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If you’ve ever seen the HBO comedy Silicon Valley–specifically the episode featuring the Tech Crunch Disrupt competition where start-up company Pied Piper wins for its data compression software–you might have an idea of what Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is like. Last Friday, thousands of bright developers and future Microsoft hopefuls came together to examine what’s next on the software horizon.

The culmination of the Imagine Cup competition, which began with some 300,000 student inventors, came down to just three teams: one from Russia, one from Brazil and one from Australia. At stake? A fast-track application development with Microsoft higher-ups and $50,000 seed money.

Silicon Valley is a parody of this world–but it doesn’t need to look too far for inspiration. I anticipated a high-level, intellectual competition like this would have a great deal of seriousness. But when I walked into the Imagine Cup auditorium, it felt more like walking into a giant VIP dance room. The lights were dim, purple hues were splashed on the walls, rap music was playing and, just before the hour struck noon, a b-boy dance battle transpired.

The pièce de résistance, however, was celebrity judge and Silicon Valley star, Thomas Middleditch, who, along with Jens Bergensten (a legend famous for basically inventing Minecraft) and Alex Kipman (a Microsoft boss working on hologram technology) judged the final round of the competition.

The three teams competed for their affection. The Russian team designed a very elegant, black-and-white game (think: Sonic the Hedgehog meets M.C. Escher). The Brazilian team created software that paired customers with tailors to make clothing with personalized measurements. The Australian team developed a virtual reality system mimicking what it’s like to live with dementia.

The winning team–and the only one to get a “this is obviously going to take off” from Bergensten–was the Brazilian team. When they won their trophy they jumped for joy. One of the winners, Bianca Letti, whose team has been working on their software for three years, said, “Everybody has trouble finding clothes that fit. When we did our research we found it wasn’t just us with this problem.”

I got to meet and talk to Middleditch and Microsoft’s Steve “Guggs” Guggenheimer, a developer of applications and a Microsoft “evangelist,” after the competition about what lies ahead.

Guggenheimer said the point of the competition was to “give back” to the young developers while offering them a chance to further their development. “The winners end up in accelerators,” he said, “they come out for four weeks and get deeper, more intensive business training and technical help…[and] they have the ability to stay connected [with Microsoft] to the extent they want to continue forward.”

While Middleditch plays a nervous, tech-savvy character on Silicon Valley, he’s known for being a cooler customer off camera. Talking with him, though, I got an immediate sense of how enthusiastic he is about green technology. “My passions,” he said, “are in saving our plummeting environment.”

When I brought up the trend of Silicon Valley residents moving north to Seattle, and asked if there is any talk about involving the Emerald City in new seasons of the show, Middleditch smiled and said, “Maybe…” before collecting himself and saying, with a laugh, “No, I’m going to tell you no, not at all.”

Middleditch, who is originally from B.C., said he treated himself to some oysters on the pier when he had downtime, followed by a ride on the waterfront Great Wheel. But he also couldn’t help question Seattle’s dry, yellowing landscape. “What’s the deal?” he asked. “Are you guys suffering some of So-Cal’s drought?”

“We’ve had the most days over 90 [degrees] in July in history,” explained Guggenheimer.

“Some people,” Middleditch responded, “can wear blindfolds and earmuffs and can just appreciate a sunny day. But for me, I’m too panic-stricken–there’s record, raging wildfires wreaking havoc on northern B.C. It’s why young tech guys are so important – that’s really our only hope. How are we going to bring temperatures back, how are we going to take CO2 and methane out of the atmosphere? It’s tech and tech’s relationship to legislation–other issues won’t matter if life can’t exist in the world.”