News: 0180447025

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Ireland's Diarmuid Early Wins World Microsoft Excel Title (bbc.com)

(Tuesday December 23, 2025 @10:30PM (BeauHD) from the world's-best dept.)


Irish competitor Diarmuid Early, dubbed the "Lebron James of Excel spreadsheets," has [1]won the 2025 Microsoft Excel World Championship in Las Vegas , dethroning three-time champion Andrew Ngai. The BBC reports:

> The esport showpiece in December attracted competitors worldwide as 256 spreadsheet heads battled it out across knockout rounds to join the final 24 in Vegas. [...] A three-time champion in the financial Excel tournaments, this win was Diarmuid's first in the overall competition. He held the triple-world champion Andrew Ngai to second place, and won the $5,000 prize and title belt. [...]

>

> Excel esports transforms a common office tool into a dynamic sport. More than 20 years old, the competitive scene has evolved from being finance based to now involving more general problem solving. Although it might help, Diarmuid said "it doesn't require accounting or finance knowledge." He described an example where Excel is used in solving a maze, scoring poker hands, or even sorting Kings and Queens into the battles in which they fought.

>

> Generally there is a 30 minute challenge, with each challenge broken up into levels. The questions increase gradually in difficulty, with each correct answer gaining a player points. Whoever gets the most points wins, and in a tie, it is whoever got there first. "It's just, can you think on your feet and do things quickly in Excel?" he said. "If you solve the earlier levels in a neat way, that'll let you hit the ground running faster on the later ones."



[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4qzgvxxgvo



OMFG (Score:2)

by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 )

> the "Lebron James of Excel spreadsheets,"

Jesus, nerd!

Re: (Score:2)

by martin-boundary ( 547041 )

Tall and Lanky? Needs a specially designed monitor to display 6 columns and 235 rows?

Wait, what? (Score:2)

by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 )

There's a Microsoft Excel World Championship competition? Is it April 1 already?

Given the choice, I don't know which I would have guessed the least likely thing to be true: (a) this or (b) Trump announcing a new "Trump-class" "battleship" (Google it or [1]here [slashdot.org]. (Noting that "b" is still unlikely to come to fruition at all, but especially in the next 2 years as he stated.)

[1] https://slashdot.org/submission/17343475/trump-announces-plans-for-new-navy-battleship

Re: (Score:1)

by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 )

Yeah, Trump suddenly seems desperate - well, even more desperate than before, which was already quite a lot - to get his name all over everything. I can see at least four possibilities.

1) His insiders (e.g. Johnson, Thune) have finally convinced him and his handlers there's no way "Trump 2028" is going to happen.

2) He himself has figured out he doesn't have the energy for a third term, since he already is getting whacked by this second term.

3) The rumors about some hidden health issue are true, and he's des

Re: (Score:2)

by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 )

> 3) The rumors about some hidden health issue are true, and he's desperately trying to create an illusory legacy (pretending that the next guy won't just wipe all this out on Jan 21, 2029).

Fingers crossed, unless Trump simply forgot how conjunctions work when he added his name to the Kennedy Center:

"The Donald J. Trump and

John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts"

And who dafuq is Lebron James? (Score:2, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward

Is he the Diarmuid Early of bread baking?

We need a school in his name (Score:2)

by Gavino ( 560149 )

The Diarmuid Early Center for Kids Who Can't Excel Good

King of the spreadsheets (Score:2)

by RitchCraft ( 6454710 )

Nah, sounds to much like king of the dipshits. There's a sport for everything it seems, LOL.

A true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother
drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art.
-- Shaw