If you did n’t know that Excel eSports are a thing , we ’d imagine you are far from alone , given that theslogan of the most salient organizeris " Excel Esports . Yes . It ’s a Thing . "
The Financial Modeling World Cup ( FMWC ) host the events , including a late " all - star battle " , the highlights of which aired on CNN .
The competition see the all - stars ( who are fighter of earlier competitions ) compete at various complex spreadsheet - refer tasks created by the organizers , while the reviewer describe events like they ’re watching the Super Bowl .
Tasks given to the contestants included a racing yacht race game created in Excel , which the players had to talk terms piss and winds ( as represented by excel cells ) , losing point for err off course of instruction and for taking extra moves to discharge the grade .
Another saw the contestants attempt to calculate a player ’s score in a fictitious Excel - based game , only by await at the levels , the dominion of the game , and a list of the participant ' moves .
The undertaking are something you ’d be unlikely to do in Excel ( let ’s confront it , if you’re able to make a pillar turn yellowish when a certain economic value is reached you’re able to convince most fellow you ’re some variety of genius ) . But that ’s sort of the point ; to give the competitors a challenge . Nevertheless , the rivalry split opinion passably among those who were run across it for the first fourth dimension .
" These guy really just want to learn to cipher , " one Twitteruser wrote . " This is like watch an abacus - fingering competition " .
" That ’s like watching the Kentucky Derby and saying ' Why do n’t they just drive?',“another answer .
Most were just impressed with the creative thinking of functions used in the competition , and the various tactics used by the competitors .
As you ’d expect if you have ever used any form of spreadsheet over the years , several competitors were held back by errors as simple as linking an par to the wrong sheet or cell , only noticing later on what had live on wrong . There was also a trade - off between trying to rapidly summons data , or taking extra time out betimes on to come up with functions to do that bit for you , and adventure your opponent single-foot up the points in the meantime .
In the closing , it was the latter that do better in their challenge , and probably who you ’d want act your organization ’s spreadsheet .
“ The contestants that clean their metal first , they wind up with good knives in the end , " as the commentator put it , " and the unity that do n’t , they get up ahead of sentence but then they wander with a crack brand or something . ”
