The winner of the first ever national title will represent Poland at the World Championship in Las Vegas The cream of Poland's Microsoft Office users will meet in Poznań this weekend to vie for the unusual title of Excel national champion, as mastery of the spreadsheet software gains recognition as an esport. The western city will host the first ever national championship during the Game Arena conference at the Poznań International Fair on October 23. Excel competitions involve harnessing the software, most commonly used for accounting and calculating, to solve unconventional tasks that test the participants’ logical thinking. The Poznań event, organized by the Polish Esports Association in collaboration with the Microsoft Excel World Championship and Financial Modeling World Cup, will bring together the country's top spreadsheet masters to compete for national glory. But the accolade of best number cruncher and the national trophy are a mere gateway to greater glory. The victor will have the honor of representing Poland at the Microsoft Excel World Championship finals in Las Vegas from November 30 to December 2, where competitors from around the world will battle for a top prize of $100,000. The growing popularity of the Excel expertise was underlined on World Spreadsheet Day on October 17, when 675 players from almost 70 countries took part in a single Excel esports game, setting a new participation record and surpassing the previous best of 654 participants. Although the Poznań clash will be the country’s first national championships, Poland has found success on the spreadsheet before. In August this year, high school student Aleksy Jakub Dobrodziej won silver in the Excel category at the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship in California.
