Humans can turn almost anything into a competition. Spreadsheets are no exception.
At the 2025 Excel World Championships, which took place in Las Vegas last December, members of the Glide team watched 11 finalists from a 256-player field compete in solving complex logical problems in Excel spreadsheets. Diarmuid Early, the “LeBron James of Excel”, took home the belt, defeating three-time winner Andrew Ngai in the final round. It was a thrilling competition.
So why are we so interested in Excel Esports? We are interested for the simple reason that almost every Glide app currently powering a business, large or small, started with a spreadsheet. In a lot of ways, Glide is at its best when it’s serving as a powerful augmentation for an already critical spreadsheet. That makes us extra interested in anyone pushing the limits of what a spreadsheet can do.
Glide will be an official sponsor of the 2026 Excel World Championships, kicking off on January 22. While the Excel masters gear up for the start of the season, here’s a recap of what we witnessed last year.
What is the Excel World Championship?
According to the Excel Esports website, “Excel Esports is a competition where participants solve unusual game tasks in Microsoft Excel.” It’s a test of logical thinking skills, creative problem-solving, and spreadsheet talent. Tests are timed and involve skills like logic, speed, data handling, visualization, and mastery of formulas like IFS, XLOOKUP, Power Query, and VBA.
Smaller competitions take place throughout the year, with local battles sending a total of 256 participants to the playoff rounds, including guest participants from the Financial Modeling World Cup. Finals take place in Las Vegas from November 30 to December 2, 2026. The winner claims a $5,000 prize and a custom-made champion’s belt.
The 2025 Las Vegas Finals
The finals took place at the HyperX Esports Arena at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas with lots excitement and fanfare. Commentators narrated competitions like ESPN game coverage, sponsors hosted booths, and both collegiate and professional competitors from around the world played and socialized. Some competitors were Excel superusers in finance or other professional fields. Others were there purely for the gaming and competition aspect.
“It was great to see the different build philosophies at the Excel Championships. So many of the problem-solving approaches translate directly to how people build in Glide.”
Cameron Barrett
Senior Account Executive, Glide
It wasn't all just tournament days. We got to listen in on a lot of interesting conversations about Excel. A big theme that I recognized at the Championship was scale. The pros spent a lot of time talking about how far you can push Excel before it slows down.
Beyond the technical side, the competitive landscape of the tournament was just incredible. It's almost like going to a football game in Europe. There are pom poms, people are running through a tunnel with a flag, students are chanting their school chants, and the whole atmosphere is extremely energetic.
You can feel the passion from the college students and the pros who are building out these spreadsheets under a time crunch. At one point, Team Madagascar came in at the last second and won it all, and then started running around the ballroom waving foam fingers with their team name.
Why spreadsheets and Glide?
I feel like I learned a lot about spreadsheet users and the way they relate to Glide at this conference. Watching the active problem-solving on display reminded me so much of the people who build in Glide. I saw the same drive, people who work hard, automate processes, and end up getting real recognition, sometimes even promotions internally, because of what they've built. It's inspiring to see how the Excel Championship mindset translates into a no-code app development platform, as we witness it every single day, whether they’re working with Excel or other data sources.
Freak in the Sheets
Another exciting development in 2026 is the launch of the documentary Freak in the Sheets. It’s a sports-doc style feature about the road to victory in Las Vegas. If you’re interested in Excel Esports, take a look at the trailer below:
Gliding into the 2026 championships
I can’t wait to kick off the preliminary rounds of the competition later this month. Between the documentary, the press coverage, and the excitement surrounding the 2025 events, it’s looking like attendance might double at the 2026 Vegas finals. Glide is going to be there.
Interested in trying it out for yourself? You can play Excel Esports online or attend the Active Cell Training Camp to learn, which automatically qualifies you for the Qualification Round of the competition.
