Million Dollar Competition: How was the P7-Office Tabular Editor Championship?

"It all started with a very simple idea: if there is a World Excel championship, then why don't we do something similar on our spreadsheet editor?" says Kanal Promote IT Elena Bazhei, Head of the Traditional Marketing Department at R7-Office.

How did the idea come about

Initially, the mini-tournament format originated in a large oil corporation, where it was necessary to motivate employees to switch from Excel to the "P7 Office". To make the learning process more interesting, a small internal tournament was held there. It turned out that people not only learn a new instrument faster, but also do it with passion, competing for prizes. When the results of the tournament were shared with us, we were inspired and decided to organize a large—scale event - the All-Russian championship for working with our tabular editor.

Preparation of the championship

Preparations for the championship began in January last year, and the championship itself lasted three and a half months — from August 20 to December 10, 2024. During this time, we have managed to gather more than 276 teams, which is almost 900 participants from 44 regions of Russia.: from Moscow and St. Petersburg to Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Vladivostok. The prize fund was 1,000,000 rubles, which was an additional incentive for many teams.

The championship consisted of three stages:

1. Qualifying round. The participants solved basic tasks online.
2. The semi-finals. They had to analyze the data, use complex formulas, and work with more advanced editor functions.
3. The final. We invited 13 teams to St. Petersburg, where they competed in person for the main prize of 500,000 rubles.

All the results were published openly — no "favorites" or behind-the-scenes decisions.

Organization: from pivot tables to macros

In the early stages, we proposed tasks that were familiar to many: pivot tables, data aggregation, and searching for averages and totals. This allowed us to assess the basic level of training. In the semi—finals, the tasks became more complicated - it was necessary to analyze large arrays, find anomalies and trends, work with corrupted files and recover missing data. Here, the participants used complex formulas, automated calculations, and had to demonstrate speed and accuracy.

In the final, we set the task of working with big data. For example, it was necessary to find several problems in tens of thousands of rows at once and fix them in a couple of clicks. This is how we tried to simulate real business scenarios: cost optimization, sales analysis, and data validation - because these are the challenges companies face in their daily work. One of the participating teams even wrote an advanced macro to solve the problem more effectively.

We placed all the tasks in the "P7-Disk", where each team had its own individual space for joint editing. It was possible to work on tasks both locally and through a browser — this provided maximum flexibility. We deliberately avoided simple "push two buttons" tasks: the participants had to show a systematic approach and the ability to work in a team. At the same time, we did not abandon them to their fate: they underwent detailed training before the start. In total, we have developed more than 350 tasks for three stages — difficult enough to require thorough preparation, but feasible for experienced users.

Results of the championship

The results exceeded our expectations. After the end of the championship, various companies began to contact us, who were interested in this format of the competition. Some wanted to hold such a tournament within their organizations to encourage employees to switch to domestic software, while others wanted to offer help with equipment, licenses, and infrastructure.

Future plans

There are plans to expand the championship, increase the prize pool and try new formats. In the near future, we want to attract more participants and work with other IT vendors as partners.

For us, this is not just a marketing project, but an opportunity to prove that domestic IT products can successfully compete with Western ones.

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