Being underestimated is a head start. Use it before they catch on.

Low expectations come with room in them. Nobody is watching closely, nobody is guarding the thing you want, and you can be bad at it in public for a while at almost no cost. That freedom disappears the moment people decide you are one to watch, and after that everything you do gets graded.

Use the quiet stretch you are in right now. Enter the competition, build the thing, take the shift, practice where nobody bothers to look. Being surprising later is just what it looks like when somebody worked while no one was paying attention.