Yes. Microsoft Excel is a competitive eSport. Yes, a South African player has just won the international collegiate challenge!
Las Vegas, United States (05 December 2025) – With great power comes great spreadsheets. That’s not a line from Spiderman’s Peter Parker, but it could be from South Africa’s Pieter Pienaar, who just scooped first place in the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge.
The 2025 Microsoft Excel World Championship and Collegiate Challenge hosted its finals in Las Vegas this week. Competitors from nearly every continent battled it out to become one of this year’s top Excel eSports athletes.
Yes, spreadsheeting is that competitive.
The esport is essentially Excel turned into a fast-paced logic sport. Players receive messy data sets and story-driven scenarios for which they must build solutions that are accurate, scalable and lightning-fast.
They race against the clock to untangle information, design formulas, crack bonus challenges and work through increasingly difficult levels, all within the same timed file. It started with maths-heavy problem sets, but has grown into a much broader test of thinking under pressure.
If you’re interested in learning more, the BBC’s deep dive into the eSport is a good one.
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Pieter, a student of the University of Pretoria and returning competitor at the games, walks away with his title as 2025 Collegiate World Champion, followed by Australia’s Matthew Beard and Madagascar’s Christian Mbolanatenaina.
“Pieter is a champion of advanced problem-solving. In 2024, he ranked 2nd globally in the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge, becoming the highest-ranked South African competitor in the event’s history. He later founded the University of Pretoria’s Excel Club, where he shares his expertise in advanced analytics and big data with his fellow students.” shares SAICA.
Pieter has his eyes on the Microsoft Excel World Championship for next year, now having smashed the collegiate division.
This year, the United States’ Diarmuid Early took the world title, beating 23 other players in the grand LAN finals. Pienaar has great respect for Early, who has helped him along the path to spreadsheet greatness.
“One of the reasons I’m here is Diarmuid Early…The first year I took part, the competition was still in Tuscon and I needed a GoFundMe to pay for my plane ticket. Diarmuid donated money to get me here,” shares Pienaar. “This one definitely belongs to Diarmuid, I’ll take the next one.”
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