Hack Esbjerg 2025 Competition Rules

Welcome to Hack Esbjerg 2025! These rules govern our hackathon competition and ensure a fair, fun, and educational experience for all participants.

The Spirit of the Competition

Remember that hackathons are like marathons. Some people come to compete, but most participate to learn, grow, and have fun. Whatever brought you here, make sure you’re upholding the hacker spirit by collaborating with other teams, helping beginners, and enjoying the experience!

I. Competition Organizer

Business name: Y-A-S ApS
CVR number: 45856186
Address: Bådebrogade 1, Esbjerg, Denmark
Registration date: September 3, 2025

II. Purpose and Competition Details

Purpose: To provide an opportunity for those interested in IT and innovation to test their skills, learn something new, and collaborate with like-minded people.

Challenge: Design and implement software or hardware projects in teams within 24 hours. Projects will be evaluated by a jury at the end of the competition.

III. When and Where

Start: March 19, 2025 at 09:00 AM (Europe/Copenhagen timezone)
End: March 20, 2025 at 14:00 PM
Location: EASV Esbjerg, Denmark

IV. Who Can Participate

Eligibility Requirements

Age: You must be born on or before March 21, 2009
Independence: You cannot be in an employment relationship with the competition organizer (Y-A-S ApS)
Registration: You must register through the official form at https://hack-esbjerg.cod3rs.org
Team Composition: Teams can have up to 4 members and should be made up of participants who are not organizers, volunteers, judges, or sponsors

Disqualification

Participants may be excluded for:

Interfering with competition fairness
Not meeting eligibility requirements
Breaking competition rules or code of conduct
Unsporting behavior
Obstruction of the event
Being intoxicated during the competition

V. Competition Rules

Team Formation and Participation

Team Size: Teams may consist of 1-4 members
Team Presence: All team members should be present at the event. Brief departures from the venue are acceptable
Collaboration: Teams can seek advice and support from organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and others
Work Location: All project work must be done at the hackathon venue

Project Development Rules

Prior Ideas: Teams can use ideas they had before the event
Previous Work: Teams can work on ideas they’ve explored before, but cannot reuse existing code
Libraries and Frameworks: Teams may use libraries, frameworks, and open-source code. However, creating open-source projects before the event solely to use during the hackathon violates the spirit of the rules
Existing Projects: Adding new features to existing projects is allowed, but judges will only consider new functionality introduced during the hackathon
Innovation: Projects don’t need to be completely original or innovative. Quality of execution matters more than novelty

Time Management

Submission Deadline: Teams must stop development when time is up and submit through the designated system
Post-Deadline Fixes: Small bug fixes and debugging are allowed after the deadline (e.g., fixing a few lines of code that break the demo). Adding new features or making major changes is prohibited

Code of Conduct

Respectful Behavior: All projects and participants must follow appropriate conduct standards
Fair Play: Projects that violate ethical guidelines or promote harmful content are not allowed

VI. Competition Format

Submission Process

Teams must submit their solutions through the system announced during the event.

Evaluation Process

Two-Round Evaluation:

Round 1 - Group Presentations

Teams present to evaluation groups
Each team evaluated by at least two separate jury groups
Evaluation Criteria:
- Originality — Creativity and innovation
- Expected Impact — Relevance and usefulness
- Technical Difficulty — Complexity and implementation quality
- Presentation & Teamwork — Clarity, communication, and collaboration

Round 2 - Final Presentations

Top 4-6 projects present on stage to all participants
Final jury selects winners (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place)

Additional Judging Notes

What we DO judge on:

Technical impressiveness and difficulty
User experience and design quality
Project completion and functionality
Learning and growth demonstrated by the team

What we DON’T judge on:

Code quality or cleanliness
Pitch or presentation skills
How “innovative” the idea is
Whether the project solves a real problem

Remember: You can build something completely useless and still win if you’re learning and demonstrating technical skill!

VII. Prizes and Awards

Prize Categories

1st Place Prize
2nd Place Prize
3rd Place Prize
Best Technical Solution Award
Sponsor Prizes (awarded directly by partners)

Prize Details

Prize details and values will be published on the event website before the competition
For teams smaller than 4 members, the number of prizes will correspond to team size
The organizer reserves the right to modify prizes based on sponsor changes
If a winning team doesn’t meet competition conditions, the prize goes to the next ranked team

Award Ceremony

Awards will be presented immediately after evaluation on March 20, 2025.

VIII. Demos

After development ends, teams will demonstrate their projects to each other and the judges.

Demo Guidelines

Show, don’t tell: Demonstrate what you built rather than just presenting slides
Broken is okay: Present even if your project isn’t finished or has bugs
Learning matters: If you have nothing to demo, share what you tried and learned
Courage counts: Everyone who demos will be recognized for participating

IX. Final Provisions

Agreement and Changes

Participation Agreement: By participating, you agree to these rules. If you disagree with any condition, you may not participate
Rule Changes: The organizer reserves the right to modify these rules or cancel the competition, especially if harm might occur. Changes will be published on our website or Facebook page
Clarifications: The organizer reserves the right to clarify ambiguous conditions and update rules accordingly

Liability

No Liability: The organizer is not responsible for damages related to prizes or participation
No Legal Claims: Participants have no legal claim to prizes

Remember!

The competition is just part of the hackathon experience. To get the most out of the event:

Try something new
Teach and help others
Make new friends
Learn and have fun!

Happy Hacking from the Hack Esbjerg team!

Esbjerg on September 13, 2025