This Canadian is the new world champion of spreadsheets, and he has the belt to prove it | CBC Radio

It was down to the final 30 seconds at the Microsoft Excel World Championships in Las Vegas, and the crowd was going wild.

Canada’s Michael Jarman was in the lead, his eyes fixed on the scoreboard, desperately hoping nobody would come up from behind and snatch victory from his grasp. 

When the clock ran out, Jarman leapt from his computer and threw his hands up in celebration, as the spectators in the HyperX Arena erupted in cheers.

Jarman, a Toronto financial modelling director, unseated Australia’s three-time winner Andrew (The Annihilator) Ngai on Dec. 4 to become the undisputed world champion of managing spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel. 

“It was an amazing feeling,” Jarman told As It Happens guest host Peter Armstring. “It’s definitely, you know, a really great memory for me, and will be for a long time.”

WATCH | Microsoft Excel World Championships: 

For his efforts, Jarman took home a $5,000 US ($7,033 Cdn.) cheque, and the event’s signature pro-wrestling style championship belt. 

“We’re thinking about how to put up on the wall,” he said. 

Not enough spreadsheets at work 

You would think Jarman, who works for the project finance consulting firm Operis, would be sick of spreadsheets.

But as he’s risen through the ranks at work, he says he rarely has the opportunity to get down and dirty in the rows and cells anymore.

“I’m very much at the stage of my career where I no longer do the modelling myself. I have to leave that for the juniors to do, while I go to meetings,” he said.

“So I’d say, actually, it placates me a little bit.”

Plus, the Excel World Championships’ spreadsheets tend to be more exciting than the ones he sees at the office.  

The event is an offshoot of the more business-focused Financial Modelling World Cup. It’s billed as an esports event, akin to competitive gaming, and sponsored by Excel maker Microsoft.

“No finance, just Microsoft Excel and logical thinking skills,” reads the competition’s description. “Excel esports transforms a common office tool into a dynamic sport.”

Competitors are usually asked to build spreadsheets to perform tasks and solve problems based around a specific theme or game. 

Excel with orcs?

This year’s final battle involved using Excel to track stats in a simulated game of World of Warcraft (WoW), a long-running and wildly popular online video game featuring fantastical creatures like dragons, elves and orcs. 

“I mean, I’m not a WoW player myself, but it was pretty cool,” Jarman said. “We were given an eight-page instruction manual before going on stage to read, so we had some idea of what was going on.”

To add a competitive edge the player with the lowest score is eliminated every five minutes, alluded to in the chorus of of the event’s epic rock theme song: “It’s the Excel World Championship / Who’s going to win? / It’s the Excel World Championship / Who’s going in the spreadsheet bin?”

As the competitors typed furiously into Excel, the spectators appeared enthralled.

“The crowd was really quite electric this year,” Jarman said. 

Jarman estimates there were a few hundred people watching in the arena. Another 60,000 people watched the YouTube livestream.

This is Jarman’s fourth time competing, and his first time coming out on top. In the last three competitions, he finished second to Australia’s Andrew Ngai.

After 2023’s championships, he told As It Happens: “Next year, it will be my year.”

He was proven right. But he’s not done yet. Now that the belt is his at last, he’s got his eyes on another goal.

“The next vision is to … win three more to break Andrew’s record,” he said. “I think that’s virtually impossible to do, but you’ve got to give it a go.”