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The World Excel Championship is being broadcast on ESPN
- sbf501 4y agoctrl-shift-enter + 2 variable solvers. It will change your world. That is all.
- castrodd 4y agoIt's Krazam's world and we're just living in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xubbVvKbUfY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xubbVvKbUfY
- corytheboyd 4y agoFirst thing I thought of as well haha
- flafla2 4y agoSame. I’m honestly kind of stunned
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- drexlspivey 4y agoBallmercon is going to be dope this year!
- m_mueller 4y agoExcept for that Chinese localization nerf - MS just doesn’t care for the pro scene anymore!
- VectorLock 4y agoEvery one of their videos is so pitch perfect for the tech world. "Microservices" is my favorite.
- b0afc375b5 4y agoCurrently, mine is Leadership Sync. I like it so much I played it on a loop. https://youtu.be/1RAMRukKqQg https://youtu.be/1RAMRukKqQg Most, if not all, of their videos are masterpieces.
- sph 4y agoOmega Star still not supporting ISO timestamps smh
- VectorLock 4y agoWe're blocked! sobbing. We're blocked! This person definitely worked at a tech company where as soon as someone has to wait more than 2 seconds they start histrionically marking tickets as blockers.
- Bayart 4y agoI think he was at Amazon at the time.
- aronhegedus 4y agoMy favorite is the standing mat :D
- userbinator 4y agoLife imitates art.
- pushedx 4y agoRight? Seems like this joke willed it into existence.
- thematrixturtle 4y agoTIL there's a sequel to this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICp2-EUKQAI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICp2-EUKQAI
- jlebar 4y agoI will never forget the conversation I had with someone about competitive Excel. Them: It's a real thing, I was watching on YouTube! Me: I know, it's pretty awesome/hilarious. Them: Yeah, and they treat it like a real e-sport! Me: With announcers and everything! Them: I know. "Helloooo sheeeetheads!" Me: .......yeah that's a parody.
- bazhova 4y agoGoing no-ANSI is still a viable strat imo
- Jeema101 4y agoDon't know about you but I'm pretty pumped for BallmerCon this year.
- ekianjo 4y agoI guess that's going to be a sign that Excel is dead
- jrockway 4y agoIt's only dead when Microsoft thinks they can make more money on Excel being an e-sport, and start changing it in a way that helps with e-sports but annoys normal users. This is a common killer of video games.
- BlueTankEngine 4y agoCan you name a single video game that this has ever happened to? There isn't even a hint of truth to what you said
- klyrs 4y agoExcel is fine. E-Sports, however, just jumped a shark.
- kleer001 4y agoTo some, certainly. But to me it looks like a real skill and tough challenges. Super micro niche, for sure.
- Quikinterp 4y agoI'd like any readers of this thread to know that there was once a million dollar Farming Simulator tournament. The competition was haybale stacking. I always found that hilarious
- dylan604 4y agoWere those bales of hay shaped like "L" or "T" or "Z" and did the music for it sound kind of Russian?
- EddySchauHai 4y agoIf anyone wonders what that would look like… well here you go! https://youtu.be/lvlBDjsQzpE https://youtu.be/lvlBDjsQzpE
- westurner 4y agoTIL about Excel e-Sports. From https://www.fmworldcup.com/excel-esports/ https://www.fmworldcup.com/excel-esports/ : > No finance, just Excel and logical thinking skills. Use IFS, XLOOKUP, SUM, VBA, Power Query: anything is allowed, and the strategy is up to you. It says VBA, so presumably named variables are allowed in the Excel spreadsheet competition. What about Python and e.g. Pandas or https://www.pola.rs/ https://www.pola.rs/ ? > Some events are invitational, some are open for everyone to participate in. > All battles are live-streamed and can be spectated on our Youtube channel.
- teruakohatu 4y ago> What about Python and e.g. Pandas or https://www.pola.rs/ https://www.pola.rs/ ? I think it is safe to assume that only Microsoft Excel is allowed. The features they listed are all built in features. Kaggle speed runs as a sport would be interesting.
- MonkeyMalarky 4y agoThey really would. I feel like kaggle is mostly teams slowly grinding for very small incremental improvements over each other. Adding a time component would really sort the wheat from the chaff.
- boringg 4y agoIt would certainly change the dynamic. Not sure about wheat from the chaff - faster != better.
- westurner 4y agoMetrics for scoring: error/cost/fitness, time to solution (t), dollars to solution ($), resources in terms of {carbon, kWh, USD,}, costs in terms of costed opcodes, Whether there's a logically plausible causal explanation (for quickly-discovered probably just associative relations)
- anothernewdude 4y ago
- yftsui 4y agoIt’s ESPN2 though, the annual Corgi Race in Seattle also aired on ESPN2 again last week.
- gonzo41 4y agoWhat makes horses special. If you can find some eccentric millionaire who's willing to stump up prize money for any sort of race, crowds and gamblers alike will start to take things seriously. I have been to dachshund races. People will bet on anything.
- bitwize 4y agoSeen in a bathroom in an Australian bar/grill: A poster with two flies. Fly 1: "Bet you I can run up this wall faster than you." Fly 2: "Bet you you can't." At the bottom: "They say that Australians will bet on anything, even two flies running up a wall. If you have a gambling problem, call <helpline number>." Also seen on that same bathroom wall: A poster reading "Win a trip for two to Las Vegas".
- pessimizer 4y agoDash-hounds sound like they'd be fast.
- User23 4y agoThere are badgering competitions for dachshunds too!
- Aperocky 4y agoI would actively want to watch Corgi race though.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y agoIt's so good
- dylan604 4y agoI was surprised it wasn't the Ocho
- denlekke 4y agohttps://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/08/excel-esports-on-espn-show-world-the-pain-of-format-errors/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/08/excel-esports-on-espn...
- shon 4y agoThe geeks shall inherit the earth.
- system2 4y agoRichest people are generally are geeks (with luck also). Tech people are richer in general.
- WaxProlix 4y agoI don't think that's true at all - it seems like Finance, Fashion, and Politics people are the richest in general, with geeks coming tied for 3rd or even 4th overall. Of the richest (known) 25 in the world [1], only 4 or 5 can be said to be "nerds", with some financiers and magnates in the tech industry doing fairly well also. The rest are all financiers, inheritors, politicians, etc. 1 https://www.therichest.com/top-lists/top-250-richest-people-in-the-world/ https://www.therichest.com/top-lists/top-250-richest-people-... idk how reliable this is, and family/endowed fortunes like the medicis, the papal trust, eastern european organizations etc aren't counted at all apparently.
- sneak 4y agoYou are talking about private wealth held in things like bank accounts, etc. These are always subordinate to the actual sovereign owners of the property. I think those who can ultimately control final disposition of resources are far richer. The Medicis actually ran Florence. If you're wealthy in Russia or China or the USA today, you don't actually get to decide what happens with your biggest assets, push comes to shove, that's up to Putin or Xi or the CIA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio Unless you have an army, you're not really "rich" in the way people have used that term for the last few thousand years.
- WaxProlix 4y agoI'm not. I'm talking about assets controlled directly. Things do get blurry with eg MBS or Putin, or the weird finances of Thailand etc.
- hbarka 4y agoGoogle Sheets > Excel
- filmgirlcw 4y agoI shouldn’t respond to this but…in what universe? Please share whatever drug you’re on with the class.
- orange_fritter 4y agoApple Numbers for iOS has entered the chat
- filmgirlcw 4y agoI almost made a Numbers joke!
- HFguy 4y agoNice...I would give you an award if I could.
- t6jvcereio 4y agoI bet you it's someone who used Excel for work, and whose entire analysis is something like "it's on the browser and it's easier to share documents".
- makeitdouble 4y agoYes, that's a crazy thing to say without explaination. I think Excel will be unbeatable as an offline spreadsheet application for many years, if a competitor ever appears. Now, if what you're looking for is not offline spreadsheets, but a tabular interface that can be messed around in JS, with an API integration, Sheets is an excellent product that fills Excel's niche but in a connected system. disclaimer: I haven't touched much of office 365's online part, but am under the impression scripting with cloud services is not the direction MS is going for.
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- themodelplumber 4y agoFascinating. This makes me wonder. How legit can things get with LO Calc? That's been under heavy development. Or Calligra Sheets, Gnumeric, sc-im, Pyspread. Like what's really power-user stuff in those worlds. What level of business logic, what level of gamedev, what level of appdev, etc.
- cvccvroomvroom 4y agoVisiCalc and SuperCalc enter the ring ready to do battle without Turing completeness.
- etskinner 4y agoJust learned about pyspread[0] from your comment, it's surprisingly powerful. I'm well-versed in Python and in Excel, and I'm already more comfortable in pyspread than in Excel after 10 minutes. [0] https://pyspread.gitlab.io/index.html https://pyspread.gitlab.io/index.html
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- wistlo 4y ago
- brunellus 4y agoWe
- samstave 4y agoUHm, where is Martin Shkrei If you dont know, Martin is an absolute EXCEL (the microsoft application) wizard. His youtoubes are really good and a must watch. Fuck that that guy though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli
- JoBrad 4y agoMorals aside, his track record is insane. The fact that he was able to keep getting so much funding is nuts.
- xrayarx 4y agoCode Golf needs to become an e-sport! And vimgolf, of course!
- pilaf 4y agoI'd be very interested in watching a live time-limited code golf competition, but after a cursory search I couldn't find anything. I guess it's too niche of a sport still.
- dirtyid 4y agoThey need to mic the contestants and mechnical keyboard sponsors to provide some boards.
- 1MachineElf 4y agoBut first, a word from our sponsor, Microsoft...
- lianna-vba 4y agoOh hey, I've been in two of FMWC's live competitions (though not this one) and their regular offline almost-monthly competitions. VBA is allowed - I've used it but no one else seems too. Power Query and LET/LAMBDA is a little more common and named ranges (variables) even more common. It's fun but going into the challenge blind is so stressful. What if your brain goes blank and you can't figure out where to begin? But there should be another Open live tournament this November or so with cash prizes, check it out.
- snthpy 4y agoOne question I have is whether you can use your own Excel setup and stuff like custom toolbars etc...?
- mnsc 4y agoASAP Utilities was my weapon of choice when I was deep in excel data extraction work. But I think that should count as "auto aim" in a sport setting...
- lianna-vba 4y agoYou can customize your quick access toolbar. I've never seen a rule against 3rd party add-ins so I'm not sure about those. Keyboard shortcuts and lookup/logic/date/math/dynamic array functions are key along with data tables if you want to try and solve the challenge in one go.
- KronisLV 4y ago> What if your brain goes blank and you can't figure out where to begin? Hah, this is me with many interview questions, because you rarely ever get something like: "How would make a RESTful API to allow retrieving and changing some data from a PostgreSQL DB", instead it's just Leetcode problems that have (comparatively) little to do with the day to day, especially when you're expected to know, not look up the solution like you would normally. So there's not a lot that you can do, but just familiarize yourself with algorithms and ways to solve common problems and write plenty of code. :) I imagine it's quite a lot like that in most specialized domains, be it solving physics or maths problems, or even using Excel for interesting use cases.
- ericzawo 4y agoLife imitates art. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xubbVvKbUfY&t=1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xubbVvKbUfY&t=1s
- ycombinete 4y agoThis was posted in the same thread 2 hours ago
- random314 4y agoReminds of this crazy final https://youtu.be/ICp2-EUKQAI https://youtu.be/ICp2-EUKQAI
- nocman 4y agoI'm sure the people who do the competing enjoy it, but I can't imagine it being something any large group of people would enjoy watching.
- hulitu 4y agoFirst assignment: find header and footer settings in the ribbon.
- bdcravens 4y agoNot the most outlandish thing I've seen on ESPN. I remember during the early days of the pandemic tuning in and seeing the US cherry pit spitting championship.
- kramerger 4y agoI think ESPN is just testing waters for future events with EVE Online.
- broodbucket 4y agoI'm more of a fan of EVE than I am of Excel, but I think competitive Excel would be more interesting, if not as visually stimulating. Competitive Excel shows off quick problem solving, EVE battles are really slow and dull if you're not invested in them
- jsty 4y agoWhich would be about the same amount of spreadsheets plus a few extra battle scenes
- edpichler 4y agoThat remembers me the quote "If it makes you sweat and it can fill a gymnasium of people to watch it, it is a sport" so Excel is a sport indeed hehe.
- qngcdvy 4y agoSweet. That makes my bathroom breaks after the day I had genuine Mexican food a sport, too.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- autoexec 4y agoI've got to give them credit, that's some entertaining marketing.
- agent86 4y agoIn case anyone wants to watch the event without tracking it down on ESPN, you can jump to the YouTube version if it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1RVNGDSdw4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1RVNGDSdw4
- keithalewis 4y agoEvery $BIG_BANK still uses humongous Excel spreadsheets and xll add-ins for the heavy lifting. It is no longer a right of passage to learn arcane techniques for calling C, C++, or even Fortran from Excel. There are several good libraries to make that easy, including one I wrote: https://github.com/xlladdins/xll https://github.com/xlladdins/xll. Only the ancient Excel C SDK allows you to get a pointer to 2-dimensional arrays of doubles in Excel. Every other API requires the data to be copied out and copied back in again.
- teddyh 4y agoRelevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbkaYsR94c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nbkaYsR94c
- daemond 4y agoAwesome! I think Excel is the low code version of database.
- replwoacause 4y agoNo sheet!
- RickJWagner 4y agoI give ESPN credit for morphing itself past being the pioneering sports channel. It's become kind of a joke, but at least it's moved outside the niche. Maybe someday it'll find relevancy again. For now, there's no way I'd pay for ESPN.
- spywaregorilla 4y agoThis makes me wonder why speed coding isn't more of a thing.
- stevedewald 4y agoDo you mean programming competitions? They were a huge thing for me in high school, and that was 20 years ago. I have to imagine they’re an even bigger thing now.
- meken 4y agoBack in college, me and my friend hosted a text editing tournament, where you would compete to see how could edit a text file the quickest, thereby proving which text editor is unquestionably the best (and which one sucks the most =P). It was probably my best memory from undergrad. https://github.com/ebanner/TextEditorTournament https://github.com/ebanner/TextEditorTournament