Offbeat

Diarmuid Early dominates Amsterdam qualifier as competitive spreadsheeting sets sights on Vegas finals

Microsoft Excel may be where joy goes to die in rows and columns, but this weekend it was the stuff of trophies, prize money, and esports-style drama.

Competitive Excel wrangling has become quite a thing. The latest stop was Amsterdam's H20 Esports Campus, where spreadsheet athletes competed across five formats for a share of a €12,500 prize fund and direct seeding into the 2026 Microsoft Excel World Championship Finals in Las Vegas. Reigning champion Diarmuid Early of Ireland was back at the keyboard.

The competition was divided into multiple threads: the main event, a relay (where a three-person team shared one workbook), mixed doubles (where two competitors worked in parallel on linked problems), a student challenge, and a bracket-style "Mega Elimination."

Early took home three trophies, winning the Main Event and Mega Elimination, and as part of Team Titanic, which won the Team Relay. Early's success means a direct seed to the Microsoft Excel World Championship semifinals, while Sergio Trifiletti, second in the Main Event, and Alexander Freedman, third, earned quarterfinal spots.

The prize for first place in the Main Event was €2,000, being a member of the winning relay team was worth €500, and the Mega Elimination winner was awarded €500.

A Microsoft post on the event called Early's achievement "an unprecedented showing on the Excel esports circuit."

Excel was not the first commercially available spreadsheet – VisiCalc has that honor, at least on personal computers – but Microsoft's grid is the one that stuck. Having seen off Lotus 1-2-3, the veteran package Early told The Register he had never used, it continues to lurk beneath countless corporate financial models.

That said, Microsoft has not always been Excel's best friend. A recent attempt to park Copilot in the middle of the action via a floating button that obscured spreadsheet content went down about as well as a circular reference. The company has since backed off, adding an option to remove the user interface element. 

The Las Vegas event runs from November 30 to December 2 at the HyperX Esports Arena, and has a $100,000 prize fund. The online qualification round opens on September 26. ®