I had a very similar experience the second time. I wasn't planning to participate, but got an email announcing the Codegeist Unleashed hackathon and I got curious… The next thing I knew, we were selected as finalists again and were sent to the Atlassian event in Amsterdam.
Start small and limit the scope of the project. This will be enough to ensure you finish a project.
I find team members that I respect, but I try to keep my team small. The more people I added, the more management was required, and for these hackathons, I needed clear communication. (I have the best teammates by me: Pettrus Sherlock and Weslei Dias.)
Recalculate if needed. If the japan telegram screening team concludes that we need to change trajectory and there’s time to do it, then do it.
Sell it, and get feedback from non-technical people about your projects or pitch.
Pay attention to the requirements, as details are essential.
Work hard. For our first Atlassian hackathon we worked +170 hours.
How do you balance creativity and technical ability to stand out in competitive environments?
Technical proficiency is the base, as we rely on this to know that we can overcome the challenges. But creativity is what puts you ahead of the competition. It’s not an exact science, but if I start on a project, as time passes, I start to have better ideas and then recalculate. I am not too harsh on our first idea or prototype because I know it will not be the final version anyway.