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Journalism of Courage
Cell-ebrations are in order for Andrew Ngai, an Australian actuary who has become three-time winner of the Microsoft Excel World Championship. Ngai walked away with a WWE-style championship belt and $3000 (approx. 2.5 lakhs) in prize money, awarded by the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC).
How does competitive Excel work? For one, you aren’t required to solve any financial scenarios. Instead, the software’s versatility is the star of the show. Finalists are given 30 minutes to solve an elaborate ‘case’, which holds questions with rising levels of difficulty. Televised from Las Vegas, this year’s Excel masters had the following tasks:
Effectively, players had to turn their spreadsheet into a puzzle-solving system. Some likened it to an escape room, where one had to break free using any formulae or strategy of their choice.
“The game tasks will be testing your Excel and logical thinking skills. No previous knowledge in finance, engineering, data analytics or any other industry is necessary,” the FMCW writes encouragingly. However, it’s natural that you would need an eye for patterns, reasoning and memory, as Excel holds 475+ formulae in its Functions Library.
Historically, top players have been analysts, professors and consultants — those who use Excel for work every day. Winner Ngai has worked in insurance risk for 14 years, while Diarmuid Early, another mathlete tagged as ‘the Michael Jordan of Excel’, is a data consultant.
In 2021, India’s Anup Agarwal was the runner-up. An IIM Indore graduate, Agarwal is a financial modeler at ThinkMatrix Solutions, Bengaluru.
“I particularly enjoy how it has meant I’ve been on ESPN before any of my much more athletic friends,” muses Michael Jarman, an ex-finalist. Since 2023, the event has been broadcast on ESPN8’s ‘The Ocho’ — a US show on obscure sports and the people who love them. Dog surfing, foosball, pillow fights, slippery stairs and Tetris are some of the other ‘sports’ that have shown up here to keep Excel company.
Registrations are currently open on fmworldcup.com for the 2024 Excel World Championship. The tournament involves a qualifiers, play-offs and Live Finals setup. VLOOKUP to anyone giving it a go.
