Excel Esports On ESPN Show World the Pain of Format Errors (arstechnica.com) 35
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: If you watched ESPN2 during its stint last weekend as "ESPN8: The Ocho," you may have seen some odd, meme-friendly competitions, including corgi racing, precision paper airplane tossing, and slippery stair climbing. Or you might have seen "Excel Esports: All-Star Battle," a tournament in which an unexpected full-column Flash Fill is announced like a 50-yard Hail Mary. It's just the latest mainstream acknowledgment of Excel as a viable, if quirky, esport, complete with down-to-the-wire tension and surprising comebacks. [...]
Featured in this all-star battle was 2021 FMWC World Cup winner Diarmuid Early, an FMWC grandmaster from Ireland who claims 10,000 hours in Excel. (He would be Lambda if he were a function, he said.) The winner of the first championship in 2020, Joseph Lau (28,600 hours, Isological), also competed, along with six other highly ranked function warriors. Diarmuid took a commanding lead in the first slot-like task, racking up more points more quickly in a first round than anyone has in an FMWC competition. Others faced the kinds of challenges that regular users see in less combative Excel work. Polish competitor Gabriela Stroj told the hosts that "one stupid error" -- leaving a formula linked to the wrong sheet -- likely cost her hundreds of points. David Brown from the US said that his major problem was pasting from his 32-bit Windows-based Excel to the official online Excel answer sheets, which left his formulas treated as text.
The top four of the eight competitors moved on to round 2, simulating a yacht regatta in Excel. Diarmuid and third-ranked Andrew Ngai made it through. The two competed on creating a score-tracking mechanic for an entirely Excel-based retro-style 2D platformer, "Modelario." Ngai eked out the win, although with only 411 of a total 1,000 possible points. Ngai's reward for a more than two-hour cell-based marathon: a trip to Tucson, Arizona, for the FMWC finals. You can watch the full two-hour-and-48-minute all-star battle, which ESPN edited down to 30 minutes, here. You can also try the Excel tasks used in last weekend's battle yourself, as the organizers (the Financial Modeling World Cup) made all three of them available to download.
Featured in this all-star battle was 2021 FMWC World Cup winner Diarmuid Early, an FMWC grandmaster from Ireland who claims 10,000 hours in Excel. (He would be Lambda if he were a function, he said.) The winner of the first championship in 2020, Joseph Lau (28,600 hours, Isological), also competed, along with six other highly ranked function warriors. Diarmuid took a commanding lead in the first slot-like task, racking up more points more quickly in a first round than anyone has in an FMWC competition. Others faced the kinds of challenges that regular users see in less combative Excel work. Polish competitor Gabriela Stroj told the hosts that "one stupid error" -- leaving a formula linked to the wrong sheet -- likely cost her hundreds of points. David Brown from the US said that his major problem was pasting from his 32-bit Windows-based Excel to the official online Excel answer sheets, which left his formulas treated as text.
The top four of the eight competitors moved on to round 2, simulating a yacht regatta in Excel. Diarmuid and third-ranked Andrew Ngai made it through. The two competed on creating a score-tracking mechanic for an entirely Excel-based retro-style 2D platformer, "Modelario." Ngai eked out the win, although with only 411 of a total 1,000 possible points. Ngai's reward for a more than two-hour cell-based marathon: a trip to Tucson, Arizona, for the FMWC finals. You can watch the full two-hour-and-48-minute all-star battle, which ESPN edited down to 30 minutes, here. You can also try the Excel tasks used in last weekend's battle yourself, as the organizers (the Financial Modeling World Cup) made all three of them available to download.
Sounds more interesting than... (Score:5, Insightful)
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I respectfully disagree. Anything Pac-Man related sounds way more interesting to me than anything Excel-related. Not that Pac-Man is all that terribly interesting.
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But he started using the MOD function out of the gate! Unexpected twist! A new dimension of nerd!
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I respectfully disagree. Anything Pac-Man related sounds way more interesting to me than anything Excel-related...
Embrace the power of "AND": https://www.wired.com/2006/10/... [wired.com]
Re: Sounds more interesting than... (Score:1)
Poe's Law but funny this time (Score:4, Informative)
so three years ago this was a krazam comedy sketch [youtube.com] and now it's science fact!
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Exactly what I thought of too. Amazing.
Well, shit (Score:2)
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It's ESPN 8: The Ocho! It's a real thing. Sort of. I don't watch the earlier ESPN numbers but I do know some sports fans who swear it's real.
Soon you will have to choose (Score:2)
ESPN or eSPN
saying something doesnt make it true (Score:1)
It's just the latest mainstream acknowledgment of Excel as a viable, if quirky, esport,
no, no it is not.
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Well, Excel is certainly in the same category as their "slippery stair climbing".
Profession by Isaac Asimov, anyone? (Score:3)
Each contestant will be supplied with a bar of nonferrous alloy of unspecified composition. He will be required to sample and assay the bar, reporting all results correctly to four decimals in per cent. All will utilize for this purpose a Beeman Microspectrograph Model FX-2, each of which is, at the moment, not in working order.
Sure, this is not a physical thing, but "Excel e-Sports" heavily reminds me of Asimov's "profession Olympics".
News for Nerds (Score:2)
Nailed it
Excel needs to die... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Lol! You're a funny one alright.
Decent database
So, I'm literally sitting here right now mashing data together from 5 different spreadsheets that I exported out of our ERP.
Could I do what I'm doing directly in a database? Of course.
Would it take me less time and effort to do it in a database? Maybe. It depends.
Could I get anyone outside of IT to do it that way? No.
Would I trust anyone outside of IT with access to the databases? Not a fuckin chance.
Oh, and I can't directly query my Production database. What I'm do
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You need some different data on that report? Sure! You'll have it in 3 months when my team is done creating a modification, testing it, letting you test it, then release it to production.
So you've never used decent accountancy software before. Ignorance isn't a great argument.
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So you've never used decent accountancy software before
What's you're definition of "decent"? I've been working with one of "the big ones" for longer than I care to admit. And I have some exposure to a few of the other "big ones". They all suck to modify, especially in a SOX compliant environment.
Ignorance isn't a great argument.
Got a mirror handy?
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Ah yes, the "do your research" response typically reserved for flat-earthers, moon-landing-deniers, anti-vaxxers, q-anon, and now apparently fairytale software that doesn't exist. I tried searching for "Accountancy software that is user customizable, SOX compliant, and easy to use", Google laughed at me.
Seriously though, I'd love to hear what software package you're referring to. Apparently I'm ignorant in my chosen profession, enlighten me before my boss finds out.
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EVE Online has the better GUI for spreadsheets! (Score:2)
EVE Online has the better GUI for spreadsheets!
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Are you going to game, or are you going to fiddle with the spreadsheets? Leeeeeroy Jenkins!!
realistic (Score:4, Funny)
The thrill of victory (Score:2)
The agony of delete.
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Wish I had mod points to give you.
Huh? (Score:2)
Guess I'm just getting too old.
Cost Benefit (Score:5, Funny)
So if I spend tens of thousands of hours in Excel, I might get lucky and win a trip to Tucson?
I'm thinking that these guys might need to use their amazing spreadsheet skills to do a cost/benefit analysis of how they're spending their time and expertise.
No. Just . . . no (Score:3)
If watching people manipulate Excel is "mainstream", I'm glad I'm on the outside. And not looking in.
Aw, come on!! (Score:2)