My last band entered it. Not my idea mind you. I thought it was a total waste of time, and I showed my displeasure infront of ~800 people by making my delay pedal self oscillate into a feedback frenzy.
Basically the first round has you playing one minute of a track infront of a panel. Expect a lot of hanging around with some of the biggest losers you have ever seen with instruments. Really it was dire. We got through this round. About 1 in 5 bands get in.
Second round is a bigger venue over a few sessions. Expect to sell your own tickets, and if you don't sell a shite ton you wont get through. Judges are has-been journalists and middle aged woman (as far as I could tell). This time you play for three minutes including a cover song. Was shitee. No set up time really, and having to play through badly set up Marshall MGs made the whole thing piss me right off. Didn't get through, the shitety teenage pop punk bands did who brought their entire families got in. Wasn't too bothered.
Basically the whole thing was a waste of time, lots of sitting about doing nothing for 3 minutes of performance. And yeah the only winners are the promoters, who do naff all while you sell loads of tickets and publicise the whole event. A total money making ploy.