Are these trading championship contest for real?
How do they work?
Is it worth trying to strive for?
Are these traders "ringers" from Big Brokerage firms?

There was a recent email from quant something where a recent winner of some version of a championship said the web site was useful. I assume these are quasi legitimate contests and one could assume that a high finisher would be a decent trader.

On the other hand, one would think you could see some videos (etc) of those things on youtube or something.

I sort of wish there was a crappy trading contest. Thank god for e-micros.