The Microsoft Excel World Championship is back, and it's bigger and better than ever

Excel esports
(Image credit: Financial Modelling World Cup)

The world's cell-based superstars are set to go head-to-head as the battle for spreadsheet supremacy kicks off at the Microsoft Excel World Championships.

Following a stellar debut last year, ESPN has once again picked up the spreadsheet tournament to show as part of its annual "The Ocho" event, with coverage starting at 7am ET/9am PT today, with highlights later shown on YouTube.

Sponsored (unsurprisingly) by Microsoft, and part of the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC), last year's broadcast of the "All-Star Battle" proved a surprise hit, with more than 800,000 people apparently viewing the entire two-and-a-half hour competition on YouTube, with ESPN broadcasting a 30-minute edit.

This year, the stakes have been raised, with traditional Excel-based puzzle solving and trickery ramped up with an added threat of elimination.

Participants will be given a "case" to solve, which will demand knowledge and expertise of a wide range of Excel skills to finish. As the FMWC website notes, "the game tasks will be testing your Excel and logical thinking skills. No previous knowledge in finance, engineering, data analytics or any other industry is necessary."

This could be anything from election modelling to random number generators and even working out how to best navigate an Excel-based videogame level - all accompanied by live commentary by Excel experts.

Microsoft Excel

(Image credit: Shutterstock.com / monticello)

Competitors will of course need to know their way around a formula and have excellent coding skills, as well as an encylcopaedic knowledge of Excel shortcuts and tricks - but as the FMWC website notes, "anything is allowed, and the strategy is up to you."  All the questions/cases "will be solvable by a general MS Excel user," the FMWC rules state, and users of older versions of Excel (2010 and up) should be able to complete them.

Financial Modelling World Cup Excel tournaments

(Image credit: FMWC)

The competitors have 30 minutes to answer a series of questions worth up to 1,000 points, and the person with the most points wins. However as mentioned, this year adds an extra motivation to work fast, as the player with the fewest points will be eliminated every five minutes.

Amazingly, the event is now only a part of a wider season of Excel competitions, one event of many leading up to the Microsoft Excel World Championship Finals in Las Vegas in December, where a total prize fund of over $15,000 is up for grabs.

More from TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore
Deputy Editor, TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.

Read more
A computer screen showing a spreadsheet in use.
Best spreadsheet software of 2025
Someone using Excel on a Laptop.
Best Excel online course of 2025
An iPhone and Apple Watch with Apple Sports app Live Activities.
We asked Apple about how to get the most of its Sports app for the iPhone, and how it updates so fast
Google Sheets
Google Sheets is getting faster and more effective, and I can't wait to ditch Excel for good
Copilot Pro for Excel main image
Copilot Pro for Excel review
A preview of the Simpsons Monday Night Football game.
'It's a lot of data, processed around 50 times per second' – Sony's Beyond Sports on how 'The Simpsons' Funday Football came to be
Latest in Pro
Cyber-security
The definitive guide to credential collaboration
Eurocom Raptor X18
At $15,000, this massive 256GB RAM laptop makes Apple's MacBook Pro look affordable, tiny and very, very slow
Squarespace
Build a website for less with 10% off Squarespace subscriptions
An American flag flying outside the US Capitol building against a blue sky
The FCC is creating a security council to bolster US defenses against cyberattacks
UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer
UK PM says AI should soon replace civil servants
Image depicting hands typing on a keyboard, with phishing hooks holding files, passwords and credit cards.
Microsoft warns about a new phishing campaign impersonating Booking.com
Latest in News
Google Gemini Flash 2.0 Images
I tried Gemini's new AI image generation tool - here are 5 ways to get the best art from Google's Flash 2.0
An image of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra from a hands-on event
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could resurrect an intriguing camera feature
Eurocom Raptor X18
At $15,000, this massive 256GB RAM laptop makes Apple's MacBook Pro look affordable, tiny and very, very slow
Cristin Milioti in Black Mirror season 7
Netflix launches trailer for Black Mirror season 7, giving us a look at its first-ever sequel episode and an unexpected returning character
A graphic of the PC Gaming Show
Get ready for a bounty of PC games on June 8, as the PC Gaming show is back
A close up of The Daily podcast from Pocket Casts' web page
‘Podcasting shouldn’t be locked behind walled gardens’: Pocket Casts slams Spotify and makes its web player free to all