Business of Esports TV: Competitive Spreadsheet-Making

(Livestream 135)

In this segment, we discuss the Microsoft Excel esports tournament that is apparently happening.

The Business Of Esports brings you news, debates, and all the information you need to know about the gaming sector, the world’s fastest-growing market. With Paul “The Profit” Dawalibi leading the charge, and a variety of special guests, BoE TV is the only place to find insider information on the esports industry!

Check out the full livestream here:

Paul Dawalibi 53:24
Let’s talk about cutting edge. eSports here, okay. Because we’ve had conversations on the podcast about chess as an esport. We’ve had conversations on the podcast about poker as an esport none of these things matter. Prepare to unveil the latest in the esports world. This is Microsoft Excel eSports with a tournament that is actually happening. It’s an official Twitter account for Microsoft Excel posted a link to an upcoming eSports tournament between eight top financial modelers. They’re calling it the financial modeler world copper financial modeling World Cup. It’s sponsored by Microsoft. It’s the description was actually posted on smash GG ironically, they can’t air this tournament on mixer, which probably would have made more sense but we’ve got here the financial modeling World Cup multiplayer battle. I don’t think they say what the the prizes, but this is evidently being positioned by Microsoft as an esport. In the context, guys of all the discussion, we’ve had them, many of you have defended chess as an esport. Many of you have defended poker as an esport. Who here is ready to defend Microsoft Excel as an esport? Jimmy

Unknown Speaker 55:13
it’s easy, man. It’s speed running at its finest. You know, that’s what it is. That’s what it is. It’s just another form of speed running. Like, go ahead and do it. I’m sure they had qualifiers and they were amazing, you know, pumped out lots of great content from it from all these, I’m sure. very personable financial modelers. Um, yeah, no, I don’t.

Unknown Speaker 55:34
I don’t think you have I think

Paul Dawalibi 55:35
it’s a good one. Right?

Unknown Speaker 55:36
Yeah, I genuinely believe is a form of speed running. And it Yeah, it is an esport. Technically.

Paul Dawalibi 55:42
Is there anyone who’s offended by this as calling this an esport? Jeff, you’re a finance guy. Do you? Um,

Jeff Cohen 55:51
I’m not offended by it. It’s I don’t know. I don’t know how interesting it’s gonna be to watch

William Collis 55:56
sports athlete Jeff.

Paul Dawalibi 55:58
Could be

Jeff Cohen 55:59
I am

William Collis 56:00
a, you’re even better do it. Yeah.

Jeff Cohen 56:04
I don’t know what they’re actually gonna be model and right. Like they gonna be. Whatever. Yeah, I, I’d love to see the rules.

Paul Dawalibi 56:13
It says, dig eight. I’ll read it. It says eight spreadsheet, jockeys from eight different countries will compete to use the most of excels capabilities to solve complex, complex problems in no time. After the battle, they’re going to share the financial models with the viewers use this opportunity to learn some tricks used by some of the greatest minds in financial modeling.

William Collis 56:36
I mean, we get this as marketing, right? I just have to say clearly, like, we get that, like, I know, we can have a theoretical discussion about can excel be an esport. And I’m happy to do it. Because actually, there’s arguments that you can make, because it really comes down to the question of what is the sport and it’s tough to define. But like, this is marketing. This is just clever marketing. Guys. That’s literally what’s going isn’t all eSports marketing, though.

Paul Dawalibi 56:57
Yeah, yeah, that’s a good point to me. But it is for many of the gaming publishers eSports is a marketing expense to get people to play their game. How is this any different? It’s a marketing spend to get people to use Excel. That is actually cam best comment of the day. one v one v bruh. That’s that’s a slow clap right there. Lindsey, make the argument, please. You’re You’re the traditional sport lover. This offends you, right?

Lindsay Poss 57:38
Oh, sorry. I went out for a second.

Paul Dawalibi 57:42
My good friends you right. Yeah, but are you good?

Lindsay Poss 57:46
Are you kidding?

Not me at all. Like, wow, good. I’m finally gonna may have to make a twitch account.

Paul Dawalibi 58:00
We missed it. It happened yesterday. But maybe we can get the vide. It was it was on the eighth of June, unfortunately. But

Lindsay Poss 58:13
I don’t know. Like, I mean, I suppose technically, people are essentially doing a strategy based game on a keyboard. So you could kind of turn it into what could possibly be an esport. But I think that the point that this is just marketing and like a competition, like, I like that we’re lumping like any type of competition that involves a computer, it’s like eSports, here it is. But in the end, like I don’t I don’t think that widening the range of this industry is necessarily going to be a bad thing. Because if for some reason, Microsoft Excel is the first thing that makes it into the Olympics. Like we’re all gonna be watching anyway.

Paul Dawalibi 58:53
So does anyone think this is a slippery slope, though, from an Esports definition perspective, that like at some point, we’re going to start seeing articles where everyone’s shaking their head going, Come on, guys, this is not an esport anymore. Right. Like it’s all novel. Now.

Unknown Speaker 59:10
I think they already are. I think we’ve been doing that for years with so many games coming. And we’re like, this is the premier mobile esport. And it’s like bowling. It is. And I think people have been like, I think it’s more of a marketing term. At this point. We’re talking about marketing, the whole thing is marketing. I think it’s just marketing at this point. eSports itself is just a marketing vehicle. I think it’s even losing its meaning you say the word so many times. And it’s just like, what is this intangible thing anymore? You know, like, I think it has lost its meaning. And I think it is used to describe everything in this world. And we are the ones who get to define it. Luckily.

Paul Dawalibi 59:47
I mean, Ramsey says definitely a slippery slope. Like at some point, do we have to stand up and say, no, this is not an esport anymore, even if it’s just a marketing gimmick? I don’t think so. No, will you let it all happen?

William Collis 1:00:02
I don’t know I I always think with these things like First of all, remember, you don’t just because it’s a slippery slope doesn’t mean you can’t draw a line. That’s one thing. So Paul’s right, we can draw a line. The other thing here, though, is it I always go back to the you know, and I, I’ll defend this from the book of Esports. I think the best way to think about this, and I truly I put a lot of thought into that book, guys. So if you haven’t read it yet, go read it. The monetization model, the monetization model that’s being employed, that’s how you figure out if the thing is a sport, if the thing is made to be watched. That’s when it crosses the line into sports, if that’s its primary purpose, right? Like, if that’s the, that that’s the thing, and I think here, you can exclude it because it’s not meant to be I get that you can have a fun one time event as a joke or something. But like, you know, it all comes down to the viewership here, because that’s what sustained sports, it’s media. It’s my own two cents. Read the good point. Good point. I like it. I’m gonna

Paul Dawalibi 1:00:58
go read the book of Esports. If you haven’t already, but that’s that’s the takeaway here, guys. Ramsey says just call it an Excel tournament, same audience would tune in?

Unknown Speaker 1:01:09
I don’t know.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:10
I really think so. Like I don’t, because how would you even go about like, say you wanted to draw a line in the sand about what eSports was? How do you go about doing that? How do you even comment on what a sport is? In my book? You know, like, I think the fact that it’s a right, it’s a rule set. That I mean, it’s something that is made to be watched, I completely agree. But can you even draw a line? Can you begin to define these things? Because I like, Oh, I guess what perspective are we looking at from right, like even for the end viewer, for them in esport is anything they can sit down and watch that has competition that happens electronically? But for a company, it’s something that they can use to market something that they can measure like the viewers with? So maybe it’s the end? consumer who needs to answer this question about what is an esport? to them? I don’t even know.

Paul Dawalibi 1:02:04
I mean, there’s, there’s this more existential question of like, do we even need to have to define it right? Like we love talking about it in the definition of it? Is it really necessary just let it be, they want to call it an esport. Who cares, right?