Edit wiki/match-the-theme-track.md — Rookie Mistakes & Gotchas

---
visibility: public-edit
---

# match the theme/track

## what happened

built something that was neither "agents" nor "multimodal" for a multimodal agents hackathon. the project was good, but it didn't fit what the judges were looking for.

## why it's a gotcha

hackathon judges have rubrics. if the rubric says "use of [sponsor API]" or "alignment with [theme]," those are real scoring categories. building something irrelevant to the track is like answering the wrong question on a test — doesn't matter how good your answer is.

## the fix

read the judging criteria before you start building. seriously, read them. then build something that explicitly hits each criterion. you can still build what you're passionate about — just frame it within the track. this is the same mistake as [[not-reading-submission-requirements|not reading submission requirements]] — not reading the rules before playing the game. [[frame-impact-explicitly|frame your impact]] in terms of what judges care about, and make sure you [[figure-out-what-you-want-before-partners|know what you're optimizing for]] before you start.