TribeCTF 2026 Stats
$ Quick Stats
TribeCTF 2026 ran for 24.5 hours, October 3-4, 2026, in ISC 4 (CDSP Building) at William & Mary.
- 68 students played on 25 teams
- 8 different schools represented
- 30 challenges worth 19,750 total points
- 324 flags captured, and 3,484 wrong flags submitted along the way
- 5 challenges stayed unsolved till the end
- 14,250 points scored by Team MasonCC from George Mason University - 1st Place
- 13,250 points scored by Team WhatIsAstig from Old Dominion University - 2nd Place
- 12,950 points scored by Team CNS@UVA from University of Virginia - 3rd Place
$ Final Standings
| Position | Team Name | School | Points | Solves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MasonCC | George Mason University | 14250 | 25 |
| 2 | WhatIsAstig | Old Dominion University | 13250 | 23 |
| 3 | CNS@UVA | University of Virginia | 12950 | 23 |
| 4 | W VP@CNU | Christopher Newport University | 12750 | 23 |
| 5 | pwn@vt | Virginia Tech | 10750 | 21 |
| 6 | Pro(tein) Protein | William & Mary | 10450 | 20 |
| 7 | Wu-Tang LAN | William & Mary | 9450 | 19 |
| 8 | Griffins | William & Mary | 8950 | 18 |
| 9 | BigOnes@VT | Virginia Tech | 8450 | 18 |
| 10 | Team AWESOME | William & Mary | 7950 | 17 |
Prizes went to the top three: $2,500 to MasonCC, $1,000 to WhatIsAstig, and $500 to CNS@UVA.
$ Schools Represented
| School | Students |
|---|---|
| William & Mary | 28 |
| Virginia Tech | 12 |
| Christopher Newport University | 10 |
| Virginia Commonwealth University | 7 |
| George Mason University | 4 |
| University of Virginia | 4 |
| Old Dominion University | 2 |
| Norfolk State University | 1 |
$ Solves by Difficulty
| Difficulty | Points | Challenges | Solves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intro | 50 | 1 | 25 |
| Easy | 300 | 9 | 150 |
| Medium | 500 | 9 | 92 |
| Hard | 1000-1500 | 10 | 57 |
| Insane | 2000 | 1 | 0 |
$ Challenge Highlights
- Most solved: catacombs (Cryptography, 300 pts), solved by 23 of 25 teams. Every team captured The-First-Flag.
- Toughest solved: Project Keystone: Aftermath (misc, 1500 pts), the highest-value challenge anyone solved, cracked by 4 teams. MasonCC drew first blood.
- Rarest solves: Griffins Game (Hardware, 1000 pts) and Piscator (CAGE, 500 pts) each fell to just 2 teams.
- Unsolved: Griffin Droppings and Griffin Tongues (RE, 1000 pts each), plus CAGE challenges Griffin-Corps-Career, RouterHard, and RouterInsane. RouterInsane (2000 pts), the event’s only Insane challenge, held out all weekend.
- First bloods: MasonCC took first blood on 10 challenges, followed by pwn@vt with 6 and Pro(tein) Protein with 3.
$ The CAGE
2026 was the debut of the CAGE, a sealed, monitored room with no personal devices and no AI.
- 18 of 25 teams entered the CAGE, over 82 sessions (40 booked, 42 walk-in) on 4 stations
- 70 hours of CAGE time, 51 minutes per session on average; 44 of those hours were free time and walk-ins beyond the 2-hour guarantee
- 10 teams booked their full 2 hours; MasonCC logged the most CAGE time (10.2 hours over 11 sessions)
- 7.5 minutes median wait from request to invite; 4 invites went unanswered
- 14 sessions started between midnight and 6 AM
- 8 CAGE-only challenges worth 5,400 points: 42 solves by 17 teams
- 3 CAGE challenges (Griffin-Corps-Career, RouterHard, RouterInsane) went unsolved
The CAGE barely slept. From the first session at 10:38 AM Saturday to the last one ending at 10:36 AM Sunday, it never sat empty for more than 26 minutes.
MasonCC drew the first CAGE blood at 10:46 AM Saturday, about eight minutes into its first CAGE session, the first of the event.
All four stations were full for a combined 10.3 hours, and at the busiest moment, 9:41 PM Saturday, five teams were waiting in the queue. The longest single sitting went to team laptop: 3 h 33 min, from 12:23 to 3:56 AM Sunday.
Teams took their CAGE backup drives home as memorabilia.
A full TribeCTF 2026 recap with photos and writeups is coming soon.