A field guide to every CTF team ever assembled.

I have played CTFs, coached people for CTFs, and watched a lot of grown adults stare at a hex dump like it owes them money. Different competitions, different countries, same cast. Every time.

The one who says “it’s probably base64.” It is probably base64. They are right often enough that nobody can tell them to stop, and wrong often enough that they have decoded the same string eleven times.

The OSINT gremlin. Has not opened a single technical challenge. Has found the challenge author’s LinkedIn, their dog’s name, and the café where they wrote the flag. Somehow has the most points on the team.

The one who runs strings on everything. Binaries. Images. The PDF of the rules. Their own résumé, once, out of habit. Found something, too.

The 3:58am solver. Silent for nine hours. Submits four flags in the last two minutes, says “oh, that was easy,” and goes to sleep while everyone else reconsiders their career.

The captain. Owns the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet has colour codes. Nobody follows the colour codes. The captain knows. The captain persists.

The one who is “just here for the snacks.” Solves the hardest crypto challenge by accident while asking what crypto is.

If you cannot find yourself on this list, I have bad news. You are the one asking “wait, what’s the flag format?” at hour eleven.