"What's up sheetheads!" Looking forward to the Annihilator crushing next year's Ballmercon, at least if MS gets their fucking shit together and fixes the Chinese key bindings.
The prizes are really cool. The winner of the sister competition (more finance focused) gets a large 'diamond' encrusted ring.
I encourage anyone who enjoys problem solving and Excel to sign up for the upcoming 2024 competition. Who knows, maybe you'll get flown out to Las Vegas to compete in the finals next year?
Eve Online (aka spreadsheets in space) players past and present might enjoy the reference that was made in the article. Was it an in-joke?
"For example, Ngai had to calculate the market value of a fleet of spaceships using real data from the video game Eve Online – with the action televised live on ESPN."
No, Eve Online was one of the sponsors. Surprisingly pro level gamers use spreadsheets more than one would expect from „gaming”.
Final round was really about calculating stuff based on game economy. Challenge was created by top game guy. Which in some ways was surprising for finance guys.
I played Eve for a good while (more than a decade) and the complexities was one of the appealing aspects, but unfortunately at one point the time between my sessions increased more and more, and I fell behind the learning and time curve, and dropped out.
> He says he is “not bad” at maths – by which he means he came top in the state of New South Wales in his year 12 maths exams
As an Australian that has worked with American companies for a while, this is a behaviour I’ve had to overcome. If you tell an Australian you’re “not bad” at something then they’ll take that to mean that you’re actually quite good, whereas many Americans will understand it to mean that you’re not good.
I'm sure you're aware, but thought I'd drop this for our American friends. Australia and New Zealand (where I'm from) share Tall poppy syndrome[1] and going by that Wikipedia page, there are various over countries that have a similar concept.
Being overly self-congratulatory comes across as this sort of grotesque and unattractive quality. It is even true in the corporate environments I've worked at where you would normally otherwise expect it. Kiwis don't like it and I've seen many foreigners, especially the few Americans that have come over into management roles completely flounder and have almost everyone hate them because of it.
As an American who's spent two years in Sydney and having met VC types here, it's like they toe the line of not wanting to boast but really speak down on a lot of people. There's some sort of hidden aristocracy here, and you can feel like they think they're way better than you.
You get some of that in the US too but there are also way more down-to-earth people there who actually want to help, and advice is actually helpful, rather than regurgitations of PG essays and Lean Startup.
I have never been to Sydney, but I do know that Sydney (at least its wealthier population) is perceived as elitist and shallow by other parts of Australia. It has a reputation a lot like L.A. has in the US.
Melbourne, on the other hand, is seen as Australia's Portland.
This was my experience as a dual citizen. Sydneysiders are sometimes wannabe Londoners with an odd superiority complex and frequent use of passive aggression.
In Canada being modest is quite important… unless it’s a job interview (whether explicit or implicit), in which case it’s the “one time you should really brag about what you’re good at.”
Does it always mean that in Australia, or does it depend on how you say it? I think both usages are actually pretty common in the US, but you tell the difference based on the inflection. If you emphasize "too" and go down in pitch on "bad" then it means you're actually not that good at something, if you emphasize "bad" and go up in pitch then it means you're actually good at it. We also have alternative constructions, like "not too shabby," which carry the positive connotation regardless of how they're pronounced.
I'm an American who has lived in Australia for a little over a decade, and I have not noticed a difference between Australians and Americans in this regard. If you aren't too familiar with one accent or the other, it may be a little difficult to pick up on whether someone is emphasizing or deemphasizing "too" or "bad", but the essential meaning of the emphasis is the same.
In general, I find Americans and Australians deemphasize positive things at about the same rate and in the same circumstances, though the exact phrasing used can differ (although "not too bad" is a case where the phrase is shared in both dialects).
However, Australians are more likely to also deemphasize negative things (e.g., "This weather is average" to mean it's bad) whereas Americans are more likely to use sarcasm for negative things (e.g., "This weather is great" to mean it's bad).
> whereas many Americans will understand it to mean that you’re not good
I haven't found that to be true. Tooting your own horn is generally looked upon as impolite in many circles. It's pretty common for someone who is outstanding at something to say "yeah, not bad".
And in a very meta way, it can be seen as a flex. Someone who is undeniably the best at something can say "yeah, I'm not bad" with a smirk to show that yeah, they know they are very good.
Now there are some circles in the US where bragging is common - banking, VC, hell even tech. But that's not America.
In traditional Australia Tea meaning Tea the drink .. vast quantities have been consumed here, at least until the rise of the coffee shop - but the main thing is water is mostly boiled before drinking - flavour added.
It was once universal custom in Australia to offer either tea or a beer when someone arrived - rehydration in a hot country is a thing to do.
"Have you finished that drink yet" - depending on inflection it's either an offer of another or a strong cue to hit the road.
But rather than try to hype it up like fighting game tournaments, have it be somewhat milder in aesthetics and tone, for the type of crowd it might draw. Like "Best in Show" or "Great British Bake Off" or what have you.
Exactly I feel that belt - albeit funny - is more cringey than whatever else they could come up with.
Then I say dynamic commentary is still something you want - but talkative host asking a guy that is going to drop underground in seconds is not bes use of watch time
I wonder if I’ll ever find another type of software that makes me as happy as spreadsheets, whatever implementation really, Excel, Google sheets, …. Perhaps not the Apple one actually.
I just heard of this Excel competition, but Modeloff world championship has been going for somewhat longer. It tests Excel skills plus financial modeling skills. They have all the old questions available for study:
some friends of mine tried to convince me to compete in this though one should only go after these things for fun instead of any real expectation of money
i.e., I actually went through some historical modeloff questions years ago and could get them relatively easily but spending the same effort training but at my job/career is a way to make more money, on an expected value basis, than competing in any excel competition...
I wish they would explain more about what the actual tasks are. They basically jus said 'you get data and you do calculations'. Well thanks, thats basically all excel. A link to the problem set would be interesting. Real time data from Eve is pretty cool, but whats the actual results they are trying to get? How do they do scoring?
"With entertainment in mind, the organisers shortened rounds to 30 minutes and livened up the cases. For example, Ngai had to calculate the market value of a fleet of spaceships using real data from the video game Eve Online – with the action televised live on ESPN."
It does seem fitting that an actuary would win this considering how much of their work day and job description revolves around Excel and what it can do
> But the last word goes to Brandon Moyer, who was eliminated in the final. In his post-game interview, the US competitor thanked his wife, who “never made fun of me, even once, for competing in the Microsoft Excel world championship”.
Not quite the same but I've attended a few barcamp conferences that have had "PowerPoint kareoke" competitions - the goal is to present a random deck from SlideShare that you haven't seen before, and the most entertaining (by judges or by the crowd) wins. It's very funny.
I think this is a flippant comment. You can do just about anything in Excel, so being good at it to me feels akin to winning a programming olypmiad -- abstract, sure, but still indicative of strong, transferrable skills. To me, to dismiss that is to reflect your own close mindedness and intellectual laziness rather than anything about the comeptition.
It might be a MS pr move. But it seems a lot of competitions are for boosting an industry. The Oscar's celebrate movies, he Grammys promote music, "the game awards" promote games.
I imagine a fornite competetion would be sponsored by epic.
https://youtu.be/xubbVvKbUfY