Well technically there is a loss for those on the advisor track.

Because you are now competing with 15K teams for the 100 sponsorship spots instead of 4K. But to be honest I don't think it would make all that much of a difference. The top 100 companies will deserve their spot regardless of the competition.

You already were competing with 15K teams.

They're skipping the step where they eliminate the 11K which the advisor-tier have already beaten once.

This will affect the odds of winning, but by how much?

I guess we're going to find out when we see the final ratio of advised/unadvised startups who win sponsorship.

I think you'll be surprised at how many of the 15k actually complete the course. Asking people to write 3 sentences for the chance to win $10k is really really easy. Following through with months of work to win $10k.... not so much. My guess is probably around the original 4k to maybe 6k will complete the course fully.

We were accepted and frankly I didn't even notice there was a $10K grant. I mean it'd help of course but not much relative to the value I hope we'll get from advising and serious peers.