Academic contests, especially sequentially ordered contests, called Olympiads in different countries, have a positive impact on the development of highly gifted children (Campbell et al, 2000, Rizza & Reis, 2001; Wagner & Neber, 2007; Sepp, 2008).  Nowadays lots of academic competitions are carried out in Internet-based settings.  The aim of the presented paper is to analyze the benefits and disadvantages of Internet-based Olympiads in comparison with „traditional“paper-and-pencil   Olympiads. The paper is based on a study of Estonian National Olympiads, among them both virtual (Internet-based) as well traditional get-together events which are conceptualized as „interaction rituals“in accordance with Collins theory (Sepp, 2008). The conclusions of feedback from the participants having experiences both in Internet-based and „traditional“Olympiads (n=334) are presented. Taking into account the critique of participants concerning the predominance of tasks of a low cognitive level at Internet-contests, an analysis of the contents of tasks at Internet.based Olympiads in light of Bloom's cognitive taxonomy was carried out.  Results have shown, that aside from the many benefits (e.g. time saving), e-competitions also evoke a lot of disadvantages in comparison with traditional (e.g. the lack of interaction ritual outcomes, lack of cognitive higher-level tasks etc). On the basis of these results implications for improving the   organisational and cognitive quality of Internet-based competitions will be presented, to make them more stimulating for gifted students.