If the hackathon has a $10,000 cash prize for first place, you honestly think that people aren't going to show up with pre-built stuff?

Well sure, definitely. But at any prize that’s enough to be a sole reason for a person to enter a hackathon, imho that’s either 1) a poorly designed hackathon or 2) a really ugly way for a company to fund R&D.

I’ve never participated in a hackathon with a 1st prize worth over $500, and I’m not sure I’d want to. But I guess if I had a bunch of random unmonetized projects sitting around then entering them into high-prize-value hackathons could be a way to shop them around. I’m just not sure why an organization would call an event like that a “hackathon.”