Competitive Excel

Forget about eSports and Pay-Per-View boxing. If you're craving THE thrilling event of the 21st century, look no further than the Microsoft Excel World Championship. Yes, you read that right. Competitors from across the world compete against each other for who can be the winner in a knockout bracket challenge. Even crazier? It is televised on ESPN. Here's more from Joel Khalili at TechRadar.

Organized by the people behind the Financial Modeling World Cup, the Excel “All-Star Battle” took place back in May. It began with eight competitors, who went up against one another in a series of spreadsheet-based challenges until eventually a champion was crowned.

It might come as a surprise to some that there is an appetite for a spreadsheet-based esports tournament, but the rise of streaming culture has proven there’s a market for pretty much anything.

The comments section of the live YouTube broadcast of the All-Star Battle was full of people debating optimal strategy, cheering on the competitors and generally expressing their delight at the contest.

TechRadar

The idea of the tournament is to have Excel pros review a scenario and then come up with their own way to solve those problems in a competitive environment. The coverage has commentators to follow along with the action. A recent event called the All-Star Battle is over two hours long and has been viewed by over three-quarters of a million people.

Give it a watch below or here and if Excel is your thing, you can apply to be part of the Financial Modeling World Cup on their website.