What springs to mind when I say ‘eSports?' It's probably something along the lines of League of Legends, DOTA 2, VALORANT, or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, right? Some guesses out of left field would include Dead By Daylight, GeoGuessr, or Farming Simulator, but there's a growing community of people out there who'd say Microsoft Excel. Yep, the long-running spreadsheet software—that many of us associate with interning for dreary companies we desperately hope we don't end up working for—is an eSport these days, with its own World Cup and everything. And it's actually kind of fascinating.
When I first stumbled upon Microsoft Excel as an eSport, I was first intrigued by its surface-level awkwardness. I thought it was merely watching people recreate barebone versions of games like Chess or Monopoly in Microsoft Excel and compete for high scores, but it turned out to be way more interesting than that.
The Excel World Cup (more precisely, the Financial Modeling World Cup or FMWC for short) would become my go-to content for two days straight. For a solid 48 hours, I developed a full-blown obsession with watching people structuring automatic solutions in spreadsheets to financial problems. You might rightly ask, 'What's so attention-grabbing in watching people figure taxes or calculating loss margins for enterprises that don't exist?'
Well, it's actually more gamey than that, as the contest revolves around puzzles built of multiple intricate problems. For a participant to win, they have to solve the most problems in a timeframe that's usually absurdly short. We're talking about 30 minutes to understand the problems, formulate an answer to these problems, or program an entirely new function to solve the problems.
For perspective, it would usually take someone with adequate Microsoft Excel proficiency several hours to solve the same problems. From how complex the problems were to the players' abilities to whip out incredibly creative ways to solve them, every aspect of the competition made me lost for words.
The problems are not always related to finances. In the 2021 FMWC, one round featured a problem called Feeding Excelopolis—kind of like a light spreadsheet-based version of Sid Meier's Civilization. The basic premise is that you get 7x7 spreadsheet cells.Each cell has a color and a numerical value of fertility (as in, fertility of the land). There are multiple levels, with different colors representing each level. These levels unlock more cells/land for the player to farm, and further levels are achievable by increasing the population.
You're given a unit (population) at the start, which you can place on a cell to 'farm' it, which creates more units for you. You can relocate the farming units to more fertile cells as you progress. However, once you hit Level 5, the privilege of relocating gets confiscated from you. The goal is to calculate how many years Excelopolis citizens would take to reach certain thresholds.
The bigger problem is that you have about 30 minutes to reach 1000 points, so you're gonna need to come up with a system to do some bulk calculations. One common way to beat these big sums of questions in under 30 minutes is to create a Microsoft Excel formula, or you could program a function yourself using Visual Basic within Microsoft Excel. Of course, they tried that with Feeding Excelopolis, but 30 minutes didn't seem to be an acceptable timeframe to make up formulas for a problem this complex. Nevertheless, one of the most impressive solutions was by Mr. Excel—a regular commentator and Microsoft Excel YouTuber— as he managed to yank 316 points out of 1000 in one of his recorded attempts at beating the case.
Then there's Knights and Warriors, a strategy game held at the 2022 FMWC Finals. Each participant has an army, and each unit has specific HP and Damage Points. The goal is for participants to solve problems, take turns attacking each other, and, of course, get to the 1000 points. The first two levels are basic calculations, and the rest unlock various classes of the army, beginning with infantry and ending with archers.
Along with an official Microsoft sponsorship, ESPN covered last year's all-star battle, which was a significant step for the FMWC to garner much-needed mainstream attention. While I usually don't enjoy commentary, but the commentary provided by Excel On Fire and Mr. Excel helps translate the complexity of what's going on on-screen for new viewers, so if you start watching you're not just going to be in the dark. These commentators are veterans of the Excel community, and they've got you covered while imbuing the event with a bit of drama.
I never really thought I'd enjoy watching people compete on who finishes their paperwork the fastest, but it's really gripping. Some of these problem-solvers are more strategic and rely on a surprise element more than others. Take Diarmuid Early, for example, In a one-on-one battle, his opponent Joseph Lau was ahead for over 29 minutes with four 4 problems solved. Little did we know that it was the calm before the storm—Early solved 8 answers correctly and rapidly in just 90 seconds.
I was Team Diarmuid from the beginning, as he's pretty slick in how he approaches the problems presented, and my faith paid off as he emerged victorious by the end of the battle. Unfortunately, Diarmuid didn’t have much luck in winning the 2020 Season as Joseph Lau rallied pretty hard after this battle, and eventually landed first place followed by Diarmuid in second.
You can watch back all the drama on the official YouTube channel of the FMWC, and the 2023 iteration is likely to begin around October. However, you can also participate. That's right, joining the FMWC is 'relatively' easier than some other tournaments. You don't have to be part of a team. There's no required degree, and there's absolutely no age limit. You can join by visiting and registering on the FMWC website.
There's a bit of fun as you peek through a competitive field that utilizes the ingenuity and strategy of its competitors, and there's a lot of fun in listening to the commentators hyping up every action worthy of the hype. Some formulas work, and there are nonfunctional ones that have to be destroyed in late heart-wrenching moments of realization. From all of its aspects, the FMWC shows that there's some sort of merriment even in the most mundane of spaces—all it takes to realize it is a little twist.