THE REVEAL: Cardiff’s ultimate No.1 BNOC 2026

Cardiff, it’s time.

Back in February – pre exams, Varsity, Fight Night, and more – you nominated friends, rivals and strangers for The Cardiff Tab BNOC Competition 2026. Now, we can finally reveal the ultimate top dog.

If you’re still living under a rock and blissfully unaware of what BNOC means, it stands for Big Name On Campus. It’s that one friend who always gets stopped walking around uni, somehow knows everyone at the club, and has a questionable number of followers on Instagram.

From your nominations, we created a shortlist of over 60 potential BNOCs, and you voted for every name you’d heard of. We then announced the Top 10, and you voted for your number one.

Well, we can now announce The Cardiff Tab BNOC 2026:

Gui ‘Galore’ Pinto

Galore, a second-year student studying face cardology (a real course in which he is the only student), won the competition with a whopping 22.7 per cent of the votes.

He drew in the votes with a compelling message: “I deserve the title of BNOC because I’m an amazing student. I attend all my lectures in the Misfits building, I make all my Wednesday 9pm seminars in the SU and spend a lot of time in the lab researching the brains of rugby men. Please vote as it’s for a good cause!”

How does it feel to officially be crowned Cardiff’s number one BNOC? “Kinda insane? Like the concept of being one of the most known people in a city while not even being a celebrity is lowkey crazy…”

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A post shared by gui pinto (@galoreist)

Which Cardiff club/bar deserves the most credit for your BNOC status? “Definitely YOLO! Having to be there at 7pm in semester one to miss the queue and staying till angels every week is meant that I was literally meeting so many people every night.”

@galoreist

day in the life of a party animal vlog!! #uni #cardiff

♬ original sound – galore!

What message do you have for everyone who voted for you? “Thanks everyone! Even though I wasn’t telling people to vote for me, you all still did which is so real.”

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How will you use your platform as Cardiff’s Number 1 BNOC? “I will use my platform to get rid of global warming YUP.”

Are you worried this level of fame will change you? “No, but I am worried that it will change the way people act towards me. I am not a celebrity (yet) so you can still treat me like a normal person lol.”

What advice would you give to next year’s BNOC hopefuls? “Don’t try too hard.”

@galoreist

#uni

♬ original sound – JEN🍬

And your runners up…

Second place: Henry Wormwell

Henry won 14.3 per cent of the votes, earning him the position of second B(est)NOC. Henry is in his fourth year of mechanical engineering, and is CURFC’s most successful captain. You can find him holding an orange and passionfruit VK in Misfits, attempting to chat up JOMEC netball girls.

Third place: Elise Fairclough

Elise came in third with 11.9 per cent of the votes, also earning her BNOC status. Elise is in her third year at Cardiff University and studies media and communications. Alongside her degree, she is the president of JOMEC Netball Society.

Elise has had many memorable moments in Cardiff, including meeting Hacker The Dog, going to YOLO varsity on her own, getting banned from spinning the wheel in Bonnie’s, and being driven home with my mum by the live lounge bouncer. God forbid a girl has fun x

The Cardiff Tab BNOC Competition will return next year for 2027.

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