In fact I managed to improve the formula to:
=COUNTIFS(A3,"<"&$A$2, B3, "<"&$B$2, C3,"<"&$C$2, D3,"<"&$D$2, E3,"<"&$E$2, F3,"<"&$F$2, G3, "<"&$G$2, H3,"<"&$H$2, I3,"<"&$I$2, J3,"<"&$J$2, K3,"<"&$K$2)
Noticed the SUM was stupidly redundant.
Still...