1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,240 It's fair to say most of us don't like spreadsheets, but the people who do like them 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:10,240 like them a lot. And while many of us use Microsoft Excel in our day-to-day work, 3 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:14,720 an elite few have adapted the world's most popular spreadsheet software 4 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:22,720 into an e-sports phenomenon. In 2022, the Excel World Championship debuted as part of ESPN's 5 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:29,280 The Ocho, an annual showcase of lower-profile sports like axe throwing, corgi racing, and of 6 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:34,800 course, the Slippery Stair Climb. The vast majority of viewers had never even conceived of 7 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:40,640 competitive Excel before, because there are some levels of nerdy that are simply beyond mere mortal 8 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:46,800 ken. But the sport was popular enough that it was renewed for the 2023 Ocho and will be holding 9 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:54,320 its finale in the Las Vegas HyperX e-sports arena this December with a prize pool of $10,000 across 10 00:00:55,280 --> 00:01:01,600 But Excel as an e-sport didn't appear out of nowhere fully formed in 2022. It came out of an 11 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:07,200 existing culture of financial modeling competitions. Basically, these are tournaments where participants 12 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:12,800 must create a financial forecast for a fictional company based on a provided data set in, what 13 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:17,840 else, Excel. The organizers of the Financial Modeling World Championship were looking for a 14 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:23,600 way to turn these competitions into a spectator sport, because apparently the cultural mainstream 15 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:28,960 is unenthusiastic about debt service coverage ratios, which is a real shame. They gradually 16 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:34,320 adapted the format to make the contests more exciting and accessible, and in mid-2021, 17 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:40,960 they went viral. Because, you know, pandemic. Finally, ESPN expressed an interest, and the 18 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:48,720 FMWC Open was streamed on ESPN3 in December 2021. The next year, Microsoft sponsored the competition, 19 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:53,360 lending it their own name, and making it the Microsoft Excel World Championship. 20 00:01:53,680 --> 00:02:00,720 But what does a round of competitive Excel actually look like? And how do you Excel enough to win? 21 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:05,760 Each round of an Excel tournament has a unique challenge, like tabulating the results of a 22 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:10,720 series of hypothetical elections or projecting the outcome of a game of whack-a-mole. Participants 23 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:15,680 have to answer a series of 100 increasingly difficult questions about the puzzle in only 30 24 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:21,120 minutes. That's roughly one answer every 18 seconds, but that assumes that the players are 25 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:25,520 answering them one at a time, which they aren't, unless time is short and they're desperate. 26 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:30,640 Questions are typically organized into five batches of 20 questions, and the dominant strategy 27 00:02:30,640 --> 00:02:36,320 by experienced players is to create a single formula that will solve an entire batch. This means 28 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:42,320 that a player's score can stagnate for long periods, then jump rapidly. It can even go down, 29 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:48,800 which means it's time for a quick undo. But that might not save novice players who get stuck and 30 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:54,240 wind up with a big fat zero out of a thousand. The winner is whoever answers all the questions 31 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:59,680 correctly first or whoever has the most points when the 30 minutes are up. The puzzles can vary 32 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:05,440 a lot in terms of difficulty, so the points players receive are typically adjusted to normalize scores 33 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:11,360 across games. An infamous 2021 case based on the game's civilization was so difficult that the 34 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:16,560 winner managed to get just eight points total, narrowly edging out his opponent who managed to 35 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:22,080 accumulate a paltry six. Both of them were guessing, which can be executed quickly and 36 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:28,080 efficiently using the formula rand between to cover large batches of unknown answers. Familiarity 37 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:33,280 with keyboard shortcuts is obviously a necessary skill, to the point that player BIOS will list 38 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:37,920 their favorite shortcut. And there's some hot controversy in the meta over whether competitive 39 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:43,680 players should ever use a mouse to navigate. Advanced players with a fluency and visual 40 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:49,360 basic might even code on the fly. Unsurprisingly, the game tends to be dominated by accountants, 41 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:57,200 actuaries, mathematicians, and engineers. You know, the alpha nerds. The format of games can vary as 42 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:02,640 well, with tournaments sometimes featuring 1v1 elimination matches and other times 8 player 43 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:09,200 battle royales. It's brutal. A panel of commentators narrate the game, dissect the outcome, 44 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:14,080 and introduce and interview the players before and after the fact. And at in-person events, 45 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:19,840 there's often an electric crowd excited to see their favorite Excel battler perform the spreadsheet 46 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:25,840 equivalent of a mounted elbow drop off the top rope. And it's not a sport without merch. They've 47 00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:31,760 got shirts like this invalid formula, divided by zero design, or this one with all your favorite 48 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:38,160 formulas. I'm partial to equal count ifs, open, parent, closed, parent, myself. The Microsoft 49 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:43,200 Excel World Championship isn't the only gaming arena where you'll find Excel. It's had a long, 50 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:48,640 if eccentric history in gaming, usually acting as an external, supplementary tool for complex 51 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:54,480 RPGs that require advanced data management. Eve Online, the game sometimes called spreadsheets 52 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:59,760 in space, actually got an official Excel plug-in earlier this year, much to the excitement of its 53 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:04,720 player base. Not to mention that people have been programming games directly into Excel for decades, 54 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:10,160 like Snake, Minesweeper, and even Battleship. If there's anything we can learn from a sweaty 55 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:14,640 crowd cheering on their favorite Excel champion as they formulate their way to victory, it's that 56 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:20,800 human beings can find joy in literally anything. And it brings me great joy to see you here at the 57 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:25,200 end of the video. Welcome! Thanks for watching, like the video if you like it, dislike it if 58 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:29,120 you disliked it, check out our other videos, comment below with video suggestions, and don't 59 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:35,680 forget to subscribe and follow and plug us into your spreadsheet of choice. I know you have it.