Tea then officially dubs the ‘greatest aura farmer and the biggest name’.

The competition would have two days of nominations. The Warwick Tea posted 32 names as the top nominees, including characters such as Will Moores, The Boar’s recently elected Opinion editor. However, they did not post the complete list of nominees, which raises questions about the elimination process and whether it was an election that anyone could vote for.

After the nomination period ended, The Warwick Tea account posted the knockout competition as Instagram polls on its story. The two nominees with the highest vote count qualified further into the competition, whilst the others were knocked out.

They never revealed how many votes the winner of the competition, Maik (Kiam Films), received. The Warwick Tea simply described his total as “many votes”

The fact the elections were on Instagram stories made it convenient for everyone to vote, even if they didn’t care about the competition. It also made the sample size larger, which, in theory, should have made the competition more accurate. However, The Warwick Tea is a public account which means that anyone can vote, even if they do not study at the university. It also means that people with multiple accounts can double or even triple-vote for themselves or friends, which may ruin the accuracy of the competition.

The quarter-final process was simple: the top 32 contenders were put into eight groups of four, and the top two contenders in each group qualified. Thankfully, our Opinion Editor, Will Moores, qualified for the semi-finals.

Some people may have overlooked that The Warwick Tea’s BNOC competition was made up almost entirely of guys, which raises the question of whether the competition primarily served to stroke the ego of a select group of men.

However, some may say: ‘if its main purpose is to stroke the ego of other men, then how come Isabelle Borgese qualified for the semi-finals?’, and my answer to that is: “how come she is the only woman to qualify when we have other well-known names on-campus such as our current SU president, Enaya Nihal?”

This competition aims to discover the most well-known people on campus. And yet, somehow, the current president of the Warwick SU, Enaya Nihal, who many voted for in last year’s SU spring elections, did not even appear in the “Top 32” nominees list. This again raises the question of how accurate this competition is, considering we do not know how the top 32 candidates were chosen.

Despite The Warwick Tea’s transparency about how many votes each candidate got, they never revealed how many votes the winner of the competition, Maik (Kiam Films), received. The Warwick Tea simply described his total as “many votes”. This does not mean he had fewer votes than his competitors, as Instagram shows the percentage of votes, and he did have the highest percentages across the competition- even if that meant he had people outside the University vote for him.

Whilst they admit the competition was not balanced in terms of gender, The Warwick Tea did mention that this may highlight broader misogyny within the university

During the semi-finals, Will Moores was placed in the same group as Maik, ending his run in the competition. The Boar offices were heartbroken and mourned the loss of such a beloved Opinion editor to the icon Maik.

We approached The Warwick Tea for a response to this article, and they told The Boar:

“We did not release the full list of nominees because it contained roughly 300 separate nominated individuals, and it isn’t a very interesting read. The lack of female nominees was definitely a big shame. However, we felt it best to keep the system democratic, as the top 32 came down to who had the most nominations. What the lack of women in terms of nominations shows is for you guys to work out, we’re not sure; maybe it highlights broader misogyny, or maybe fewer women go around calling themselves BNOCs; we don’t know. It was a big shame for us, however, especially since, as far as we can remember, the Warwick Grapevine’s competition was much more balanced in terms of gender. In terms of bots and alt accounts voting, we policed this harshly in the close-run elections, though luckily it was normally very obvious when they were used.”

The Warwick Tea clarified my misconception about the nomination process. Whilst they admit the competition was not balanced in terms of gender, The Warwick Tea did mention that this may highlight broader misogyny within the university.

They further stressed that they policed the people trying to rig the election using bots to ensure fair competition. Moreover, the admin clarified the reasons such significant figures on campus, such as Enaya, were not on the top 32 list:

“In terms of Enaya not being there, as far as we remember, she wasn’t nominated at all or possibly only once. Whilst Enaya is known on campus, it’s mostly for being SU Pres, whereas the spirit of a BNOC is perhaps supposed to be fostered more organically…whilst Enaya is lovely and obviously has aura for days, there are other metrics beyond biggest name that went into people’s nominations.”

Just because women were under-represented does not mean it’s a misogynistic competition, but rather a majority male target audience as the people had the power to vote

Additionally, The Warwick Tea provided The Boar with some convincing evidence regarding the vote counts that Kiam Films has accumulated throughout the competition:

1. First round: 1,051 votes
2. Second round: 1,136 votes
3. Final round: 1,164 votes

The Warwick Tea addressed the vote numbers not being published by stating:

‘We did not share Kiam Films’ results because he was doing very well, and we wanted to keep people as invested in the competition as possible; it helped us build suspense and interest.’

The main question, ‘What can we learn from the BNOC competition?’ has yet to be answered; however, various things can undoubtedly be gleaned from it:

1. It’s not meant to be taken seriously, as it’s just for fun.
2. It won’t make an academic impact on you directly.
3. Just because women were under-represented does not mean it’s a misogynistic competition, but rather a majority male target audience as the people had the power to vote.
4. Just because someone won the competition does not mean they are the most famous person on campus, as I think people are more likely to know Stuart Croft than Maik.

Ultimately, life is too short to worry about a competition that rewards nothing but an ego.