Who Will Win the Ultimate Office Battle... 'Excel Championship' Champion?

12 People in a 7-Hour Intense Excel Battle
Winner is Financial Firm Modeling Expert Jaman

Soccer, baseball, and gaming are not the only things considered 'sports.' Recently, in Las Vegas, USA, the Microsoft (MS) 'Excel' World Championship was held, where a Canadian took home the championship trophy. This event gathers the world's top Excel and PowerPoint users to showcase their expertise.

On the 6th (local time), the US computer media outlet 'PCWorld' reported that Michael Jarman, a Canadian, won the 2024 MS Excel World Championship final. The Excel championship was held in Las Vegas over the course of one week.

This year's Excel Championship winner, 'Bearded Canadian' Michael Jarman. YouTube capture

Known as the 'bearded Canadian,' Jarman currently works in an office position at a financial company, where he is responsible for calculating risk models that assist investment decisions. Jarman received a trophy along with a check worth $5,000 (approximately 7.15 million KRW).

In this competition, Jarman competed fiercely with 11 other finalists. The theme of the contest was the online game 'World of Warcraft.' Specifically, the goal was to 'optimize' the most efficient way to play the game.

Breath-taking(?) Excel Championship match screen. While showing players organizing data in Excel, the chat window features the audience cheering. YouTube capture.

The finalists received statistical data such as game character weapons, in-game currency, and experience points, and analyzed how to use these most effectively to clear the game first. A key judging point was how creatively they utilized MS Office programs like Excel.

Not only the participants but also the audience and judges watched intently as numbers filled the Excel and PowerPoint programs in the arena, accompanied by grand background music. Incidentally, the final lasted an impressive 7 hours.

Additionally, while solving the competition tasks, participants had to answer 'quirky' questions from the judges. For example, sudden quizzes like "Which function should be used to track how many times a specific alphabet appears in Excel?" caught the players off guard.

Overcoming all these challenges, Jarman, who finally claimed the championship trophy, expressed his emotions, saying, "I have been training (in Excel) for three years," and "All that time has finally borne fruit."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.