Irish Man Excels at Excel
Nobody told me this was a thing.
You can actually win tournament money in Microsoft Excel? Spreadsheets are a sport now?
Ireland's Diarmuid Early was recently crowned in the Excel World Championship held in Las Vegas and livestreamed on ESPN.
You can actually win tournament money in Microsoft Excel? Spreadsheets are a sport now?
Ireland's Diarmuid Early was recently crowned in the Excel World Championship held in Las Vegas and livestreamed on ESPN.
You can watch the tournament here: https://www.youtube.com/live/URxoXglEbtk?si=BcoCWP-M59jTC2VE
Early, called the "LeBron James of Excel", beat three-time champion Andrew Ngai of Australia in the final. The event had a wrestling atmosphere, with a half-time show featuring an "Export to Excel" musical number. However, rather than oiled wrestlers, there were Excel experts, aiming to work their way through spreadsheet puzzles until a final winner could be crowned, awarded a $5,000 prize, a trophy, and a winner's wrestling-style belt.
Early, who has a PhD in computer science and is the founder of Early Days Consulting in New York and is no stranger to the competitive Excel world and has won the Financial Modeling World Cup in the past.
The event is a showcase for both Microsoft's spreadsheet and the skills of individuals who can use it to solve tricky problems.
Excel first emerged in 1985, although it didn't reach the Intel platform until 1987. The dominant spreadsheet of the 1980s was Lotus 1-2-3, but in the 1990s, Excel overtook it in popularity. By 2013, Lotus 1-2-3 was quietly killed off by IBM, which had acquired Lotus.
Early, called the "LeBron James of Excel", beat three-time champion Andrew Ngai of Australia in the final. The event had a wrestling atmosphere, with a half-time show featuring an "Export to Excel" musical number. However, rather than oiled wrestlers, there were Excel experts, aiming to work their way through spreadsheet puzzles until a final winner could be crowned, awarded a $5,000 prize, a trophy, and a winner's wrestling-style belt.
Early, who has a PhD in computer science and is the founder of Early Days Consulting in New York and is no stranger to the competitive Excel world and has won the Financial Modeling World Cup in the past.
The event is a showcase for both Microsoft's spreadsheet and the skills of individuals who can use it to solve tricky problems.
Excel first emerged in 1985, although it didn't reach the Intel platform until 1987. The dominant spreadsheet of the 1980s was Lotus 1-2-3, but in the 1990s, Excel overtook it in popularity. By 2013, Lotus 1-2-3 was quietly killed off by IBM, which had acquired Lotus.
The Microsoft Excel World Championship began in 2021.
During the course of a season (January through November), competitors complete eight stages of modeling problems and are allotted two hours over a 48-hour window to complete each stage. Each stage contains three case studies, one to five pages long, with multiple choice or fill-in questions at the end. Contrary to what the name suggests, not all case studies are financial modeling based; many are business modeling or data modeling based.
Stage points are available for:Task: Correctly solving questions on each case (points vary by question)
Time: Completing the stage early (10 points per minute, awarded only if the competitor has scored 900 task points)
Stage points are available for:Task: Correctly solving questions on each case (points vary by question)
Time: Completing the stage early (10 points per minute, awarded only if the competitor has scored 900 task points)
For more information on competitive Excel: https://excel-esports.com/
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