Mastra MCP AI Hackathon, and the Illegal Agents pivot

We kicked off April with the first-ever Mastra MCP Hackathon, focused on creating custom MCPs with Illegal Agents. This lead to Illegal Agents pivoting towards the metaverse.

Saad Bazaz, Talal Ahmed Khan

10 May 2025 — 2 min read

The first Illegal Agents AI Hackathon was a groundbreaking success, with 70 developers from 13+ universities competing to build the most innovative AI agent systems. After intense judging rounds, we're proud to announce the winners who pushed the boundaries of what's possible with MCP technology.

🏆 Meet the Champions

1st Place: Omni Recruiter by Hashim Muhammad Nadeem

The Ultimate HR Automation Suite

This end-to-end recruitment system combines 7 custom MCP servers to:

Screen resumes from Google Drive
Analyze LinkedIn profiles (posts/likes/activity)
Conduct AI phone interviews with voice synthesis
Create GitHub repos for technical assessments
Send follow-up emails autonomously

Judges' note: "A staggeringly complete implementation that demonstrates MCP's potential in enterprise workflows."

2nd Place: AI Software Engineer by Talha Ali

An autonomous coding assistant that:

Writes and tests production-ready code
Pushes to GitHub repositories
Updates Supabase databases
Sends Slack notifications with test results

Special mention: SummitAI by Abdullah Ashfaq

Revolutionizes meeting management by:

Extracting action items from notes/docs
Creating structured summaries
Sending alerts to Discord channels
File management automation

By the Numbers: Hackathon Impact

Developer Feedback:

92% said MCP concepts were clearly explained
10/10 recommendation score from winners
"Super easy to make AI agents quickly!" - Hashim M. Nadeem (1st Place)

What We Learned

The Good:

✅ Rapid Prototyping Works
Teams built complex agents like YouTube Analyzer and Instagram Poster in <24 hours

✅ Community Engagement
70+ new Discord members with 13 developers experimenting with custom MCP servers

✅ Strategic Partnerships
FAST-NUCES leveraged the event for international branding through our global judge panel

The Challenges:

⚠️ Platform Stability
Early-stage bugs caused frustration during development sprints

⚠️ UX Complexity
New users needed clearer onboarding for MCP server setup

⚠️ Deployment Gaps
Limited GitHub/CLI integration hindered production readiness

The Road Ahead

Based on participant feedback, we're prioritizing:

Enterprise Pivot: Focusing on B2B agent deployments (ERP/CRM integrations)
UX Overhaul: Streamlining the MCP creation workflow
Case Studies: Documenting winning projects like Omni Recruiter for developer outreach

"This validated that non-coders can build powerful AI systems—we just need to smooth the onboarding."
— Hackathon Organizing Team

Update 05/08/2025: For now, the Illegal Agents team has pivoted in another direction, more towards social gaming.