Pretoria Student Wins Global Excel Esports Competition

Pieter Pienaar with his MECC trophy - Credit FMWC

The MECC, founded in 2021, challenges university and college students to enhance their Excel skills by tackling engaging challenges and competitions. Since its launch, more than 14,000 students from more than 1,100 universities spread across more than 130 countries have taken part in challenges online.

Pienaar clinched the top prize in the MECC’s individual-student division, becoming the first South African to win this title, along with the $5,000 prize.

What is Excel esports?

While competitive Excel has been around for about 20 years, interest in this unusual esport has grown rapidly over the past few years.

For those who are unsure of what it entails, Pienaar explains: “Players race against the clock to figure out the information they give us, and then, using complex Excel formulas or building out data models, you need to solve levels that go from easy to hard. The challenges are nothing like normal Excel work, so you shouldn't expect a cash budget. It’s closer to mini-games built inside spreadsheets.”

He says that the games/problems provided could be simulating a game of Battleship or Darts, or a recent more complex case in which players were challenged to simulate a person ice-skating by using complex Excel formulas or data models. “The competition has hundreds of these game-style cases, which is why I see this as a problem solving competition and not an Excel competition, because it’s all about how you break the problem up into smaller pieces.”

Hooked on Excel

Pienaar’s Excel esports journey kicked off in 2022, when he was a second-year BCom Accounting student. He saw a UP announcement about the MECC and decided to sign up. Despite only starting to play that year, he performed well enough to qualify for the 2022 finals in the US, where he finished in 12th place.

“I was hooked,” he says, and was back at the MECC finals in 2023 (finishing in 8th place) and in 2024 (2nd place), before grabbing the top spot on his fourth attempt.

UP Excel Club

In mid-2025, Pienaar founded the UP Excel Club, with the aim of helping other UP students improve their Excel skills and gain access to the world of global competitions. The club has drawn around 30 regulars from all four years of the university’s Accounting programme – but hopes he can help break down a lingering misconception: “Some students see the Excel competition as a ‘male-dominated field’, but some of the best competitors I’ve seen are female.

"We will be inviting some top-tier female champions from the South African Excel Competition to share some of their wisdom with the students next year, and hopefully inspire them. Because this competition is open to everyone, and we want everyone to participate and show the world what UP students are made of!”

For other students considering taking part in Excel esports, he has no hesitation in offering advice: “Just do it! You have absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

"This is the type of skill that is invaluable in the industry, and a lot of people avoid these types of competitions or challenges because they do not want to fail, but failure is unfortunately how you learn. The best players in the world have failed more times than I have even participated. But that is how they gain experience and become incredible at problem-solving. Sign up, take part – and next year you might be the world champion!”