Ireland's Diarmuid Early Wins World Microsoft Excel Title (bbc.com) 14
Irish competitor Diarmuid Early, dubbed the "Lebron James of Excel spreadsheets," has won the 2025 Microsoft Excel World Championship in Las Vegas, dethroning three-time champion Andrew Ngai. The BBC reports: The esport showpiece in December attracted competitors worldwide as 256 spreadsheet heads battled it out across knockout rounds to join the final 24 in Vegas. [...] A three-time champion in the financial Excel tournaments, this win was Diarmuid's first in the overall competition. He held the triple-world champion Andrew Ngai to second place, and won the $5,000 prize and title belt. [...]
Excel esports transforms a common office tool into a dynamic sport. More than 20 years old, the competitive scene has evolved from being finance based to now involving more general problem solving. Although it might help, Diarmuid said "it doesn't require accounting or finance knowledge." He described an example where Excel is used in solving a maze, scoring poker hands, or even sorting Kings and Queens into the battles in which they fought.
Generally there is a 30 minute challenge, with each challenge broken up into levels. The questions increase gradually in difficulty, with each correct answer gaining a player points. Whoever gets the most points wins, and in a tie, it is whoever got there first. "It's just, can you think on your feet and do things quickly in Excel?" he said. "If you solve the earlier levels in a neat way, that'll let you hit the ground running faster on the later ones."
Excel esports transforms a common office tool into a dynamic sport. More than 20 years old, the competitive scene has evolved from being finance based to now involving more general problem solving. Although it might help, Diarmuid said "it doesn't require accounting or finance knowledge." He described an example where Excel is used in solving a maze, scoring poker hands, or even sorting Kings and Queens into the battles in which they fought.
Generally there is a 30 minute challenge, with each challenge broken up into levels. The questions increase gradually in difficulty, with each correct answer gaining a player points. Whoever gets the most points wins, and in a tie, it is whoever got there first. "It's just, can you think on your feet and do things quickly in Excel?" he said. "If you solve the earlier levels in a neat way, that'll let you hit the ground running faster on the later ones."
OMFG (Score:2)
the "Lebron James of Excel spreadsheets,"
Jesus, nerd!
Re: (Score:2)
Wait, what? (Score:2)
There's a Microsoft Excel World Championship competition? Is it April 1 already?
Given the choice, I don't know which I would have guessed the least likely thing to be true: (a) this or (b) Trump announcing a new "Trump-class" "battleship" (Google it or here [slashdot.org]. (Noting that "b" is still unlikely to come to fruition at all, but especially in the next 2 years as he stated.)
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Yeah, Trump suddenly seems desperate - well, even more desperate than before, which was already quite a lot - to get his name all over everything. I can see at least four possibilities.
1) His insiders (e.g. Johnson, Thune) have finally convinced him and his handlers there's no way "Trump 2028" is going to happen.
2) He himself has figured out he doesn't have the energy for a third term, since he already is getting whacked by this second term.
3) The rumors about some hidden health issue are true, and he's des
Re: (Score:3)
3) The rumors about some hidden health issue are true, and he's desperately trying to create an illusory legacy (pretending that the next guy won't just wipe all this out on Jan 21, 2029).
Fingers crossed, unless Trump simply forgot how conjunctions work when he added his name to the Kennedy Center:
"The Donald J. Trump and
John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts"
Re: (Score:2)
The name on the Kennedy Center is slightly longer than that:
"The Donald J. Trump and
The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts"
Restoring the name just involves removing the first line.
And who dafuq is Lebron James? (Score:2, Insightful)
Is he the Diarmuid Early of bread baking?
Re: (Score:2)
A basketballer known as much for his arrogance as for his (admittedly impressive) skills on the court.
We need a school in his name (Score:2)
King of the spreadsheets (Score:2)
Nah, sounds to much like king of the dipshits. There's a sport for everything it seems, LOL.
Well there's a lot of weird sports out there (Score:3)
Computer games like Excel are just one example of sports that people may find weird, but such things always existed.
For example in Germany in the 1970s there was a "Fußball"-craze. It's a game where 2 teams of up to 11 people try to get a ball into the goal of the other team. The hype around it was insane with TV-rights for an international tournament selling for _millions_ of Deutschmarks!
There was even a movie about that craze called "Libero" staring actor and singer Franz Beckenbauer, as a player.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah the whole Fußball thing was crazy. It directly translates to "Football" and it was a game played with feet and a ball. Don't the Germans know you should name games after the things you *don't* do? Real "Football" players carry and egg in their hands.
expert (Score:2)
An expert in a programming language with the world's stupidest UI.