Ha Dang, a self-taught spreadsheet obsessive and accountant from Leeds, won the inaugural UK Excel Championship by a margin of just 11 points, earning the right to represent the United Kingdom at the Microsoft Excel World Championship in Las Vegas this December. The livestreamed final in London ended with Dang on 2,474 points and runner-up Lorenzo Foti on 2,463 — out of a possible 3,750 — in what Dang later described as “by the skin of my teeth.” With the victory, the first UK chapter champion now joins a global field of elite competitors who treat Excel not as office drudgery but as a high-pressure competitive sport.
A London Showdown with Vegas on the Line
The competition, run by Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC) UK, unfolded over three online qualifying rounds and a live, in-person final in London. According to The Register, which first reported the full score breakdown, around 30 finalists tackled three timed cases designed to test “Excel, mathematics, and logic.” Points were awarded for accuracy and speed, and the leaderboard seesawed in the closing minutes. Foti narrowed the gap to seven points at one stage, but Dang pulled away just enough to secure the title.
Dang’s path to the winner’s circle reflects years of self-directed learning. In a LinkedIn post quoted by The Register, he recalled being fascinated as a five-year-old by how typing text could make things appear on a grid — a curiosity he now suspects involved VLOOKUP formulas. Later, while at university, he stumbled upon a book titled 100 Most Useful Excel Functions the day before starting an internship, and he spent the summer applying every technique to his work. That iterative, practical approach paid off in a competition where seconds and small optimizations matter.
Why a Spreadsheet Competition Matters to Your Daily Work
For most people, Excel is a tool for budgets, reports, or tracking a small side project. Seeing it become an esport might seem niche, but the skills on display are directly transferable to real-world productivity — and the event raises practical questions for anyone who relies on spreadsheets.
For Home Users and Aspiring Analysts
If you’re looking to level up your own Excel game, the championship is proof that deep fluency is achievable without a formal data science background. Dang’s story — learning from a library book and then experimenting on the job — mirrors the way many advanced users build expertise. Free resources already exist: FMWC and various chapters publish sample cases and solutions, and YouTube tutorials and community livestreams let you reverse-engineer the techniques used by champions.
For Power Users and Finance Professionals
Competition tactics overlap heavily with best practices for building robust, auditable models. Competitors lean on structured tables, named ranges, and modular formulas to keep their work readable under time pressure. Functions like XLOOKUP, dynamic arrays (FILTER, UNIQUE, SORT), and LET/LAMBDA featured prominently in the cases, according to organizers’ descriptions. Adopting these in your own workflows can reduce errors and make spreadsheets easier to maintain — provided you account for compatibility.
For IT Administrators and Business Decision Makers
The championship also surfaces a tension that workplaces increasingly face. Many of the winning techniques rely on relatively recent Excel functions. XLOOKUP, for example, is Microsoft’s recommended successor to VLOOKUP, but it requires a Microsoft 365 subscription or Excel 2021 or later; older perpetual-license versions won’t support it. Similarly, dynamic arrays and LAMBDA are modern additions that break backward compatibility. If your organization shares workbooks with external partners or runs mixed Excel environments, adopting these functions without a clear migration plan can lead to broken spreadsheets and frustrated users. The event is a reminder to standardize on a consistent, supported Excel build and to document fallback approaches (e.g., using INDEX/MATCH if a workbook must open in Excel 2016).
From VLOOKUP to Vegas: The Rise of Competitive Excel
Microsoft Excel itself is about to turn 40 — it first shipped for the Apple Macintosh on September 30, 1985, before becoming a Windows and Office juggernaut. In those four decades, the software evolved from a grid-based number cruncher into a platform with its own programming language, data transformation engine (Power Query), and even embedded Python. Yet its public image remained stubbornly unglamorous — until the past few years.
The Microsoft Excel World Championship, along with regional chapters like FMWC UK, has rebranded deep spreadsheet skill as a spectator-friendly discipline. The championship’s Las Vegas finals (scheduled for December 1–3 this year) draw a global field of competitors who advance through national qualifiers, online seeding rounds, and wildcard entries. Livestreamed matches with commentary, split-screen views of formulas and dashboards, and cash prizes have turned what was once a solitary office activity into a community event.
This shift mirrors broader trends in competitive programming and esports. Just as speed-programming contests showcase coding fluency, Excel competitions measure the ability to decompose a business problem into a clean, scalable model under a ticking clock. Microsoft itself has embraced the spectacle, promoting the championship on its official channels and integrating new feature showcases into the events. For the chapters, a win is not just a bragging right — it’s a fully funded trip to Las Vegas and a shot at the global title.
Five Moves to Sharpen Your Excel Edge Now
Whether you aim to compete someday or simply want to work faster and with fewer errors, the techniques on display in London offer a practical roadmap.
- Master the modern lookup trio. XLOOKUP handles most VLOOKUP tasks with less fragility. Combined with INDEX/MATCH for legacy compatibility and SUMIFS for conditional aggregation, you can tackle the vast majority of data retrieval problems. Practice on the sample files published by FMWC chapters.
- Adopt dynamic arrays. Functions like FILTER, UNIQUE, SORT, and SEQUENCE automatically spill results into neighboring cells. They simplify tasks that once required complex helper columns or CSE array formulas. Start by replacing a manual filter-and-copy workflow with a single FILTER formula.
- Time yourself on practice cases. The championship format uses 30-minute problem windows. Find a dataset from a past competition (many are free online) and set a timer. The pressure will reveal where your formula logic slows down or breaks. Afterward, review your solution for readability, edge cases, and performance.
- Watch the livestreams. FMWC and regional chapters archive final rounds on YouTube. Pay attention to the competitors’ navigation habits, keyboard shortcuts, and formula-building sequences. Note how they validate results quickly before moving on.
- Plan your team’s upgrade path. If you manage a group of Excel users, map out which functions require a modern build. Create a cheat sheet of safe fallback formulas. If you decide to migrate fully to the latest version, set a deadline and communicate it clearly. Microsoft community guidance confirms that XLOOKUP arrived first in Microsoft 365 Insider channels and is not available in perpetual releases like Office 2019 and earlier, so verify your organization’s licensing.
The Las Vegas Finals and Beyond
With Dang’s victory, the UK now has a seat at the global table. The Las Vegas event will pit chapter winners against seasoned competitors in a multi-day format that includes training camps, head-to-head rounds, and an exhibition final. For UK-based Excel users, it’s a chance to watch a local champion on an international stage — and to pick up advanced techniques from the live streams.
Beyond the spectacle, the championship ecosystem is maturing. More national chapters are expected to launch, further lowering the barrier for entry. For organizations, this means a growing pool of talent that views Excel not as a chore but as a craft they actively hone after hours. The challenge will be to harness that enthusiasm within a governance framework that values auditability and reproducibility as much as speed. As September 30 marks Excel’s 40th year, a Leeds accountant’s 11-point win is a timely reminder that deep, tool-specific expertise still carries real — and sometimes dazzling — professional value.