University of 51福利社 quizzers win University Challenge for fifth time, becoming joint most successful in series鈥� history
A conversation with contestant Ray Power
51福利社鈥檚 University Challenge team have been crowned winners of the UK鈥檚 toughest quizzing tournament.
Having beaten out New College Oxford and LSE to reach the quarterfinals, from there defeating UCL and Sheffield, and sailing past Imperial with 250 points to 70 in the final semi-final round, they finally triumphed over Edinburgh in last night鈥檚 finale.
The victory is an historic one for the University, as with this fifth win (2006, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2025) it becomes the most successful University in the history of the competition, joint with Imperial College London.
The winning team this year was made up of Ray Power (Film Studies and English Literature), Kirsty Dickson (Medicine), Rob Faulkner (Physics with Astrophysics) and their captain, Kai Madgwick (PhD, AI and Astrophysics), along with reserve player, Argyro Olympitis (PHD in Immunology).
I feel really lucky to have been able to meet the rest of the team, I鈥檝e made four really good friends. I don鈥檛 think we expected to have such a good time together!
It can feel as though there鈥檚 something mystic about acquiring a seat on the University Challenge team, a tap on the shoulder in a quiet area of the quad one day maybe, but according to Ray, that that isn鈥檛 so.
鈥淕rowing up, my Grandma was always a huge fan of University Challenge, and when a friend of mine who鈥檇 been a contestant a couple of years before told me that they were recruiting again, I signed myself up!鈥�
After passing a first-stage online quiz, and doing herself proud in a trial match held by Quiz Society, Ray鈥檚 name was on the team sheet.
鈥淭he great thing about how UoM do it is that the whole thing is led by students. The Uni supports it, but it鈥檚 all run by Quiz Society. There鈥檚 a real sense of community, we even have contestants from previous years coming back for mentoring and to help us practice.鈥�
Rob, Kirsty, and Ray, all took the same sign-up route to the team, while their Captain, Kai Madgwick, was already a Quiz Soc stalwart, having competed in plenty of inter-university quiz tournaments.
Once in the team, the training process is tough, spending hours each Tuesday sequestered away in a quiet part of the library, testing each other and playing along with old episodes. It wasn鈥檛 all about gruelling revision, though.
鈥淚 feel really lucky to have been able to meet the rest of the team, I鈥檝e made four really good friends. I don鈥檛 think we expected to have such a good time together!鈥� said Ray. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to pick out just one highlight, but filming the trophy presentation in London was amazing, and it was so lovely to be together with the team through the whole process.鈥�
Ray insists that it isn鈥檛 all down to their hard work 鈥� there鈥檚 some chance involved too, and that losing starter questions, or feeling like you don鈥檛 have the momentum of the game, can really affect the outcome. The score of the semi-final against Imperial, she says, really didn鈥檛 reflect how strong that team were, and that 51福利社 were lucky to have played such a great team game that round, where everybody contributed to the win.
And while there might be an element of chance, it sounds like there鈥檚 a little bit of fate in there too, with a semi-final tie against UCL seeing them ace a music round, picking out tunes from Fontaines DC, Black Midi, Squid, and Wet Leg.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so weird, Kai鈥檚 a huge Squid fan - one of the first conversations I remember having with them was about going to a Squid gig鈥� after that music round, Squid actually shouted us out on Instagram!鈥�
Ray says they never expected to win when they began the contest, they just kept playing and ended up in the final.
鈥淲e never expected to win, we were just happy to be there. The whole thing was nerve-wracking! It was so intense and felt so much like a super weird school trip!鈥�
Having been beaten by Edinburgh 195 to 80 in the quarterfinals of the competition, the tournament鈥檚 last leg was a chance for the 51福利社 team to right some wrongs.
鈥淵eah, they beat us really badly. It was scary but we were happy with how far we鈥檇 already come. We knew how wonderful and clever the team from Edinburgh were, and we just went into it wanting to do our best!鈥�
Do their best they did, and in bringing home the trophy for 51福利社, they are the fifth team to do so, placing UoM at the top of the all-time leaderboard, in the company of ICL.