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What happened when Copilot tackled the cases?
PCWorld senior editor Mark Hachman downloaded three Excel World Championship cases—Whodunnit, Origami, and World of Warcraft—made copies of the workbooks, and removed the answer tab from the copies he tested. He gave Copilot the same instruction each time: “Follow all instructions as listed in the spreadsheet. Fill in the answers in the appropriate space in the ‘Questions’ section for each of the levels. Finally, answer the bonus questions and update the current score.”
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| Case | Questions and bonuses | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| Whodunnit | Seven tiers, 140 questions, and five bonus questions | After a first attempt mistakenly used a workbook that still had the answers tab, Copilot initially declined on the repeat attempt. Hachman selected the option to solve the questions; he reports a perfect result in 4 minutes, 40 seconds. |
| Origami | Seven tiers, 130 questions, and five bonus questions | Hachman reports completion in 2 minutes, 5 seconds, with the bonus questions answered correctly. |
| World of Warcraft | Seven tiers, 140 questions, and five bonus questions | Copilot initially refused twice. After Hachman repeated the original prompt, he reports completion in 7 minutes, 45 seconds, with all bonus questions correct. |
These are Hachman’s reported outcomes from his workflow, not independently verified benchmark results. The report does not establish repeated, controlled runs; Hachman says earlier informal attempts took longer and sometimes left fields blank. He could not determine whether those problems came from randomness, the prompt, or the case instructions. His PCWorld account is here.
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Not in Hachman’s reported comparison of the World of Warcraft workbook. ChatGPT Pro completed it in 6 minutes, 35 seconds, while Gemini 3.6 Flash Extended said it could not access or read the workbook’s raw contents and asked for manual input. The account does not establish that the systems were tested under controlled or identical conditions, or that these results generalize to other versions, prompts, or workbooks.
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The comparison is more than a race against the clock: workbook access, completion across all tiers and bonuses, and the need for follow-up after a refusal all shaped what happened. A fast reported run is not equivalent to a reliable, repeatable ability to solve any championship case.
Does this show AI can beat Excel champions?
No. The experiment shows that Copilot could complete three selected downloadable cases in Hachman’s setup, with follow-up prompting needed in two of the reported Copilot attempts. It did not compare AI and human competitors solving the same case under the same rules and conditions.
For context, Hachman says 2024 finals winner Michael Jarman completed four of seven World of Warcraft tiers and two bonus questions within the 40 minutes allotted in competition. That is not a like-for-like contest: the AI test was conducted afterward on a downloadable workbook, with cloud assistance and additional prompting, while the human result came from a live tournament round with a fixed time limit.
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Are competitors allowed to use AI?
No. The official MEWC 2026 rules, last updated July 28, 2026, explicitly state: “The use of AI for solving a case is prohibited.” The experiment involved old downloadable cases outside the tournament; it does not show that using AI is permitted in competition.
The official rules describe MEWC as an Excel esports tournament with qualification, group stages, and live finals in Las Vegas. Those rules—not an AI system’s capability—define what competitors may do. Check the organizer’s official site for current competition information.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What role did the author’s computer play?
Hachman used a Surface Laptop Studio 2 with an Intel Core i7-13700H, 64 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060. He says most processing happened in the cloud. In Task Manager, Excel showed 0 percent utilization except while answers were being filled in, when it reached 6 percent. This account does not establish a local hardware requirement for the task.
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What the test can—and cannot—tell you
- It can: show that, in one reported setup, Copilot completed three selected Excel cases, including their bonus questions.
- It cannot: establish that AI beats human champions, works on every case, or produces the same outcome reliably across repeated runs.
- It does not establish: independent replication or endorsement of the test by the competition organizers. Hachman says he contacted the competition for comment by email and direct message but received no response.
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