Microsoft FMWC finals: Australian Andrew Ngai wins competition beating Canada's Jarman

E-sports competitions have been garnering immense attention in recent years. However, such competitions are not limited to just popular video games like PUBG, League of Legends or Counter-Strike. Most recently, Microsoft conducted a sponsored E-sports competition called the Financial Modeling World Cup with a grand prize of $10,000. Last week, FMWC held its finals where competitors came together for the last showdown, accompanied by live commentary and scoreboard.

For the unversed, a financial model is a strategic tool that is created using a spreadsheet. It involves the arrangement of data in a manner that can be used to predict the financial performance of a business. However, it requires an in-depth understanding of software such as Microsoft Excel, and a set hand on all the features and controls in the software. That being said, the final battle between participants was held this past Saturday.

FMWC 2021 winners

The FMWC 2021 finals held on Saturday last week was won by the Australian player Andrew Ngai. In the final competition, Ngai beat Michael Jarman, his Canadian counterpart. Financial Modeling World Cup congratulated the winners of the competition through a tweet from the official Twitter handle on December 12, 2021. The event is available on YouTube as a recorded show. A link to the show is available in the tweet below.

What is FMWC?

According to the rules mentioned on the official website, participants has 40 minutes to solve a case, prepared by the organising committee. The participants will be required to solve a business case by creating a financial model and answering several questions related to the model. The competition conducted last week was live-streamed on YouTube and the participants were given cast studies that contained real-world problems. Thereafter, they were asked from six to 15 questions, varying in difficulty. 

"The Competition consists of Case Studies (“Case(s)”) consisting of a range of real-life problem-solving questions solvable through the use of Financial Modeling. Each Stage will normally include 2 (two) to 5 (five) Cases, with the possibility of additional Cases or alternative relevant activities." - as stated on the Financial Modeling World Cup Website.

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