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Sydney man Andrew “The Annihilator” Ngai has received the Microsoft Excel World Championship for the third consecutive yr.
Key factors:
- Sydney man Andrew Ngai has received the Microsoft Excel World Championship for the third straight yr
- The esports occasion passed off within the US metropolis of Las Vegas, and was streamed and televised dwell
- Mr 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 unravel 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 rapidly,” Mr Ngai instructed the ABC’s RN Drive.
“Folks get eradicated, you overtake individuals all through the entire half hour, so it may be fairly thrilling to look at the scores go up and down.”
Mr Ngai says his prize consists of $US3,000 ($4,500) in prize cash, a trophy and a wrestling-style champion’s belt.
“Clearly it feels good,” he instructed ABC Information.
“This time was a bit completely different, as a result of it was in particular person … I assume it felt a bit extra particular and a bit extra nervous, with everybody watching you reside and screaming — the group 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 mentioned that as an actuary — somebody who compiles and analyses statistics to calculate issues comparable 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 mentioned. “Earlier than I obtained 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 mentioned ensuring he had the newest model of Excel had helped as a result of some helpful new options, however he additionally put in fairly a little bit of observe.
“Most of my preparation was doing previous instances, form of like once you’re sitting an examination you may do previous papers to get used to what the examination is likely to be like,” Mr Ngai instructed RN Drive.
He mentioned 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 might watch it with out having to get up at 3am, and I obtained a whole lot of messages from them. That was nice,” he mentioned.
‘Annihilator’ says Excel expertise are secure from AI ‘for now’
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Mr Ngai mentioned Microsoft Excel tournaments had advanced to turn out to be “extra quick paced, extra thrilling and extra accessible to individuals who aren’t monetary modellers”.
He additionally mentioned Excel specialists 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 mentioned.
“Who is aware of what’s going to occur in the long run, however I believe generative AI — sure, it is extremely good and I’ve used ChatGPT as effectively — but it surely nonetheless wants a human to information it and so I believe proper now, generative AI is excellent at supporting what we do, however to only let it unfastened, it isn’t fairly there but.
“Generative AI relies on the information that’s used to coach the mannequin, so it might be that when you use incorrect knowledge to coach an AI mannequin, then the AI mannequin gives you mistaken outcomes, however it is going to additionally faux as if it is actually assured about these mistaken outcomes.
“So there’s a complete factor however you must be actually cautious with the way you practice these fashions. I believe our expertise are nonetheless secure for now.”
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