The surprise rise of Excel Esports (and how it's wowing fans)

In a typical Excel Esports battle, two or more competitors have 30 minutes to solve various problems, using Microsoft Excel as their weapon of choice.

“They’re mostly crazy problems that you’re never going to come across in real life,” says contestant Nick Boberg, chartered financial analyst and director of Boberg Advisory, a financial modelling consultancy based in Hamilton, New Zealand.

“A recent one involved being caught on an island with bears that want to eat your picnic baskets. You have these different baskets, each of which cost a certain amount, and if the bear is nice and returns the basket, then you can get some money back.

“Then you get a map of the island, and you’re told where the bears are. You have to work out how to get from A to B across this island without going near the bears, or they’ll eat you,” Boberg explains.

The battles are about how well participants can process and analyse information under pressure using Excel.

“There’s a real thrill that comes with that, because half an hour is no time at all,” Boberg says.

“I can practise cases and consistently perform well in a casual, stress-free environment. When game time comes, and you’re putting it all together under pressure, if you go down the wrong rabbit hole, it’s very hard to stop and take stock.”

The Excel Esports competition, which could see contestants like Boberg flown to Las Vegas for the grand final, is developing quite a following. Some Excel Esports events have been broadcast on ESPN8.

There are numerous levels of qualifying before the best come together to do battle. The smaller events go straight to YouTube, and some of these video feeds attract audiences of more than 700,000.

Andrew Grigolyunovich is a chartered financial analyst based in Riga, Latvia and is the founder and owner of the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC).

He is also the CEO of AG Capital, which provides outsourced CFO services to small and medium-sized businesses.

Grigolyunovich’s inspiration came from taking part in the ModelOff competition for financial modellers. The tournament-style competition required contestants to solve financial case studies and develop models within Excel. ModelOff was founded by John Persico, CEO of Melbourne-based finance firm Vumero.

“That’s basically where the idea for the FMWC grew from,” Grigolyunovich says.

 

"I still have to test and review the challenges, particularly for complexity. Sometimes, people want to make it too difficult, but we don’t want competitors to fail. We want the top five people to be able to score the maximum in the time they have – then we can decide the winner based on time saved."

 

“The guys from Australia were running it as once a year only. They ran it until 2019, then it was discontinued. In 2020, there was no information and no opportunity to compete.

“I wanted to compete monthly, and I wanted more public awareness around what financial modellers do,” he says.

In July 2020, after two months of planning, Grigolyunovich launched the FMWC with his colleagues Max Sych and Emils Saulitis.

The FMWC began as a side hustle, but has grown into a standalone company.

“It could outgrow the core business in the near future,” Grigolyunovich says.

Three competitions

At any one time, up to seven people based around the globe are working full-time for the FMWC, which has evolved around three pillars.

The first pillar is the main FMWC competition for finance professionals, which has eight online stages over the course of a year. All cases relate to finance and revolve around forecasting, investment analysis, ROI, rates, companies and various other accounting-related topics.

“There is some fun stuff, too,” he says. “There was a case based around harvest time on a farm. They needed to harvest different agricultural items and work out what would maximise revenues and profits, etc.” 

The second pillar is Excel Esports, known as Microsoft Excel World Championship since the software giant became a major sponsor.

“These cases are more spectator-friendly,” Grigolyunovich says. “Everyone uses Excel to solve problems that aren’t finance related. The challenge might be to do with solving card games like hands of poker, for example. Or it might be around solving board games, or something completely different.

“The third pillar is the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge, in partnership with the University of Arizona. It targets students and is a bit of a mixture, both financial problems and Excel Esports problems.”

Last year, the competition attracted participants and teams from all around the globe, from Singapore to Madagascar.

“Madagascar had a really strong team,” Grigolyunovich says. “They travelled for three days on six legs of flights, and they took second place.”

The logistics of running three international competitions are challenging, of course, but so is the game design.

Each problem or challenge takes quite a while to design, Grigolyunovich says. A problem that can be solved in 30 minutes typically takes 8-16 hours to create.

In the beginning, Grigolyunovich designed many of the challenges himself. Now, the task is shared widely among subject matter experts.

“No one person can be experienced in detailed budgeting, cost analysis, merger and acquisition deals, leveraged buy-outs, SaaS businesses and so on, all at once, so we bring in as many different people as we can to help us with writing.

“I still have to test and review the challenges, particularly for complexity. Sometimes, people want to make it too difficult, but we don’t want competitors to fail. We want the top five people to be able to score the maximum in the time they have – then we can decide the winner based on time saved,” he says.

FMWC commentator Danielle Stein Fairhurst has had a front-row seat to the evolution of the competition.

Stein Fairhurst, a “Microsoft MVP”, is principal with financial modelling consultancy Plum Solutions.

Stein Fairhurst was involved with ModelOff first, which she says was more of an “in‑person” competition. When ModelOff was replaced by the mostly online FMWC, it evolved and became more accessible.

“The fact that there was a competition set up specifically for financial modellers was really exciting,” Stein Fairhurst says. “I’ve written several books on financial modelling. It’s such a keen topic area of interest for me. I jumped on board straight away.”

 

"You watch what they do, and you go, ‘Wow, that’s a really interesting way of doing it. I wonder what they’re going to do next’. They come up with fantastic shortcuts and techniques. It’s very cool, and I learn a lot."

 

One disappointment for Stein Fairhurst has been the lack of women in the competition. Even now, she says, there are only about 10 women in the top 100.

Stein Fairhurst started a women’s meet-up group in 2020 to raise the profile of women in financial modelling. The group meets online regularly to share useful information on competing in the FMWC battles and encourage women to compete.

Audience translator

Stein Fairhurst is also a radio announcer and presenter. This meant she was not only familiar with the ins and outs of FMWC and Excel Esports, but also had experience in broadcast commentary. This made her an obvious choice as a commentator.

“One esports competition that I commentated on a few weeks ago was based on a laundry pile,” Stein Fairhurst says.

“There was a string of characters, each of which represented a piece of clothing, and competitors had to pick up the order of the pieces of laundry and figure out the combinations of characters using formulae, to work out how many combinations of outfits there were, etc.”

Before the competition, Stein Fairhurst and her fellow commentator will have seen the problem in advance and taken the time to solve it themselves. This means they can watch and understand what the competitors are trying to do and can translate that information for spectators to make the viewing experience more engaging.

“You watch what they do, and you go, ‘Wow, that’s a really interesting way of doing it. I wonder what they’re going to do next’,” she says. “They come up with fantastic shortcuts and techniques. It’s very cool, and I learn a lot.”

Ready to rumble

Sydney-based actuary Andrew Ngai is the reigning Microsoft Excel World Champion. Ngai is also a director at actuarial and analytics firm Taylor Fry.

Ngai remembers the most exciting experience of his competitive career so far as a moment in time – a fortunate guess as opposed to a perfect strategy – that saw him win a vital round of Excel Esports.

“It happened in the semi-finals last year,” he says. “In the last two minutes of the semi‑finals, I saw that I was narrowly behind my opponent.”

The scores remained neck and neck as both spreadsheet superheroes raced to be the first to solve the complex puzzle. 

“Then it came right down to the final 10 seconds, and I made a lucky guess.”

Ngai smiles. “I got 12 points, and that was enough to win.”

 

"Most actuaries use Excel a lot every day at work. It’s also important to be able to handle time pressure and plan clearly. These are both things I was trained to do both at work and when completing my professional exams."

 

Five years ago, Ngai found out about ModelOff, and because he worked deeply within Excel every day, he decided to give it a try. What he found was a fun, unique competition that aligned neatly with his Excel skill set.

In 2022, Ngai took home a US$3000 (A$4480) prize purse when he won the Excel Esports competition.

A key factor in Ngai’s success has been the training and experience in his career to date.

“Most actuaries use Excel a lot every day at work,” says Ngai.

“It’s also important to be able to handle time pressure and plan clearly. These are things I was trained to do both at work and when completing my professional exams.”

Ngai also appreciates the contribution made by the case authors.

“The scenarios are imaginative, and there’s lots of opportunity to think creatively,” he says. “This has contributed a lot to Excel – a tool that we often just associate with work – becoming fun and entertaining for both competitors and spectators.”

Sydney-based actuary Andrew Ngai is the reigning Microsoft Excel World Champion. Ngai is also a director at actuarial and analytics firm Taylor Fry.

Ngai remembers the most exciting experience of his competitive career so far as a moment in time – a fortunate guess as opposed to a perfect strategy – that saw him win a vital round of Excel Esports.

“It happened in the semi-finals last year,” he says. “In the last two minutes of the semi‑finals, I saw that I was narrowly behind my opponent.”

The scores remained neck and neck as both spreadsheet superheroes raced to be the first to solve the complex puzzle. 

“Then it came right down to the final 10 seconds, and I made a lucky guess.”

Ngai smiles. “I got 12 points, and that was enough to win.”

 

"Most actuaries use Excel a lot every day at work. It’s also important to be able to handle time pressure and plan clearly. These are both things I was trained to do both at work and when completing my professional exams."

 

Five years ago, Ngai found out about ModelOff, and because he worked deeply within Excel every day, he decided to give it a try. What he found was a fun, unique competition that aligned neatly with his Excel skill set.

In 2022, Ngai took home a US$3000 (A$4480) prize purse when he won the Excel Esports competition.

A key factor in Ngai’s success has been the training and experience in his career to date.

“Most actuaries use Excel a lot every day at work,” says Ngai.

“It’s also important to be able to handle time pressure and plan clearly. These are things I was trained to do both at work and when completing my professional exams.”

Ngai also appreciates the contribution made by the case authors.

“The scenarios are imaginative, and there’s lots of opportunity to think creatively,” he says. “This has contributed a lot to Excel – a tool that we often just associate with work – becoming fun and entertaining for both competitors and spectators.”