About

We are primarily a Polish team, though not exclusively, competing in various CTFs announced on the CTFtime platform. We primarily focus on Jeopardy-style CTFs held weekly, but not only those. We've also participated in monthly events like NahamCon and those organized by Hack The Box (HTB). Additionally, we solve challenges on platforms like Imaginary, Flagyard, and others.

A Bit of History and Facts

I’ve always loved CTFs. For years, I read about them in Programista magazine, learning about teams like Dragon Sector and P4. They described how they traveled to different events, which seemed unattainable for me at the time. Previously, I spent a lot of time solving virtual machines on VulnHub and HackMyVM, but one day I decided to try my hand at a CTF.

The first step was to think of a team name. Naturally, I asked ChatGPT to come up with a name related to CTFs. I picked one from dozens of suggestions. Then, we needed a logo. The first attempt wasn’t great, so I asked it to generate a design in a hacker style. After a few iterations, we had a winner.

Our first CTF was HTB Cyber Apocalypse CTF 2024 - Hacker Royale. It was an incredible experience. Virtual machines were great, but this was a different world—hundreds of people competing to capture flags first. The excitement was unparalleled. I captured 9 flags, and I loved it.

I started recruiting team members. ll104567, a leader from China, helped me bring in a few skilled players from his group. Bamwue captured a flag. I also invited a fellow Pole, rvr, to join and contribute. He agreed, and that’s how it all began. drprst, another Polish player, advised me to quickly register the team on CTFtime. From then on, the journey to success began.

However, life soon tempered our ambitions. In the next CTF, Kalmarunion, I managed to capture only one flag. It was a tough competition, and people were hesitant to play. While discouraging, it only motivated me to keep going.

In 1753c, we improved, capturing 6 flags. Later, rvr mentioned NahamCon, a beginner-friendly CTF with plenty of opportunities to earn flags. At that point, ppp45, a skilled crypto specialist, joined the team.

Next, we competed in The Hacker Conclave, a 3-hour CTF where we secured 3rd place. Despite this success, we needed more team members to tackle harder challenges. So, I reached out to Grzechu, who is excellent at OSINT, forensics, steganography, and similar challenges.

The team became more rounded but was still incomplete. While interning at Sekurak, focusing on web security, I asked a few colleagues if they wanted to join the team. null_byte, a respected web specialist, joined, along with Agnik, an OSINT and web enthusiast, and Barry, who specialized in electronics.

Then came DownUnderCTF, a beautifully organized competition with captivating challenges and high stakes. On Imaginary, Zygzak from Sekurak, who occasionally plays with us, solved a brainfuck challenge by writing it out on paper because the program froze on his computer! Stories like these are what make CTFs special.

Around summer, we welcomed a few more members from Asia, mainly from China, including Ta0, clev1L, da1sy, and AUXZAE from the Philippines. Later, Bedi recruited a few more people from Poland. Slowly, our team grew stronger.

By the end of 2024, we placed 2nd in Poland and 148th globally. Who would have thought that a team just starting out could climb so high? We were fortunate as some of the top teams, except JustCatTheFish, "slept through" the year.

This summary doesn’t include all our team members—others are listed on our website. Some played occasionally, while others found it wasn’t for them. But we never stopped playing. CTFs and flags are our passion.

~kerszi