Here is a cool idea that could be supported either by government or big business.
Similar to sports teams, a series of leagues are setup, by way of a series of Hackathons in each major city, with the initial outcome of the first match being a regional team of 10 winners for each region or city, say $10,000 each.
The next year, do the same thing again, this time generating a ‘Regional B Team’. About a month or two later the regional teams could do battle in a remote nationwide Hackathon, to create the national team. The All Green Screens / Call Blacks / All Black Hats or similar. In the time between the matches, the teams and their manager may be able to promote a couple of players from ‘Regional B’ by swapping an existing player with the new one. Likewise the ‘Regional B Team’ would have some chance to swap out a couple of players for amateurs who did well in the regional heats.
In the third year, it goes international, by way of the internet, no actual stadium is required. The regional heats are the only Hackathons that have a physical presence. This is because of an interesting trend in Hackathons worldwide.
The national team is encouraged to play in global Hackathons, which we’d own if we are allowed to compete as a team not as individuals:
Making A Living From Professional Hackathons
Makers Against Drought Hackathon
Sponsored by Samsung, this hackathon is designed to help solve California’s water crisis.
Winner: $90,000 cash prize
Finalists: $10,000 cash prize for 10 finalists
GlobalHack IV
This hackathon was sponsored by LockerDome. GlobalHack hackathons often offer large cash prizes.
Winner: $30,000 cash prize
Finalists: $15,000, $5,000 and $5,000 for runners-up
Launch Hackathon
Last year, there were two top prizes of $800,000. This is run as part of the regular Launch startup event. Winning includes some serious business connections.
The Money20/20 Financial Tech Hackathon
This hackathon is geared toward financial, payments, banking or investment-based tech. The grand prize was $20,000 in cash, and it was given to four teams. The $5,000 prize was given to five teams. The pure odds of winning were 9 out of about 155 teams, or a 5.8 percent chance.
RootsTech Hackathon
RootsTech is about promoting the use of family history in a creative way.
1st prize: $20,000 in cash, $25,000 in-kind
2nd prize: $14,000 in cash, $15,000 in-kind
Judge’s choice: $6,000 in cash, $10,000 in-kind
People’s choice: $10,000 in cash
IBM Spark Hackathon
IBM has been sponsoring lots of hackathons to promote their BlueMix cloud platform and Spark investments.
1st prize: $15,000
2nd prize: $7,500
3rd prize: $5,000
Plus various smaller prizes.
List of Hackathons source from Tech Crunch article: https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/24/living-off-hackathons-the-possible-rise-of-the-pro-hacker/
