MEWC
FMWC
TAC
EEO
February brought another set of competitions, including the Teams e-Invitational hosted by Eric Kelley from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. A Microsoft MVP and valued MECC Faculty Fellow, he has played a key role in expanding the program’s reach to students worldwide. Under his leadership, the first-ever MECC Regional event was launched in 2024, successfully testing the concept and paving the way for growth—expanding to five events in 2025 and eight MECC Regionals this season.
The Teams e-Invitational is a hybrid competition, where students participate in person at their universities under the supervision of College Ambassadors while simultaneously connecting online with teams from other institutions. Participants can choose to compete at either the Junior Varsity (JV) or Varsity level; however, only top scores from the Varsity division qualify for the MECC Team Championship Quarter-Finals.
The Teams e-Invitational allows universities to bring multiple teams.
This Friday, 23 Varsity teams and 12 Junior Varsity teams competed, representing 13 universities worldwide:
The battle case was an adapted version of “This Spreadsheet is a Nightmare,” originally created by Harry Seiders. The case first appeared in the “Road to Las Vegas” battle, where professional players competed.
With the help of MECC Faculty Fellows, the case was adjusted for both Junior Varsity and Varsity levels, making it more accessible while still challenging.
The objective is to navigate a series of challenges by cleaning, auditing, and analyzing a messy three-year sales dataset.
This year’s MECC Team Championships introduce an important update to the format – Quarter-Finals: universities may enter the Quarter-Finals with multiple teams. To be eligible, each team must include at least one pre-qualified player.
Team e-Invitationals serve as one of the qualification pathways for the MECC Team Championship Quarter-Finals in December and offer multiple opportunities to qualify throughout the season. In the Teams e-Invitationals, the top 30% of Varsity team players qualify for the MECC Team Championship Quarter-Finals in Las Vegas, allowing them to compete in December either with the same teammates or by forming new teams – provided they are still enrolled at their university at that time. For upcoming event details visit the Team e-Invitationals page.
The other pathway to qualify is through MECC Regionals happening on April 11.
Another pathway for universities to secure a Quarter-Finals spot is through school rankings. Overall student participation and activity throughout the season contribute to each university’s ranking, and the highest-ranked schools earn the right to bring a team to the Quarter-Finals. This qualification is tied to the institution rather than specific players.
From the February Teams e-Invitational, seven schools secured their Quarter-Finals spots with the following players:
As soon as the Teams e-Invitational concluded, the same cases opened for individual players as part of the Weekend Battle. What teams of three tackled collaboratively, individual competitors now faced alone.
Participation was open throughout the weekend, allowing students to choose a time that worked best for them. Players could also compete in both Junior Varsity and Varsity to compare their performance against students worldwide. All upcoming Weekend Battle schedules and times are on the Weekend Battles page.
Several perfect scores were achieved in both Junior Varsity and Varsity, showing off the skills of the top performers. Over 200 students from 21 countries participated.
This marked great second competition weekend for the MECC Spring Season 2026. We hope all participants enjoyed the experience and take time to explore the post-competition versions of the cases to master concepts they didn’t quite finish during the event.
This month, competitors can also learn from video walkthroughs created by two Excel Esports players:
We hope you’ll use the time until next month to sharpen your skills and return even stronger for the March Battles.
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