From ESPN to the Spreadsheet Arena: How Excel MVPs Powered the Microsoft Excel World Championship
If you’ve ever watched someone do serious data work in Excel - building a model that feels like magic or using a perfectly crafted LAMBDA to do in one line what used to take a page of helper columns - you already understand the spirit of Excel esports. The Microsoft Excel World Championship (MEWC) turns that spirit into a live competition: timed “cases,” real-time leaderboards, and a crowd that cheers for spreadsheet moves the way sports fans cheer for a buzzer-beater. At the 2025 MEWC Finals (held December 1–3, 2025 at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas), Microsoft MVPs showed up everywhere - on the broadcast desk, behind the scenes writing cases, and throughout the community sharing training tips and “inside tricks.” And in the biggest MVP moment of all, Excel MVP Diarmuid Early took home the world championship title. “The Excel World Championship is a high-stakes, fast-paced competition where top Excel users from around the world solve complex, timed challenges using advanced formulas and strategies.” – MVP Oz du Soleil Meet the Champion: MVP Diarmuid Early Winning the Microsoft Excel World Championship isn’t about memorizing a few formulas - it’s about staying calm under pressure, translating messy scenarios into clean models, and finding the fastest path from question to answer. In 2025, that combination belonged to Diarmuid Early, who battled through a field of elite competitors and emerged as the Microsoft Excel World Champion. One of the most MVP things about this win is what happened after the confetti: Diarmuid has been sharing how he thinks about cases and how he trains. If you want to learn by watching a world-class workflow end-to-end, start with his Road to Las Vegas 2025 video playlist, then check out his behind-the-scenes breakdown video, I won the Excel World Championship by folding Origami in a spreadsheet. It’s part engineering, part creativity - and 100% Excel. Diarmuid’s story also illustrates the bigger point: Excel esports is community-powered. The same people who teach, write, and answer questions every day are the ones shaping the competition - whether they’re designing challenges, explaining strategies on-air, or helping new players level up. Here’s a look at how MVPs helped make MEWC 2025 happen. (left) and MVP Oz du Soleil (right) in the commentary booth, breaking down the action at the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Championship (MECC) 2025. Photo credit: Giles Male On the mic: MVPs bringing Excel esports to the world “I was leaning over the commentators balcony looking out at hundreds of Excel fanatics who had travelled to Vegas to watch other people battle it out on spreadsheets… I just remember looking at Oz, and Oz looking at me, and he said '... we get to do this for a living?? I love my life'.” - MVP Giles Male For many viewers, the first “wait… Excel has a world championship?” moment happens because MEWC is genuinely fun to watch - especially with experts translating the action in real time. MVPs have been front and center on the broadcast, providing commentary that balanced entertainment with the kind of technical clarity only seasoned Excel educators can deliver. Oz du Soleil (Excel on Fire) is a long-time Excel educator known for making advanced concepts approachable - and for bringing serious storyteller energy. As an Excel esports commentator, Oz helps viewers understand not just what competitors are doing, but why their approach works (and when it doesn’t). Giles Male (Full Stack Modeller) brings deep modeling credibility to the desk - and, as he’s shared, sometimes gets the call with almost no notice. That combination of expertise and adaptability is exactly what makes live Excel commentary work. Jon Acampora (Excel Campus) is a familiar voice to many in the community, and his teaching-first mindset shows up perfectly in esports commentary: quick explanations, smart shortcuts, and a constant focus on helping viewers learn while they watch. Tim Heng (Sum Product) adds both technical sharpness and audience-friendly pacing - calling out the “tiny” decisions that separate good solutions from great ones (keyboard efficiency, formula structure, and when to stop polishing and submit). (left) and MVP Tim Heng (right) adding their commentary at the Microsoft Excel World Championship 2025. Photo credit: MVP Celia Alves What makes MEWC different: cases, clocks, and commentary prep “We get the cases a few days early so we can solve them ourselves - and then we map out how to explain the key moves, because the competition moves incredibly fast.” - MVP Oz du Soleil MEWC challenges competitors with timed Excel “cases” - scenario-based problem sets where accuracy, speed, and strategy all matter. The Finals are streamed on YouTube (and have also appeared on ESPN’s The Ocho), which means the broadcast must serve two audiences at once: hardcore Excel nerds who want to see the formula choices, and curious newcomers who just want to understand why the leaderboard is moving so fast. That’s where MVP commentary shines. As MVPs like Oz and Giles have shared, the commentary team typically receives cases in advance, works through solutions, and plans how to explain the key decision points - because once the clock starts, competitors can be done before you’ve even finished reading the question. “I was asked to step in 48 hours before the finals commenced. Which meant I had to try to learn all 9 battle cases in two days… this was all very intense, nerve-wracking, but just an amazing experience and opportunity overall.” - MVP Giles Male Behind the scenes: MVPs designing the puzzles (and sharing the playbook) Great esports needs great “maps.” In MEWC, that means cases that are tricky, fair, and fun - designed to reward strong spreadsheet fundamentals and creative approaches. Several MVPs contribute to the ecosystem that makes those cases possible, including MVPs David Brown, David Fortin Giles Male, Klinsmann Langhanz, Renier Wessels, and Tim Heng who create Excel challenge cases for the competition and for practice. And then there’s the part you can’t put on a scoreboard: the ongoing sharing culture. Around every battle, MVPs and community experts swap approaches, publish walkthroughs, break down solutions on YouTube, and teach the mental models that help competitors get faster. That might look like a new keyboard shortcut habit, a reusable “personal LAMBDA collection,” or a clever way to structure a model so you can answer six questions without rebuilding your logic six times. Why it matters (beyond bragging rights) Excel is one of the most widely used technology platforms on the planet - and yet many people still underestimate what it can do (or what great Excel users can do with it). MEWC puts advanced spreadsheet skills on a public stage and makes them legible: you can see the tradeoffs, the patterns, the creativity, and the discipline. When MVPs are involved at multiple levels - broadcasting, designing, teaching, competing - it sends a clear signal: this is a real craft, and the community around it is generous with knowledge. “Excel [is] the one tool that almost everyone has had to use at some stage in their career… 95% of the conversations I have with people who don’t know about it start with ‘No way… that exists??’ And then you start watching, and it’s just fascinating to see what a top Excel esport player can actually do.” - MVP Giles Male MVP Giles Male Watch it, learn from it, then try it Want to watch before you try it yourself? You’ve got two great options: a quick recap, or the full multi-hour deep dive. Highlights: Microsoft Excel World Championship 2025 Finals Highlights (12:43) Full competition: Microsoft Excel World Championship 2025 – Finals (4:00:54) And, if you’re thinking “My Excel skills aren’t enough,” that’s actually the perfect place to start - because you improve by doing cases, reviewing solutions, and iterating. You can jump in through Excel Esports Online, and explore practice material with sample cases (free) and case studies (fee). Many competitors (including MVPs) also share solution walkthroughs - often complete with explanations and reusable formulas. The pipeline is real: MECC and the next generation of Excel athletes One of the most exciting parts of the Excel esports story is how quickly it’s building a next-gen talent pipeline. Alongside MEWC is the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge (MECC), a global competition for college students created by Excel MVP David Brown. It’s an on-ramp for students who want to test their skills, meet the community, and learn in public. If you haven’t read it yet, here’s a great starting point: From the Classroom to Las Vegas: MVP David Brown and the Excel Esports Revolution. Together, MECC and MEWC show how Excel learning can be both rigorous and genuinely fun - whether you’re a student, a seasoned analyst, or someone who loves discovering a cleaner way to write the same logic. Join the Excel community (and learn from the MVPs) Whether you watched MEWC on ESPN, caught a highlights clip on YouTube, or you’re quietly building a practice workbook at 1 a.m., the best part of Excel esports is that it’s welcoming. You don’t need to be “ready.” You just need to be curious - then practice, learn, and repeat. “To future competitors: just start. Don’t wait… You get better by competing. So just get stuck in, and learn from the early experiences which we all have to work through!” - MVP Giles Male If you want to sharpen your skills, trade ideas with other spreadsheet nerds, and learn directly from the people who teach the world’s best Excel techniques, join the Excel community and connect with our Excel MVPs. Start by exploring the championship home base at the Microsoft Excel World Championship website, try a few cases, and then share what you learned - because the fastest way to level up is to learn together.From the Classroom to Las Vegas: MVP David Brown and the Excel Esports Revolution
What if crunching numbers could land you on a championship stage in Las Vegas? Welcome to the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge (MECC) - where spreadsheets meet esports, and students battle for the championship in Las Vegas! Meet the Visionary: MVP David Brown When the ModelOff competition closed, David Brown, Microsoft MVP and professor, saw a gap for his students. “ModelOff closed and left a void for my students – I had been using it for years as extra credit and enhancement for honors students,” David shares. So, he rallied the Excel community and built MECC to make Excel fun, competitive, and accessible for everyone David’s advice for anyone starting out? “Change expectations – it’s tough to get students involved when they are so busy. And starting at an easier level – simpler, short challenges – getting more people involved that way. Also, letting myself know how much work it was going to be. Although, I am not sure I would have done it if I knew that, and I am glad I did do it.” own (left) with the 2024 MECC individual champion, Benjamin Weber (center) MECC by the Numbers 8,000+ students from 800 schools across 110+ countries participated in MECC 2024 - talk about a global spreadsheet showdown! The Las Vegas Finals welcomed 100+ students from 13 countries for the in-person championship. In 2022, MECC featured 2,730 students from 93 countries and 596 universities/colleges. For 2025, the total prize fund for MECC is $34,050 USD! Finals events include individual and team battles - recently, 64 individuals and 21 teams competed in semi-finals, with 12 individuals and 4 teams advancing to the grand finals. MECC events are streamed live, with tens of thousands watching online and millions of views after the event What Makes MECC Special? Epic team battles are a game-changer. “The team competition is a game changer. It’s so much more than just splitting up a case and solving separate parts. The best teams work together to build a solution together, help each other better understand the problem, and mitigate risks that come up in individual modeling. I think the team competition is the future of Excel Esports,” says David. And the puzzles? “Anything with recursive formulas - maps, capacity estimations (more financial modeling), how important Lambdas. There’s also a famous ‘Lana Banana’ case that may at first seem impossible to solve, until you realize there’s a backwards recursion method to solve it, which is so elegant and beautiful. That was a really great case (but at the pro level),” David recalls. Real-World Impact MECC isn’t just fun - it’s a launchpad for careers. “Yes, multiple students who have secured internships and jobs through our sponsors and many more who use MECC as talking point in interviews,” David notes. Professors are integrating MECC into coursework, and badges earned in competition help students stand out in interviews. MVPs Powering the Community David Brown and other MVPs (plus non-MVPs!) jump in to coach, judge, and energize the Excel community. Their support makes MECC special and helps students reach new heights. As David says:“There is an amazing Excel community – MVPs (and non-MVPs) so willing to help and get involved.” Coaching & Mentoring: MVPs like David Brown, Diarmuid Early and Jon Acampora coach student teams, share strategies, and help competitors level up their skills. Their mentorship and expert advice are invaluable for preparation and competition. Judging & Event Leadership: MVPs serve as judges at MECC finals, using their deep Excel expertise to evaluate solutions and provide feedback. Their involvement elevates the finals and reinforces the MVP program’s role in shaping the future of Excel education and esports. For example, Oz du Soleil and Giles Male’s presence as commentators elevates the finals by increasing visibility for Excel as a career skill and reinforcing the MVP’s role in shaping the future of Excel education and esports. Community Engagement: MVPs energize the Excel community by organizing panels, Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions, and onboarding initiatives, creating a vibrant, supportive learning environment. Advocacy & Visibility: MVPs bring attention to MECC and Excel esports, inspiring new participants and building awareness of the power of Excel in modern careers. Shaping the Future: MVPs are at the forefront of new trends, integrating AI and Copilot into competitions, and their feedback helps shape the direction of MECC for future generations. Excel Esports: What’s Next? AI and Copilot are entering the mix. “Right now, just can use AI to ask general questions, kind of like advanced googling. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops,” David predicts. “I think it would be really neat for competitors to have to be knowledgeable enough about the AI and what it does well to know what parts of problems to give it and what parts to handle themselves.” David predicts dedicated AI-assisted and AI-free brackets, where knowing how to leverage AI becomes a skill in itself. Want to Feel Like an Excel Pro? Even if you never step on the MECC stage, David’s top tip is to master keyboard shortcuts in Excel! “Keyboarding – navigating the grid with the keyboard (and your desktop – Alt-Tab is a huge tool that still shocks students) and use shortcuts – you’ll speed up your workflow and you’ll start to feel like an Excel Esports athlete while you work – who doesn’t want to feel like a pro?” Ready to Join the Fun? Visit the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge website for details, upcoming events, and ways to get involved. Check out highlights and tutorials on the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge YouTube Channel for jaw-dropping moments and expert walkthroughs. Follow the MECC Championships on their Livestream: December 02, 2026 - MECC Semi-Finals on YouTube December 03, 2026 - MECC Finals on YouTube While only students can compete in MECC, professors and Excel enthusiasts can get involved as coaches, judges, or mentors to support the event and its participants. Ready to get involved? Start your MECC journey - Students can sign up today to complete assignments for certificates, practice extra challenges, and compete online, while educators can join as College Ambassadors to help innovate student learning.Bringing Immersive Reader to Excel for the web
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