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The finals of the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge were held in Las Vegas this year, with more than 8,100 participants.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The University of Tennessee is bringing home the gold after finding victory in an international esports matchup between schools that pitted teams of students against each other to find the best solutions to different problems in Microsoft Excel.
The arena wasn’t in a stadium or in a court. Instead, students were tasked with showing their skills on a spreadsheet. During the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Championship’s three seasons in the spring, summer and fall, all activities are held online before the in-person finals are held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The championship features two components: challenges and competitions. During challenges students complete individual tasks at their own pace, covering topics from personal finance to advanced Excel functions.
However, during competitions, students face each other during scheduled events to quickly and strategically solve problems sourced from different people worldwide.
During the finals in Las Vegas on Wednesday, students were handed different spreadsheets over the course of seven hours and instructed to answer specific questions about them. Correctly answering the questions earned teams some points.
The first spreadsheet described “Hydrosmash” — a hypothetical game where players throw water balloons back and forth over a net while trying not to get soaked. The sheet asked 10 specific questions about data game, and students needed to figure out the answers.
Team members effectively specialized in different Excel skills. Some tackled latter questions on the sheet, some answered earlier questions and a few also spent their time answering bonus questions. In total, students only had 30 minutes to analyze the provided “Hydrosmash” board and calculate different answers.
The next question provided data about streaming behaviors, and teams were asked lightning-round questions such as calculating the total stream time for the datasheet or calculating the average length of all listed shows. Completing the lightning-round questions unlocked the rest of the questions for the data. In total, teams had 40 minutes for this sheet.
There were five questions after those two with different challenges that instructed students to sort data, use advanced functions to calculate solutions and think creatively about spreadsheets.
UT beat the competition with a total of 600 points, followed by the University of Arizona with 580 points. The University of Kentucky earned third place with 536 points, and the University of Technology Sydney earned 512 points.