In a blow to the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup, the Microsoft Excel Championships is becoming increasingly popular

It is a common meme these days that the entire Global economy and pretty much all of human civilization is propped up by Microsoft Excel. The no-nonsense powerful spreadsheet tool competently handles all the business work needed to manage companies and organize projects. Did you know, however, that spread sheeting is an adrenaline-pumping Esport that has its own set of grand world championships? Well, it does, and we are here to tell you all about it.

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The Microsoft Excel World Championship took place at the weekend and was shown on ESPN 2. Incredibly, the event even went viral on Twitter as well, as viewers took to tweeting about the events and sharing videos of the epic battles.

The Excel event is a part of the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC), which organizes what they call educational, fun, and exciting competitions in Excel. After confirming that Excel Esports events are actually a thing, the organizes say:

“Participants solve unusual game tasks in Excel. No finance, just Excel and logical thinking skills. Use IFS, XLOOKUP, SUM, VBA, Power Query: anything is allowed, and the strategy is up to you. All battles are live-streamed and can be spectated on our Youtube channel.”

It is exciting stuff too, with some of the events participants taking to the FMWC site to offer testimonials about the event. Cecelia Rieb, who was a participant in the FMWC Open in 2021 said:

“Never have I been so stressed and so excited at the same time! The bracket-style competition is really fun and watching the best-of-the-best go head-to-head was both educational and validating. I can’t wait for the next one!”

If this sounds like something that you would like to see you can watch the whole event below:

If, however, you want a piece of the action and think you could take on the best-of-the-best, you too can sign up for the FMWC Open 2022. All you have to do is head over to the event’s homepage and hit the Enter the Competition button. To help you take the gold, we’ve put together a guide to 12 essential Excel formulas that will help you become a pro.