Two minutes, live product, real audience, real judges. One team takes the prize.
Five days ago you had never deployed anything. This afternoon you stand in front of your parents, a judging panel, and the whole cohort, and demo a live product with a price on it. Your launch video plays as people arrive. Two minutes, hard timer, real applause.
A real audience is the difference between a school project and a company. Your parents watching you field a judge's question about pricing: that is the moment this stops being a summer camp.