Hackathons are a lot of fun if your goal is not only about winning. You meet a lot of people. Sometimes future employees/founders/CTOs or sometimes friends. You

Hackathons are a lot of fun if your goal is not only about winning. You meet a lot of people. Sometimes future employees/founders/CTOs or sometimes friends. You learn a lot if you really put yourself to the challenge and pair program with others. I usually go to hackathons to have fun. Most of the times I cannot stay all day so I go to meet people and make friends. I even help other teams brainstorming, refine their idea, testing. But when you see suspicious crap it is unmotivated for everybody. Besides having fun all teams have a goal of winning. When they realize nobody had a chance, it is disheartening.