MAGIC’s 12th Capture The Flag (CTF) event took place this past Saturday, April 30. The beginner-level, international cybersecurity competition has historically drawn high school and college students from mostly the U.S. and Estonia, along with other countries, but this recent event became a distinct rivalry between students in those two nations.
“The top 5 teams were all Estonia and Maryland students who were battling it out for the top spot for most of the competition. We didn’t know who would come out as the winner until the very end,” says Kim Samuelson, Program Director for MAGIC. “The scores were very close, and each team did a tremendous job. We were truly impressed by all of the students this year.”
Estonian teams ended up taking the top 3 places this year with the U.S. represented in 4th place by the University of Maryland Global Campus students.
Maryland schools that competed were: the College of Southern Maryland, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the University of Maryland Global Campus, Hood College, Frederick Community College, and McDonogh School.
Official Stats:
- 300 registered students worldwide
– students from Maryland, Virginia, California, and Estonia competed in the event - 94 registered teams
- 16,895 total available points to win
Winning teams:
1st Place awarded to Team “Passat” (Uku Sormus, Rainer Vana, Hendrik Kink, Leo-Martin Pala) from Põlva Gümnaasium, Estonia with 13,287 points.
2nd Place awarded to Team “Segmentation Fault” (Karl-Mihkel Ott, Rainis Randmaa, Gregor Suurvarik, Robin Teaste) from Tallinna Tehnikagümnaasium, Estonia with 13,045 points.
3rd Place awarded to Team “Poska 1” (Sten Marcus Oja, Alesksander Vahk, Kaaren Tenson, Kaur Tenson) from Tartu Jaan Poska Gümnaasium, Estonia with 12,515 points.
Shortly behind in 4th place was team “UMGCTeam1” (Scott Horner, Morgan Morgan, Max Word, Michael Hodge) from the University of Maryland Global Campus with 12,233 points.
Each participant in the Top 3 winning teams will receive gift cards in the amount of $100, $50, and $25 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places respectively.
