Sports around the world have the ability to captivate us and have us on the edge of our seats with the excitement and thrills it provides.Whether it be football, boxing or Formula One, millions globally tune into sports to see their favourite athletes perform to a high standard.The thrill of any sport is often difficult to match, with the appeal leading to major broadcasters putting the shows on for us, with Sky Sports the big player in the UK and ESPN across the Atlantic.Speaking of ESPN, with the NFL still not back for Americans, they’ve taken up a new championship to broadcast to all their watchers – Excel Esports.The World Excel Championships have been broadcast by them in an ‘All-Star Battle’ set up by The Financial Modeling World Cup.I know what you’re thinking, Excel? Excelling in which sports? No, it’s genuinely Excel, the Microsoft Office application used by businesses globally to keep on top of a range of things from finances to work rotas and so much more.

A rather complex programme with an abundance of features and commands, it can take years to master the art of spreadsheets, so if you’ve managed to conquer the programme, you could use your skills to be a world champion!

It’s a one-of-a-kind tournament which has eight of the best Excel users pitting their wits against each other to see who is the ultimate head honcho of Microsoft’s programme.

The tournaments have been around for a few years, with Joseph Lau and Diarmuid Early previous winners of the prestigious competition.

This year though, it’s gone to a whole new level, with major sports broadcaster ESPN showing the spectacle to a huge audience, giving it the full works.

They have provided top of the range coverage, including commentary and analysis to help even the most novice Excel craftsman or craftswoman follow the action.

Any sports commentator takes their role seriously, with those lucky enough to be booked for the Excel World Championships smashing it, with this absolutely electric commentary: “The contestants that clean their metal first, they wind up with good knives in the end, and the ones that don’t, they get up ahead of time but then they wind with a cracked blade or something.”

Eight competitors in the ‘All-Star Battle’ are being broadcast as they try to solve complex questions in a limited timeframe to see who is to be crowned as the 2022 World Champion for Excel.