At the climax of the Microsoft Excel World Championship in Las Vegas, a hushed crowd watched as eight men sat in comfortable leather chairs before computer monitors and began doing some data entry.
It was the moment spreadsheet fans had been waiting for. “All right!” said a man in the commentary box. “Here we go! Ready for the finals.”
On the stage, behind the row of desks, the men began moving cursors, highlighting rows and filling them. They looked ordinary enough in their shirts and jumpers. But in the world of data entry, these were the best of the best.
From Australia had come Andrew “the Annihilator” Ngai, last year’s world champion. From Poland there was Yakub “the Alchemist” Pomykalski, a man so fluent in