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Organizers¶

So you’ve decided to organize a CTF and you have no idea where to start, here are a few things that you’ll need to decide sooner rather than later:

  • is this going to be an online or onsite event?
  • when and where is it going to take place
  • how many participants do you expect? make a rough estimate or upper and lower bounds
  • how and when are the participants going to register?
  • are there going to be prizes for the participants and what are those going to be
  • are there going to be sponsors and if so, what are your expectations from them?
  • are there going to be presentations during your event? if so what subjects?
  • who is responsible for what? who’s speaking with the sponsors, who’s dealing with player questions, who’s going to provide support during the event?
  • what is the end goal for the CTF? have fun? advertise a service? promote a conference? discover talent?
  • what is the intended and expected participant experience level?
  • are you planing on doing it your self or hire a company for it?

👍 Rules of Thumb¶

Plan ahead for some failures¶

A CTF is like any other live performance, things can and will go wrong. A good organizer knows it, expects it and is ready with fallback plans.

As an organizer be ready for some things to go unexpectedly wrong, from the smallest to the biggest of issues.

Don’t panic and keep your calm, many times things look worse than actually is.

It is not about you, it is for the participants to enjoy¶

One of the things we usually say to the organizers we work with is:

Our main obligations are first and foremost towards the players and secondary to any other needs of the event

The main reason for that is that if the players are satisfied and enjoy their time playing, then any potential message or scope of the event will also have better chances to be received.

Players are always right, even when they’re not¶

Many times you will receive complaints from players that have a problem and who feel that since you are the organizer you will have some better effect on the support team of the CTF.

Don’t do that, instead calmly direct the players to the support team. If you know that someone from the team is better suited to solve the specific problem (good for you), direct the player to them. Otherwise the support team leader should be more than enough to resolve any problem or “dispute”.

Don’t dismiss the players even if you’re “sure” they are wrong. Try to sympathize but not too much, you don’t want them complaining during the entire competition because you were overly jealous to sympathize 😄

At the same time don’t side with them, there is nothing more annoying than a player complaining all the time while they drag your name into the conversation.

You are the organizer not the support team, you will have your mind on so many other things, its better to keep some roles clear. Support team for support, organizer for organization things 😂

Give enough time¶

Give plenty of time for the CTF to be developed. Don’t wait until the last week. I know it sounds simple to many, but its not.

Designing and developing quality challenges that can be enjoyed by everyone that will participate takes time.

If you only give a small amount of time to the team that will do development for you then be ready for some copy/paste challenges.

Be neutral¶

Some times organizers like to get more involved into the actual event execution, check the players how they doing and such. Make sure you are neutral throughout, dont try to influence the outcome of one the competition.

Sometimes you’ll have your friends playing among the teams and you may be tempted to go there and cheer with them. Don’t. It makes the rest of the teams feel cheated. Either cheer with everyone or no one.