Here’s some serious and seriously weird two worlds colliding energy! Data sheets and MMOs crash into each other, and for once it’s not related to EVE Online! While this sounds like a very strange pairing, don’t forget WoW is now part of the Microsoft family, so that’s some top level cross-promotion, and we love it!
Raiding World First, but in Excel
If you’ve ever thought “What would WoW look like as a spreadsheet RPG?”, look no further than this year’s Microsoft Excel World Championship. Held at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas, it was decided by a World of Warcraft spreadsheet competition. The WoW community was fast to spot it, so thanks to CreativeBasil5344. It’s absolutely worth a watch… well, parts of it. And not just because of WoW, but to see some downright astonishing lightning fast coding, micromanaging, and Excel skills of the participants. PC World had a great article covering the whole thing, which you can check out here.
How It All Works
12 finalists took the stage, with a few familiar names to those following the Championships from before. Competitors were tasked with managing a Horde group through simulated game levels and quests. And of course, where would it all end but good old Molten Core. As if the normal Ragnaros wasn’t hard enough, a spreadsheet one sounds like a calculating nightmare.
Here are the final moments:
The participants had to manage tons of statistics, including XP, gold, in-game stats (intellect, agility…), equipment, and even a mining schedule. Clearing the levels and managing all the numbers awarded points. To make things more spicy, there were bonus questions for extra points. For example, “What is the total XP of all the 20 players as they finish their fights on level 7?”.
To make it even more nerve wrecking for the competitors, it was a game of catch-up, with the lowest scoring player eliminated every 5 minutes until there were only six left. Having the most fire resistance, and rolling a 100 on a need roll, was Michael Harman, taking the prize and the Championship home to Canada. Congratulations, Michael!
