Meet the Canadian Excel king who just got crowned the new world spreadsheet champion

Canadian Michael Jarman pumped his fists into the air and shouted to his adoring fans – dubbed Jarmy’s Army – as he ran out onto the stage at the Microsoft Excel World Championships in Las Vegas.

Sporting a varsity jacket, khakis and sneakers, little did he know he would leave that day with a cheque for US$5,000 and a shiny, new accessory: the wrestling-style belt that accompanies the title of spreadsheet champion.

“I probably have more plans for the belt than I do the money. We’re currently looking at how to mount it above the television,” he said in an interview.

Typically, Excel is something taught at school or work, where it’s used to analyze data and perform calculations. For those who don’t take to it right away, the software can seem mundane or tedious. But at the world championships, held at the HyperX Arena in Vegas, Excel feels anything but mundane. Flashy lighting, huge screens and loudspeakers fill a room packed with people – and 64 finalists – whose passion for spreadsheets extends beyond their day jobs.

“It is a weird niche, I’ll give you that,” said Mr. Jarman, 30.

The championships, held on Dec. 4, were hosted by the Financial Modeling World Cup, which was founded by Latvian Andrew Grigolyunovich in 2020. The Excel championships’ first live event took place in Vegas in 2023, bringing together a couple hundred fans under one roof. It also aired on ESPN 3.

Mr. Jarman began his journey into competitive spreadsheeting in 2017, shortly after arriving in Canada from Britain. He now lives in Toronto. He placed third in his debut at Modeloff, a precursor to the Excel competition. While he returned to win Modeloff in 2018, he said the victory felt hollow since many of the top contestants had been disqualified to give others a chance.

“That’s why I was so happy to win this one. All of the old big names are back, and it’s a fair fight,” he said.

Training for Mr. Jarman began about two to three months precompetition this year. He estimates he spent a few hours a week practising old cases that are available online, in addition to any spreadsheeting he was doing at work as the head of model development for the financial modelling company Operis.

Opportunities to earn a spot at the championships begin in January, when qualifiers are held monthly until October, said Toronto-based Johnny Valeriote, who competed in last year’s big event. Then, there’s a bracket of competitors who go head-to-head to decide who goes to the finals in December.

At each stage, competitors are given a case study and a half hour to answer a problem-solving question using Excel, for example doing financial modelling to project sales and manufacturing costs for a fictional company planning to go public.

Solving tasks requires an in-depth knowledge of Excel functions, data management skills, and the ability to think quickly and logically. The semi-finals and the final are played in an elimination format. Every five minutes, the person with the least number of points gets knocked out.

Players earn points by solving tasks and more complex questions result in more points, if answered correctly. Once they’re down to six people in the finals, everyone has 10 minutes to score more points through modelling before time is up and the winner is declared. This year, the final question was related to tracking stats in a simulated game of World of Warcraft, Mr. Jarman said.

Set against a snazzy backdrop, finalists wore hoodies, sweatbands and untucked collared shirts. Had they been spotted together outside the arena, they could have been mistaken for a bunch of office workers on a coffee break.

Despite the intensity of the competition, the camaraderie between the contestants was tangible, said Giles Male, a commentator at the event and lyricist on this year’s theme song. It’s one of the few times each year that the wider group of Excel aficionados has the opportunity to gather, he said.

The community, which tends to stay in touch through platforms such as LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Discord, is spread out all over the world, Mr. Male said. Often, people who take an interest in Excel can find their passion quite isolating, he added, because others only think of the tool as an extension of work.

“The vast majority of people aren’t waking up every day and thinking, ‘God, I wish I could do better in Excel.’ They use it because they have to. But there’ll be 5 per cent or 10 per cent of people at most companies that do start using it and love it,” he said.

That’s why these in-person events in Las Vegas are so exciting, Mr. Male said.

“Because not only are you, for the first time, in a room with people that share your nerdy passion, you’re in Vegas, in an e-sports arena, looking around, going, ‘How on earth is this a thing?’” he said.

Mr. Grigolyunovich said he wants to grow the event into something that can fill an arena with a capacity in the thousands, rather than the hundreds.

“I totally see that this could be a series of events across different continents, different months, just like in tennis tournaments, on a weekly basis in different parts of the world. Why can’t it be popular as other sports?” he said.

Alongside the main competition, which professionals such as Mr. Jarman compete in, a collegiate level competition is also held in Vegas. This year, Mr. Male said he saw an uptick in the number of students who attended, which gives him hope for the future of the event.

“The pros can look after themselves. But to get the students really excited about this, they will be looking up to Michael Jarman now as a kind of e-sports hero, which is brilliant.”