Check Out These Excel Pros In The Financial Modeling Contest

Microsoft is sponsoring an esports contest with prizes totaling $10,000. Play? Well, it's not a game at all - it's Microsoft Excel.

Every year, top Microsoft Excel users (players?) from around the world face off at the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC) (via PCWorld). The qualifying rounds are already done, with just eight Excel Masters left to compete for the FMWC Crown. The quarterfinals, semifinals and final rounds will take place today at 12PM ET via YouTube livestream and the ESPN app.

As per FMWC rules, one to five page long case studies are presented to the contestants during each round. Case studies consist of real-world problems, as well as six to 15 questions that vary in complexity - the more complex a question is, the more points the player gets.

Of course, participants will have to use their financial modeling skills to determine the answer to each question. The sample cases on the FMWC site can give you a glimpse of what kinds of problems these Excel professionals have to solve, some of which they may face during the course of a typical workday, and others, referred to as "freestyle." "It is called. Said to be a more unusual subject. matter.

And if you never thought you'd be excited at Excel tournaments, think again. Surprisingly, watching a livestream of FWMC sounds as exciting as watching your typical esports event, complete with announcers, live commentary, and scoreboards. There's even a bracket system to track the progress of the competition, as well as a ranking system - appropriately built with an Excel spreadsheet - with New York's Diramuid Early at the top of the global leaderboard, followed by India's Anup Agarwal and Andrew Nagai. England.

The FWMC isn't the only competition of its kind, either, the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship covers the entire Office suite, including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, and challenges students to become the "Microsoft Champion."