Professors, PhDs and well-developed startups competing in Student Hackathons… What’s the point?

Edit: Detail of that hackathon with screenshots/evidences if anyone is interested: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7286963378655248384--jwG?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Just got back from a hackathon, and I need to rant. In 3 out of 4 tracks in the student group (yes, for undergrads), teams had professors and PhDs helping so much & some even brought their lab outputs or were leading the teams/listed as co-founders. Like… why? Isn’t this supposed to be a competition for students to showcase, not a way for labs and researchers to flex their projects?

And it gets worse. A lot of these winning teams bring the same polished apps to multiple competitions every year. One team even bragged about collaborating with Meta and Google and being from “the best lab.” If you’re already on that level, why are you still competing with students who are just starting out?

My team placed 4th, and we’re proud we did it entirely on our own—no labs, no professors, no PhDs. (idk, it seems normal but we should be proud right?) But honestly, seeing these professional-level projects sweep the student competition just makes it feel so unfair. Why even make a “ug student group” if this is how it works?