[pi-squared]

I see hackathons as a very fun activity - it needs not be serious. Imagine it like a friendly basketball game with few of your friends and a chance to meet new players. Now, there will be some people who will think that they are worthy of playing major league, because they were best in college or something, but as said in many other comments - they will get a reality check sooner or later.

Hackathons come in many flavors - some are trying to mock a startup environment, some are sponsored by big corps who look for PR, some are trying to find vulns in software. But at their core, they should be looked at a chance to just gather with like-minded people, exchange ideas, give a stab at an interesting challenge, win a trophy and move on. And a company that hires a person based on flashy trophies from basketball courts down the street, probably needs to rethink some of its values.