Losing respectfully

If you are competing in a multi-round tournament where by last round you are practically certain that you cannot win (or even be a runner up), then is it acceptable that you give up and just enjoy your presence in last round rather than attempting to put your best performance?

In talent-nite cultural competition in my college, one team was in similar position. They didn't prepare much for last round and just had fun on the stage. They sang without rhyme and danced without choreography. Was it against spirit of sports for them to give up?

I don't think so. It's reasonable to expect normal people to feel dejected and give up when faced against certain failure. That they still participated and not boycotted implies no violation of spirit of sports to me. Of course, it would be good if they still put their best foot forward but that wouldn't have made any difference, and just enjoying the last performance without worrying what audience will think is okay for them. They are damned anyway so let audience be damned.

Others didn't think so. They contended that such act was disrespectful way of taking failure. What is your point of view? In this case, these teams will never compete against each other in future. Will response change if there were to be regular competition among same teams?