Introducing the Imagine Cup World Championships
Published Jan 08 2019 04:50 PM 749 Views
First published on MSDN on Jul 15, 2014
We’ve already shared a lot about the 2014 Imagine Cup World Finals, which start here in Seattle on July 29 th . We’ve got the University of Washington and the Space Needle, not to mention Imagine Cup Day at the Museum of History & Industry.

That’s all really great. But there’s one thing we’ve been keeping a secret, until now: the format for the Imagine Cup World Championships, live on stage in front of a crowd of 5000 Microsoft technologists!

At the climax of our World Championships, after we’ve announced our first, second, and third place teams in the Games, Innovation, and World Citizenship categories, we will call all three first-place teams back on stage. That means the first-place Games team, the first-place Innovation team, and the first-place World Citizenship team.

These three teams will have each just won $50,000 and a custom Boot Camp experience to help them take their project forward. But now they will face three very special judges:

  • Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

  • Code.org founder Hadi Partovi

  • Reddit.com GM Erik Martin


Our judges will ask those teams three rounds of questions inspired by the Imagine Cup motto:

  • Round 1 - Dream It: The inspiration for your project.

  • Round 2 - Build It: The technology for your project.

  • Round 3 - Live It: The business plan for your project.


Each team is asked one question in each round. Each team has ninety seconds to answer.

At the end of the three rounds, the judges will decide the overall winner, the team that will take home the Imagine Cup and get a private meeting with Bill Gates!

The Imagine Cup World Championships are going to be intense. There’s no doubt about that. These teams will already be winners — and now they’ll have one more chance to tell their story, to share their vision, and to show everyone why they’re winners. And just one team will take home the ultimate prize.

The first-ever Imagine Cup World Championships will stream live worldwide at https://www.ImagineCup.com/ starting at 8:30am Pacific time on Friday, August 1 st ! I can’t wait to see what happens.

John Scott Tynes
Imagine Cup Program Lead
Microsoft Student Developers
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