Sydney man Andrew “The Annihilator” Ngai has gained the Microsoft Excel World Championship for the third consecutive yr.
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Sydney man Andrew Ngai has gained the Microsoft Excel World Championship for the third straight yrThe esports occasion befell within the US metropolis of Las Vegas, and was streamed and televised dwellMr Ngai says his work as an actuary and time spent practising helped him obtain his three-peat
The actuary, who started competing in 2018, claimed this yr’s title throughout an esports occasion in Las Vegas, which was streamed on-line and broadcast dwell on TV.
The competitors sees knowledge crunchers given issues to resolve utilizing Excel spreadsheets, together with maths, monetary modelling and even board and card video games.
Gamers with the fewest factors are eradicated one-by-one, earlier than the winner is topped.
“It is fairly intense as a result of it is simply half an hour per case, so time ticks fairly shortly,” Mr Ngai advised the ABC’s RN Drive.
“Individuals get eradicated, you overtake folks all through the entire half hour, so it may be fairly thrilling to observe the scores go up and down.”
Mr Ngai says his prize contains $US3,000 ($4,500) in prize cash, a trophy and a wrestling-style champion’s belt.
“Clearly it feels good,” he advised ABC Information.
“This time was a bit completely different, as a result of it was in individual … I suppose it felt a bit extra particular and a bit extra nervous, with everybody watching you reside and screaming — the gang screaming as issues have been occurring.”
Microsoft congratulated Mr Ngai on his win, posting on Instagram: “You did not simply succeed — you Exceled.”
‘We’re good with numbers’
Mr Ngai stated that as an actuary — somebody who compiles and analyses statistics to calculate issues equivalent to insurance coverage dangers — he makes use of Excel in his work on daily basis.
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“We’re good with numbers,” he stated. “Earlier than I received into Excel competitions I had already been utilizing Excel for greater than a decade, in order that fairly naturally helped me in these competitions.”
He stated ensuring he had the newest model of Excel had helped on account of some helpful new options, however he additionally put in fairly a little bit of apply.
“Most of my preparation was doing previous instances, sort of like while you’re sitting an examination you may do previous papers to get used to what the examination is likely to be like,” Mr Ngai advised RN Drive.
He stated his household and mates have been happy with him, and had at all times been very supportive of him competing in Excel tournaments.
“This yr was good as a result of they may watch it with out having to get up at 3am, and I received a whole lot of messages from them. That was nice,” he stated.
‘Annihilator’ says Excel expertise are protected from AI ‘for now’
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Mr Ngai stated Microsoft Excel tournaments had developed to develop into “extra quick paced, extra thrilling and extra accessible to individuals who aren’t monetary modellers”.
He additionally stated Excel consultants weren’t threatened by the rise of generative synthetic intelligence (AI), which may create its personal spreadsheets in seconds.
“Initially, again in 2018, it was very monetary modelling-focused — suppose accounting or finance and projecting stability sheets and corporations’ cash and issues like that,” he stated.
“Who is aware of what’s going to occur in the long run, however I feel generative AI — sure, it is vitally good and I’ve used ChatGPT as properly — but it surely nonetheless wants a human to information it and so I feel proper now, generative AI is excellent at supporting what we do, however to simply let it unfastened, it isn’t fairly there but.
“Generative AI depends upon the information that’s used to coach the mannequin, so it could possibly be that in the event you use incorrect knowledge to coach an AI mannequin, then the AI mannequin will provide you with fallacious outcomes, however it should additionally fake as if it is actually assured about these fallacious outcomes.
“So there’s a entire factor however you must be actually cautious with the way you practice these fashions. I feel our expertise are nonetheless protected for now.”