Remember that hackathons are like marathons. Some people go to compete but most people take part to better themselves and have fun. Whatever the reason is you're at a hackathon, make sure you're upholding the hacker spirit by collaborating with other teams, helping beginners, and having fun.

• Idea
  Is the project original? Have you never seen an idea like this before? Does the project go beyond traditional rules, patterns, and/or definitions? Does the project demonstrate progressiveness and imagination? Is the new idea meaningful?
• Technology
  How technically impressive was the hack? Was the technical problem the team tackled difficult? Did it use a particularly clever technique or did it use many different components? Did the technology involved make you go "Wow"?
• Learning
  Did the team stretch themselves? Did they try to learn something new? What kind of projects have they worked on before?
• Completion
  Does the hack work? Did the team achieve everything they wanted?
• Design
  Did the team put thought into the user experience? How well designed is the interface? For a website, this might be about how beautiful the CSS or graphics are.