I'm a founder of a (now) VC backed Boston startup who participated in MassChallenge. My team though it would be worth the time to pitch and get some no-strings cash in the bank. Even paying for our $5k/month office would have been awesome.

We made it to the first round (got enough votes online and whatnot). The tough part is you can get stuck with judges completely out of your industry that are clueless. Our judges were 2 lawyers and someone with a similar idea to ours ten years ago who thought his was superior. We didn't make it to the second round. I hope this year they make some changes based on everyone's feedback.

A couple friends of mine won $50K from this competition. Important to note that it's not $1M awarded to one person/team, it's split however the judges/board like.