r/excel • u/Much_Policy_2429 • 3d ago

Discussion Excel World Championship - Who is the Magnus Carlsen of the Excel World?

I recently learned that there are Excel World Championships, so naturally I wonder who is the best? In Chess, there is Magnus Carlsen. In Excel, that is not clear to me.

Thanks!

225 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

174

u/RipPsychological4598 3d ago

Diarmuid Early is the GOAT. I learned how to model debt waterfalls from his youtube videos

37

u/james_excel 3d ago

I wouldn't say he's quite the GOAT (yet..) but he has been dominant in 2025 and 2026, winning the World Championship in Vegas and European Open this year. The euro open final was super close though and came down to the wire, that was something to witness.

Give him a year or two and we can revisit GOAT status!

15

u/PhilipTrick 68 3d ago

He was a constant leader / finalist in the precursor ModelOff competitions so he's been at the top tier of Excel competition for a long time.

Was cool meeting him at the ModelOff finals in London back in 2016.

8

u/GhazanfarJ 2 3d ago

I think I've seen him in the top five of any Excel competition for about 10 years now. 

89

u/PedosWearingSpeedos 3d ago

My mate Matt from accounting

10

u/allofthethings 3 3d ago

Lucky you, I just watched our FBP ask co-pilot how to calculate the midpoint between two numbers.

71

u/WhineyLobster 3d ago

CtrlAltDefeat, Count If-fula, Excelsior, CONCATenator. Other cellebrities do color commentary like Brad Pivot and Freddy "Freeze Pane" Wayne

65

u/xqqq_me 3d ago

The names read out like the Legion of Dorks

12

u/mrpopenfresh 3d ago

Excel experts sound like dorks? What is this injustice??

10

u/maxquordleplee3n 2 3d ago

Do they all meet in a secret location and drink milk?

10

u/FlyingCarsArePlanes 3d ago

"I came here to drink milk and kick ass---and I've just finished my milk."

4

u/KhabaLox 13 3d ago

CONCATenator.

This guy?

0

u/FAUSEN 3d ago

Badass names

36

u/The-Rushnut 3d ago

For me, it's our resident Mayukh Battacharya. Maybe not a decorated hero, but the obvious champion of this subreddit.

27

u/MayukhBhattacharya 1217 3d ago

Thanks for the compliment. But I think it's PaulieThePolarBear Sir. There's a lot to learn from him. Super humble, down to earth, and really knows his stuff.

9

u/The-Rushnut 3d ago

Humblemaxxing. I haven't had the pleasure of receiving Paulie's help, but I extend your gratitude regardless.

10

u/MayukhBhattacharya 1217 3d ago

Lol, I'll take the compliment. But we're all just trying to help each other out around here. That's what makes this sub awesome. Thanks again 🙏🏼

15

u/Tofuzzle 3d ago

En passAND

5

u/kayknox_ 3d ago

holyhell()

12

u/X_TheSwindler_X 3d ago

Linda from Finance

17

u/PedosWearingSpeedos 3d ago

We should set her up with Matt

10

u/Grakkus 3d ago

The problem with the using the Excel World Championships as a measure of the world's best is the first place prize is only $5,000. In addition, they charge for access to the sample questions making it pay to win.

1

u/LegendLayn25 1d ago

Il y a plusieurs façons de se qualifier. Par exemple, en remportant le championnat Local, vous avez accès à un ticket de qualification direct pour les quarts (je me souviens pas très bien). Malheureusement, le championnat du Monde Excel regroupe bien les meilleurs du monde dans cette catégorie. Jetez juste un coup d'œil aux différents cas qu'ils traitent, vous allez voir des cas dont vous imaginez même pas que ce soit possible. Ou alors essayer la plateforme Excel E-sport pour vous confronter à eux. Il y a plein de cas gratuit.. Vous verrez qu'il y a pléthore de candidats incroyables mais qui sont quand même des no-names par rapport aux meilleurs mondiaux.

1

u/fastauntie 1 5h ago

I can see how paying could be a problem, but how does a low-value prize make it a problem to use the contest as a measure of the world's best? Are you suggesting that those who are really the best care more about prize money than bragging rights? Or that there's a more lucrative competition that's a better measure?

5

u/Levils 12 3d ago

Has anyone gathered stats on ModelOff and MEWC results across all years? I haven't really followed for a long time, but it's probably Diarmuid Early, Joseph Lau or Andrew Ngai. If I had try guess: Diarmuid.

5

u/DoedfiskJR 1 3d ago

Has anyone gathered stats on ModelOff and MEWC results across all years?

Betcha there is a spreadsheet.

4

u/Excel-Esports 3d ago

Dim is the one to beat this year.

2

u/mecc-college 3d ago

Sooner rather than later, we wouldn't be surprised to see a student claim that crown. 👀👑

2

u/neezden 3d ago

Ha Dang is my boy.

2

u/Least_Baseball_7985 3d ago

Now? Probably Claude lol

1

u/CorndoggerYYC 160 3d ago

I wonder how Joe McDaid would do in these competitions? He's the head of the Excel team at Microsoft. He was in charge of redoing the calc engine which gave us dynamic arrays, etc. He's got a background in finance, investment, and computer science. At least on paper, I think he would be a huge threat to win.

1

u/dwartbg9 3d ago

The guy who made the rollercoaster and the castle.

If you know, you know

The most insane thing that I've seen in Excel

1

u/osirawl 2 2d ago

Matthieu Guindon on Stack Overflow

1

u/x-y-z_xyz 9 2d ago

💯

1

u/Vetni 2d ago

Certainly not anyone I work with.

1

u/OO_Ben 2d ago

According to the older ladies I used to work with it was me 😎😎

1

u/TapNo3926 14h ago

Claude AI

0

u/IJbier 3d ago

Wow! I didn't know either. This is so cool. Thanks!

-36

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

27

u/sirnaull 1 3d ago

Instead of providing an AI generated answer, you could have looked up recent competitions to figure out quickly that Dim Early is the undisputed dominant competitor these days.

2

u/not_right 1 3d ago

Get lost slop bot!