WTF?! What kind of world championship hands out pro wrestling-style belts to its winners? You'd expect it at events like WWE matches, MMA bouts, or maybe high-stakes college football games. But a "competitive spreadsheet" event seems an unlikely setting for such an over-the-top display. Yet that's precisely what took place at the Microsoft Excel World Championship in Las Vegas. Held in an arena typically reserved for Fortnite and League of Legends tournaments, this unique event treated its participants like celebrated athletes.
Since the event was held in a full-fledged arena, it came with the whole nine yards. As The New York Times reports, finalists actually ran through a glowing "hype tunnel," some donning jerseys plastered with sponsor logos. An announcer bellowed introductions as cameras captured their every move on the neon-lit stage, met by cheers from a 400-strong live audience.
The real action began soon after. The NYT writes that many of the participants were "finance professionals," and they put their Microsoft Excel mastery to the ultimate test by tackling devilishly intricate spreadsheet puzzles.
At stake was a $6,790 cash prize, the championship belt, and eternal glory as the reigning world's best "spreadsheeter."
The organizer behind the event, Andrew Grigolyunovich (a Sudoku champion from Latvia), has some big ambitions. He hopes to elevate competitive Excel into a widely popular esport where pros vie for million-dollar prizes.
For audience members like Erik Oehm, a San Francisco software developer, the championship represented the "Super Bowl for Excel nerds" – a chance to witness living legends in action. The "LeBron James of Excel," as he was introduced in Vegas, turned out to be Diarmuid Early, a 39-year-old Irish financial consultant. His rival was the "Annihilator" Andrew Ngai, a 37-year-old Australian actuary and the competition's reigning three-time champion.
This isn't the first time the competition has been held. The first MEWC took place in 2021, though it was initially named the "FMWC Open 2021" before being rebranded.
The final round mimicked online role-playing game World of Warcraft, tasking the 12 finalists with designing formulas to track vital signs across 20 avatars. This was overwhelmingly complicated – so complex, in fact, that it needed a seven-page instruction booklet distributed beforehand.
As the 40-minute gauntlet commenced, players leaned over their keyboards in intense focus, steadily filling columns with cascading formulas.
Ultimately, it was Michael Jarman, a 30-year-old British financial consultant, who emerged victorious, leaping out of his seat in euphoric celebration as glitter rained down.
While Grigolyunovich envisions much larger future tournaments with bigger sponsors and seven-figure payouts, many contestants seemed most excited to simply connect with fellow spreadsheet aficionados. Between rounds, they swapped tips in workshops and networked on LinkedIn.