电子表格“大咖们”的终极赛场
For a few years now, spreadsheet (电子表格) masters have been working hard to get their hands on the wrestling-style UK and world champion belts awarded to winners of the Microsoft Excel Championships.
Competitive Excel has been around for about 20 years, essentially a timed puzzle-solving competition that demands logical, creative thinking to develop practical, fast general solutions — often paired with a narrative context for each problem. Historically math-focused, the competition has expanded to include more diverse problem-solving tasks — such as maze-solving, poker hand analysis, and sorting scenarios.
Bristol financial advisor Myles Arnott and his business partner Giles Male are passionate about promoting the e-sport, seeking new talent and believing that expanded problem-solving tasks make it more “accessible”. Mr Arnott called it “the golden age of spreadsheet geekery (极客),” while Mr Male noted the competition has “gone nuts” in recent years, calling it “the most exciting way to improve at Excel.”
During the competition, competitors receive files of disordered data and “cases” that require sorting based on specific questions — with the first round giving all participants the same Excel file and a 30-minute window to answer as many questions as possible. There are seven difficulty levels of questions plus bonus tasks, each worth set points (harder questions earn more), and the highest scorer wins; in case of a tie, the faster finisher takes the title.
Mr Male described the world championship finals in Las Vegas as a “crazy” experience — held in an e-sports arena with hundreds of spectators cheering on participants. Alongside the wrestling-style champion’s belt, the event offers a $60,000 (£45,726) prize.