Have you practiced your Excel macros? What is your APM in Microsoft Office? If you’re the best of the best, you might have what it takes to dominate the world of competitive financial modeling. In fact, another international exhibition game begins.
Microsoft just announced a “Financial Modeling Battle” that will be played live on YouTube. Eight participants from eight countries will expand their spreadsheet skills with Microsoft Excel on June 8th, hence the name of the exhibition, the 888 battle. Participants have 40 minutes to solve a problem by creating a financial model in Excel and answering the jury’s incoming questions about that model.
Yes, Microsoft Office Contests are indeed a Thing. The organization running the 888 Battle is the Financial Modeling World Cup organizes the competitions every month, and unlike the World championship for Microsoft Office specialists, the FMWC has an open age group (the MOSWC requires participants to be 13-22 years old).
From watching the calendar, it seems that the current season has been going on for quite some time. Phase 1 started January 22nd and Phase 6 will take place June 25-28. There is even one Ranking system with regional champions (the current top 3 come from the USA, India and Great Britain) and a grand prize of $ 5,000 for the Excel champion who wins the entire tournament.
There’s a good chance some of you reading this will be genuinely interested in this contest, and I get it. If you are an avid user of Excel, especially a professional, this tournament could be a valuable teaching resource which is why the FMWC is likely to sell tickets to their tournaments.
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If you are a potential competitor, you can take a look at the FMWCs Sample case to see if you can do spreadsheets in the major leagues.