Inside the Microsoft Excel World Championships: When Spreadsheets Become Esports

What if the same skills that win esports titles in Las Vegas are exactly the capabilities your business needs to win in a data‑driven economy?

On 20 December 2025, Excel enthusiast and commentator Giles Male reflected on a phenomenon that sounds like satire until you see the scoreboard: competitive spreadsheeting played as a live gaming tournament in front of cheering crowds in Las Vegas, with cameras, commentators, and a US$60,000 (NZ$108,000) prize on the line.

In the Microsoft Excel World Championships, twelve "athletes" stand on stage and receive the same broken spreadsheet—a problem-ridden Excel file—and have 30 minutes to transform chaos into clarity. These are not simple templates; they're dense data analysis cases that demand elite Excel skills, from advanced spreadsheet formulas to ruthless data manipulation, precise cell formatting, and rapid spreadsheet optimization.

You watch spreadsheet battles unfold in real time:

• Fix the model.
• Clean the data.
• Build logic.
• Deliver answers—fast.

The crowd reacts as if it were a last‑second three‑pointer. The only difference? The arena fills for Microsoft Excel, not basketball.

From office tool to mental sport

For some, spreadsheets are organisational heaven; for others, they're operational hell. For Male, "buzzing around a spreadsheet, fixing up rows and columns" is a "crazy competitive" live esport where data processing speed and accuracy decide who advances and who is eliminated.

In this world:

• Pressure is real: fall behind on points and the camera crews zoom in, tracking the next likely elimination.
• Commentary is demanding: Male spent 30 minutes at a time on RNZ's Saturday Morning and at the Collegiate Challenge explaining, live, what top competitors are doing inside a Microsoft Excel grid most business users barely understand.
• The talent pool is stratified: at the very top, he estimates only 40–50 players at true elite level, with hundreds in the chasing pack—an informal benchmark of what true Excel mastery looks like.

It is, in effect, a market‑driven skills ranking for Excel expertise.

Who rises to the top—and why that matters to you

The profile of a top spreadsheet competition player looks a lot like the profile of a high‑value analyst inside your organisation:

• Uses Microsoft Excel "day in, day out"
• Strong academically, often with a mathematics or quantitative background
• Deep fluency in modern Excel functions and formula creation
• Obsessive about speed, structure, and error‑free data organization

These are not people "doing admin in Excel." They are treating spreadsheet software as a programmable, high‑performance calculation engine.

Male even calls out a Waikato duo, Nick Boberg and Ella Boberg, as a "power couple of Excel" – a reminder that pockets of exceptional Excel skills often sit quietly inside regional teams and back‑office roles. The difference in competitive Excel Esports is that those skills are visible, measured, and rewarded.

What would change in your business if your best spreadsheet thinkers were as visible and valued as your best salespeople?

The strategy hiding inside XLOOKUP and LAMBDA

At the highest levels, the sport is shaped by how quickly players can weaponise new Excel functions:

• LAMBDA function: allows users to create their own custom functions, turning repeatable logic into reusable building blocks. In a business context, that's standardized decision logic baked into the tool your teams already use.
• XLOOKUP function: Male's personal favourite. It replaces legacy VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP, reducing errors and making data analysis more flexible and robust.

His advice is blunt: if you are still using VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP, stop. Modern XLOOKUP is faster, safer, and more capable for serious data analysis and data processing.

This is more than a function upgrade; it's a mindset shift:

• From ad‑hoc formulas to scalable formula creation
• From fragile reports to resilient models
• From "spreadsheet as document" to "spreadsheet as system"

In other words, the same thinking that wins a spreadsheet battle also underpins reliable financial models, demand forecasts, and board‑ready analytics.

Tools, standards, and the competitive benchmark

Male has spent about 20 years being "the one everybody goes to when they've got a spreadsheet problem." That journey led him to build a spreadsheet‑focused business and become an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for Microsoft—a formal recognition of top‑tier Excel expertise.

From that vantage point, his verdict on tools is unapologetically comparative:

• Microsoft Excel: still the "gold standard" for advanced spreadsheet software and data manipulation
• Apple Numbers: "rubbish" for serious work, in his words
• Google Sheets: cannot match Excel overall, though it now does some things better—competition that keeps Microsoft innovating

For business leaders, the signal is clear: if your critical data analysis and data organization workflows are built on weaker tools, your teams are effectively entering a world‑class tournament with a junior‑league rulebook.

For organizations looking to enhance their data analysis capabilities beyond traditional spreadsheets, smart business AI and ML frameworks provide valuable insights for modern data-driven decision making.

From Las Vegas arenas to your boardroom

The Microsoft Excel World Championships and its Excel Esports ecosystem—featuring events like the Collegiate Challenge in Las Vegas—are more than entertainment. They are a live laboratory for the future of analytical work:

• Talent discovery: Competitors parlay Excel Esports visibility into consulting work, job offers, and speaking engagements.
• Capability benchmarking: You can see, in public, what "best‑in‑class" Excel mastery really looks like.
• Culture shift: Competitive gaming around spreadsheets turns what most staff see as "admin work" into a high‑status, high‑skill discipline.

Platforms like the Excel Esports platform now let anyone try these Excel Esports "games." Male's warning: "It's really addictive once you get into it." The more interesting implication: you now have a ready‑made, gamified environment to identify, test, and develop the analytical athletes inside your own organisation.

For teams looking to streamline their workflow automation beyond Excel, Zoho Flow provides powerful integration capabilities that can connect spreadsheet data with other business systems, while AI workflow automation guides offer insights into modern business process optimization.

Thought‑provoking concepts worth sharing

Here are the deeper questions this "mind‑blowing" world of competitive spreadsheeting raises for business leaders:

• What if your real competitive edge is already in Excel?
  The same spreadsheet optimization and data processing skills that win an Excel World Championships title are the ones that turn disconnected data into strategic insight. Are you treating those skills as core IP?

• Are you still running your business on legacy thinking?
  Teams clinging to VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP instead of XLOOKUP and LAMBDA are signalling not just technical debt, but cultural resistance to better ways of working.

• Could gamified spreadsheet competition be your next talent strategy?
  Internal spreadsheet competition—inspired by Excel Esports—could surface hidden experts, motivate upskilling, and make data analysis feel less like drudgery and more like a challenge worth winning.

• What does "Excel MVP" look like inside your company?
  Microsoft's MVP (Most Valuable Professional) program recognises world‑class community contributors. Do you have an internal equivalent that celebrates and leverages your own spreadsheet leaders?

• If spreadsheets can fill an arena, what else are you underestimating?
  The fact that Spreadsheet battles can draw live audiences, sponsorships, and a US$60,000 prize suggests that "boring" tools may be hiding your biggest opportunities—for productivity, for differentiation, and for building a genuine data‑driven culture.

Competitive spreadsheeting may look like a niche corner of competitive gaming, but it exposes a simple truth: in a world awash with data, your ability to think at the speed of Microsoft Excel may be the most underrated business capability you have.

What is "Excel Esports" or the Microsoft Excel World Championships?

Excel Esports is a competitive, live‑event format where skilled Excel users receive the same broken or problem‑rich spreadsheet and have a limited time (commonly 30 minutes) to fix, optimise and deliver answers. The Microsoft Excel World Championships stages these contests in arenas with commentators, cameras and cash prizes, turning spreadsheet work into a spectator sport.

What skills do top competitors demonstrate that are relevant to business?

Top competitors show fast and accurate data cleaning, advanced formula creation, model debugging and optimisation, precise formatting, and use of modern functions (e.g., XLOOKUP, LAMBDA). They combine speed, structural thinking and error mitigation—skills that map directly to high‑value analyst roles in organisations.

Why should business leaders care about spreadsheet competitions?

Competitions make elite spreadsheet talent visible and measurable. They offer a benchmark of what "best‑in‑class" Excel mastery looks like, help discover hidden experts inside teams, and can shift culture by valuing analytical craft—improving forecasting, reporting accuracy and decision speed.

How do XLOOKUP and LAMBDA change how organisations should use Excel?

XLOOKUP replaces older lookup functions with safer, more flexible matching and reduces error risk. LAMBDA lets teams encapsulate repeatable logic as reusable custom functions, promoting scalable, standardised models. Together they move organisations from brittle, ad‑hoc spreadsheets to resilient, maintainable spreadsheet systems.

If we still use VLOOKUP/HLOOKUP, should we switch?

Yes—where available, migrate to XLOOKUP. It's faster, less error‑prone and more capable (supports flexible search directions, exact matches and default values). Prioritise migration for critical models and standard templates to reduce technical debt and improve robustness.

Can we run internal spreadsheet competitions to find talent?

Yes. Internal competitions work well as talent‑discovery and engagement tools. Keep them structured (same problem for all, fixed time limit), score for accuracy, speed and maintainability, and provide judges or automated checks. Use results for hiring, promotions, and targeted upskilling.

How do I objectively benchmark spreadsheet proficiency?

Measure time to correct solution, error rate, use of modern functions and reusable logic, clarity of structure (naming, layout), and ability to document or convert repetitive steps into reusable functions (LAMBDA). Combining automated test cases with human review yields the most complete picture.

Are spreadsheets still the right tool—what are the limits?

Excel remains the "gold standard" for advanced modelling and ad‑hoc analysis but has limits: collaboration, version control, large datasets, auditability and enterprise scale. When you need repeatable, multi‑user workflows or very large data volumes, consider databases, BI platforms or automation/AI/ETL tools alongside spreadsheets.

How can I mitigate risks from heavy spreadsheet reliance?

Adopt standards and templates, conduct peer reviews and automated checks, document logic, limit critical work to vetted models, and train staff on modern functions and testing. Consider governance roles (spreadsheet stewards) and integrate versioning or platform controls for high‑risk models.

What practical steps improve spreadsheet capability across a team?

Provide structured training on modern functions (XLOOKUP, LAMBDA), run practice drills or gamified challenges, create reusable libraries or LAMBDA functions, enforce modelling standards, and surface high performers to mentor others. Use internal competitions to motivate and measure progress.

How can spreadsheet skills translate into business ROI?

Improved spreadsheet skills reduce errors, shorten analysis turnaround, make forecasts more reliable and free senior time for strategic work. Quantify ROI via fewer model failures, faster decision cycles, reduced rework and improved accuracy in revenue/cost forecasts.

Where can staff practise or compete if they're interested?

Public events like the Microsoft Excel World Championships and Collegiate Challenge showcase competitive formats. Platforms branded as "Excel Esports" offer practice games and challenges. Internally, replicate tournament conditions (timed broken spreadsheets) to build skills and engagement. For teams looking to enhance their data analysis capabilities beyond traditional spreadsheets, smart business AI and ML frameworks provide valuable insights for modern data-driven decision making.