Credits: Social Media
There’s a ‘Microsoft Excel’ World Championship where the winner gets a WWE-style belt
The highly competitive championships are the pinnacle of the sport that the Microsoft Excel whizz in your life didn’t know they needed.
Are your colleagues constantly amazed by your proficiency in handling the notoriously intricate spreadsheet software? If so, we may have just found your new favorite sport. Thousands of data-handling aficionados are just now learning about the competitive world of Excel e-sports. The game captured the eyes of an ever-growing fan base at its Microsoft Excel World Championship in December 2023, where the winner was awarded a belt that would make John Cena blush to accompany a five-figure cash prize.
Spreadsheet gurus battle it out at Microsoft Excel Championships
In a grueling process that lasted from early October to December 9 last year, 128 players were whittled down to one as the world’s most efficient office workers went blow for blow on the popular computer software.
Unlike most people who claim to be proficient at Excel but don’t actually know their Ctrl+C’s from their Ctrl+V’s, the competitors at the Microsoft Excel champs know the software inside out – and the brutal qualification rounds ensure that no one makes it through by accident.
Those keen to compete in last year’s tournament faced no less than 100 questions of varying difficulty whilst being timed, just to make it into the main tournament to face 127 other competitors. From there, the Excel whizzes were cut down to 64, 32, 16 players and so on. This was until the time came for remaining the finalists to meet in Las Vegas in early December.
Spreadsheet geniuses Andrew Ngai, Michael Jarman and Peter Sharl were leading the race, in which they were provided a large batch of data and a set of complicated instructions, battling it out to see who could input the correct formulas. They were also racing against the foreboding clock, which eliminated the lowest scoring competitor every seven and a half minutes.
Meet the 2023 winner Andrew Ngai
After a riveting battle that went right down to the wire, Ngai came back miraculously from what looked like a point of statistical despair to lift the coveted 2023 Microsoft Excel Championship trophy.
For his efforts, Ngai was awarded a comically large WWE-style belt and a cash prize of $15,000, the spending of which he will no doubt keep track of on a finely maintained spreadsheet.
In his spare time, Ngai is a senior actuary, and has spent the last 12 years refining his bookkeeping skills while working across a range of finance companies in Australia.
2023 was not Ngai’s first rodeo, but rather capped off a threepeat – with the Sydney native making it three Excel Championships on the bounce.
On the off chance you’re half as curious as we were, here’s what Ngai looks like in action:
TikTok is the hub of handy Excel tips
With thousands of new spectators having watched footage of Ngai and the gang for the first time on TikTok over Christmas, there’s likely to be a hoard of new people wondering how they can excel their spreadsheet game.
And one TikTok star, Excel With Grant, has set out to help people do just that. Having racked up nearly one million followers with his helpful tricks and tips, Grant could be the difference between you lying about your organizational skills on your CV and Ngai finally getting toppled off the top of the championships.
Grat’s insightful explanation of why you should ditch the VLOOKUP command is just one of the various examples of his work that has gone viral recently:
Let’s make 2024 the year we actually learn how to use Excel.
