The contestants in an event like the Excel World Championship are given what’s called a “case,” which could be almost anything. One case from last year’s competition required each player to figure out all the possible outcomes and associated rewards for a slot machine; another required modeling how a videogame character might navigate through an Excel-based level. A lot of cases involve chess, elections, or random-character generators of some kind. In every case, the contestants have 30 minutes to answer a series of questions worth up to 1,000 points. Most points wins.

This year, there’s a new wrinkle: it’s an elimination race. Every five minutes, the player with the fewest points will be eliminated until there’s only one Excel-er remaining. “We have already shot the game,” says Andrew Grigolyunovich, the founder and CEO of the Financial Modeling World Cup, the organization that oversees the event. It’s now being edited down for ESPN consumption, he says, and the whole match will come out on Friday as well. “It’s a really fun, exciting event.”

Last year’s competition featured some of the biggest names in Excel: Diarmuid Early, a financial and data consultant who several people I spoke to referred to as “the Michael Jordan of Excel;” Andrew Ngai, an actuary who is currently the top-ranked competitive Exceler in the world; David Brown, a University of Arizona professor who also leads a lot of the college-level Excel competitions; and more. (Spoiler alert: [the article author identies last year’s winner, refer to the full article if your ok with the spoiler]) All three feature in this year’s battle, too, along with five other spreadsheet whizzes.

  • wjrii@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I defend soccer to American football fans. I defend American football to soccer fans. I defend baseball to cricket fans, and vice versa. I defend NASCAR to ball-sport fans. I defend golf to fans of more strenuous sports. I defend esports to fans of traditional sports. I don’t even like all those things myself, but I get them. The fact that the specific activities and their nuances and rhythms didn’t connect with me personally doesn’t mean I can’t wrap my head around the appeal.

    But a man’s got to have limits. I draw the line at fuckin’ Excel. You’re on your own, mofos.

  • ashok36@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    OP, you might want to clarify that your spoiler alert is for last year’s competition winner. I was pretty miffed until I re-read.

    • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Sorry! I just copied a relevant chunk from the article, so that’s their spoiler. I’ll edit though, it is confusing (and this is the first time I’ve heard about excel games so I was tempted to look up last year’s until the verge spoiled it).

  • Kerandir@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    So where we can see the games on Friday? I skimmed rapidly the article and I didnt find a place

    • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      7am eastern on ESPN will be a 30 minute cut of it. Sounds like the full multi hour match will be posted on YouTube. I was trying to find last year’s, likes like it might be on Financial Modeling World Cups channel. Not positive though.

  • RheingoldRiver@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Was quite confused that this is Microsoft Excel and not Excel Esports, the very real esports organization that competes in actual esports.

    Maybe edit the title? I completely glossed over this and wondered what is a generic esports event doing in /m/technology for a while until I thought “wait is this maybe not about the esports org”