From financial modelling to the latest Excel esport craze – and why a new competition is launching in Europe this May.
Last December, a 500-strong crowd spilled into a Las Vegas arena to watch an emcee hyping up competitors. They walked out on stage through a glowing music tunnel, battling it out for a share of the USD 61,500 prize fund and a wrestling style winner belt. No, it wasn’t the latest martial arts craze but the grand final of the Microsoft Excel World Championship. For the last challenge, 12 players had to virtually create origami from a piece of paper that was 100 cells by 100 cells, working out which numbers would still be visible on the top – with whoever was at the bottom of the leaderboard eliminated every five minutes. “We want to make it exciting; that way more people watch and the bigger the event becomes,” says Andrew Grigolyunovich, a Latvian former chartered financial analyst who founded both this competition and the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC) in 2020. “Those who are the champions really are the rockstars of the Excel world.”
Indeed, the current champion is Irish-born, New York-based financial consultant Diarmuid Early, who is known as “the LeBron James of spreadsheets,” while in 2023, almost three million YouTube viewers watched clips of Australian Andrew Ngai (nicknamed “The Annihilator”) taking the title. It all adds to the increasing fanfare around spreadsheets as an upcoming esport. “The final was quite mad,” recalls Diarmuid, who has also won the FMWC twice. “At the front of each person's table there was a giant screen that mirrored whatever was on the computer so the audience, who were in stadium-style seating, could see every move.”
In June 2021 we streamed our first battle, and it had over 100,000 views in 24-hours
It’s all a world away from the original Model Off competition, which was discontinued in 2019. “I had been a player in Model Off and thought it was a nice niche to push forwards with my own team,” explains Andrew. “Initially the idea was just to improve the format, moving the FMWC to a monthly event and providing transparent rankings to players but then we started to experiment, to make what is now the Microsoft Excel World Championship spectator friendly.” Towards the end of 2021, ESPN started broadcasting the competition live but, says Andrew, it was social media that really shifted the attention dial. “In June 2021 we streamed our first battle, and it had over 100,000 views in 24-hours. That was a sign that it was capturing people’s imagination.” Two years later, the final was held live in Las Vegas for the first time.
Less high-profile than the Microsoft Excel World Championship but taken equally seriously is the FMWC which sees around 400 players sign up each year (many competitors cross-over and take part in both). While the former is more about problem solving, the latter runs as a league and requires a certain level of financial knowledge. There are eight stages, all online and each lasting two hours, during which time participants attempt a trio of challenges that get progressively harder. “In Excel esports you don’t need to know how to calculate IRR rates, project payback or EBITDA. Last year, one stage of the FMWC for instance, was devoted to mergers and acquisition modelling,” says Andrew. In 2023 Cape Capital sponsored three of its interns to participate in the FMWC, with one even making it to the second last round, and competing directly with the ‘LeBron James of spreadsheets", Diarmuid Early.
Of course, it’s competitive but not in a negative way. You read about some of the gaming communities and they're toxic, but our little world could not be more different
“The fact that there’s a range of case authors from different industries means that nobody is a pro at all of them and it’s a good way to learn. It requires more subject expertise but for me, it feels more like work,” continues Diarmuid. “With the Microsoft Excel World Championship, in many ways, the hardest part is wrapping your head around a problem that you've never seen before. You can practise execution using past cases which is helpful, but you need to be able to take a bunch of instructions or visuals in the moment and decide how to tackle it.” What keeps Diarmuid participating year after year, is, he says, all down to the community. “Everyone is so friendly and supportive. Of course, it’s competitive but not in a negative way. You read about some of the gaming communities and they're toxic, but our little world could not be more different,” he says.
In May this year, a new competition will be added to the esports roster: the European Open. “What we’re trying to build is a series of feeder tournaments towards Las Vegas. We’re testing the waters now, but the hope is that in a couple of years there’ll be more regional tournaments,” says Andrew, who also runs the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge for students and last year created an online platform for Excel esports. “We will be trialling newer concepts such as mixed doubles matches and a mega elimination game that we might add into the Las Vegas experience.” There’s no doubt that the spreadsheet phenomenon is growing.
Find out more about Microsoft Excel World Championship here and the Financial Modeling World Cup here
Andrew Grigolyunovich,
Diarmuid Early
Cape Capital