Top tier number crunching – Microsoft Excel is getting an esports tournament

When thinking about esports, Microsoft Excel may not be the first thing to come to mind. Yet, Microsoft announced a competition using their program.

In the ‘Financial Modeling World Cup’ there will be 8 competitors from 8 different countries battling it out using Microsoft Excel. The tournament is scheduled for June 8 and will show some of the best problem solving minds duking it out on the virtual spreadsheets. If that doesn’t sound exciting, we don’t know what is. It’ll certainly be worth checking out. The event also promises an “opportunity to learn some tricks used by some of the greatest minds in financial modeling”.

Financial modeling as an e-sport. Watch eight top financial modelers around the world work their mad #Excel skills on June 8 at 12 PM UTC. Find out more (and check out the merch): https://t.co/GqkmWjSFOo

— Microsoft Excel (@msexcel) June 4, 2021

The participants hail from all over the world, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, South-Africa, India and others. To make things even more exciting, the entire event will have a broadcast on YouTube, so you can watch along at home starting June 8. While we may not be seeing flashy plays or crazy highlights, it’s certainly interesting to possibly see a new esport develop.

Reception has been quite good, with multiple people saying they’ll tune in to the action. Others are saying they’ll soon be trying their hand at Microsoft Excel speedruns and with that, a whole new esport is born.

Oh, it’s real. This one is focused on very high-end financial modelers but we are already brainstorming on how to do excel speed runs for a broader audience. Start practicing your macros!

— Brinkmanship (@Brinkmanship) June 4, 2021