March 2019 definitely appeared to be a CTF month for VolgaCTF.org team. On March 29th at 15:00 UTC we started VolgaCTF 2019 Qualifier event, which lasted 48 hours. That was the eighth qualifier event in the history of VolgaCTF and now we would like to share some key metrics that were collected during the competition this year.
Wherever possible, the data will be compared against Volga CTF 2018 Quals, which was held almost a year ago, so as to give a reader a perception of a growing interest in information security as a whole, and in particular in CTF competitions amongst people all over the world.
Sign up
Sign up opened on March 1st and was available thoughout the whole competition. It hardly comes as a surprise that the all-time record was established on the first day of the competition, March 29th - 365 teams!
Number of teams
For the third year in a row more than 1000 teams signed up for our competition. Not only did they register, but the majority also logged in during the competition and tried to submit answers to one or more tasks. We rejoice at the numbers that keep growing each year.
| Number of teams | VolgaCTF 2018 Quals | VolgaCTF 2019 Qualifier | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 1243 | 1311 | +68 |
| Qualified | 1097 | 1097 | – |
| Disqualified | 0 | 0 | – |
| Signed in during the competition | 1045 | 1068 | +23 |
| Submitted at least one flag | 602 | 625 | +23 |
| Solved at least one task | 411 | 414 | +3 |
| Reviewed at least one task | 207 | 256 | +49 |
Team sign in activity
The competition lasted 48 hours and participants seemed to be fairly active. The chart below shows how many different teams logged in during the contest.
Task submit attempts distribution
625 teams tried to submit flags. 210 tried their luck submitting flags to a single task, and only 2 tried to submit flags to 20 tasks. Look at the chart below.
Task hit distribution
414 teams succeeded in solving tasks. 142 solved only one task, and 2 performed exceptionally well with 20 solved tasks.
Task review distribution
Reviews provide task authors with valuable feedback. Teams were able to submit reviews to the tasks they solved. 115 teams wrote only one review, and 2 teams made as many as 11 reviews. Well done!
Team/country distribution
Needless to say that VolgaCTF is truly international. Teams from all continents take part in the competition! The most represented countries are shown in the chart below:
And here is a comparison table:
| # | Country | Number of teams (2018) | Number of teams (2019) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | 197 | 272 | +75 |
| 2 | United States | 121 | 102 | -19 |
| 3 | India | 88 | 83 | -5 |
| 4 | China | 32 | 77 | +45 |
| 5 | Republic of Korea | 68 | 72 | +4 |
| 6 | Japan | 39 | 41 | +2 |
| 7 | Vietnam | 36 | 33 | -3 |
| 8 | France | 44 | 32 | -12 |
| 9 | Indonesia | 36 | 28 | -8 |
| 10 | Germany | 29 | 24 | -5 |
| 11 | International | 18 | 21 | +3 |
| 12 | Italy | 13 | 16 | +3 |
| 13 | Taiwan | 22 | 15 | -7 |
| 14 | Singapore | 9 | 14 | +5 |
| 15 | Israel | 17 | 14 | -3 |
| 16 | Turkey | 14 | 13 | -1 |
| 17 | United Kingdom | 21 | 12 | -9 |
| 18 | Switzerland | 5 | 12 | +7 |
| 19 | Poland | 18 | 11 | -7 |
| 20 | Netherlands | 8 | 11 | +3 |
| 21 | Brazil | 15 | 11 | -4 |
| 22 | Sweden | 2 | 9 | +7 |
| 23 | Spain | 14 | 9 | -5 |
| 24 | Mongolia | 5 | 9 | +4 |
| 25 | Ukraine | 6 | 8 | +2 |
| 26 | Mexico | 4 | 8 | +4 |
| 27 | Iran | 6 | 8 | +2 |
| 28 | Australia | 25 | 8 | -17 |
| 29 | Tunisia | 5 | 7 | +2 |
| 30 | Portugal | 5 | 7 | +2 |
| 31 | Canada | 22 | 7 | -15 |
| 32 | Austria | 8 | 7 | -1 |
| 33 | Romania | 4 | 6 | +2 |
| 34 | Czechia | 7 | 6 | -1 |
| 35 | Thailand | 1 | 4 | +3 |
| 36 | Saudi Arabia | 6 | 4 | -2 |
| 37 | Morocco | 7 | 4 | -3 |
| 38 | Hong Kong | 7 | 4 | -3 |
| 39 | Denmark | 7 | 4 | -3 |
| 40 | Colombia | 4 | 4 | – |
| 41 | Algeria | 13 | 4 | -9 |
| 42 | Philippines | 1 | 3 | +2 |
| 43 | Kazakhstan | 4 | 3 | -1 |
| 44 | Vatican City | 1 | 2 | +1 |
| 45 | Norway | 1 | 2 | +1 |
| 46 | Maldives | 0 | 2 | +2 |
| 47 | Kenya | 1 | 2 | +1 |
| 48 | Egypt | 8 | 2 | -6 |
| 49 | Cyprus | 1 | 2 | +1 |
| 50 | Croatia | 1 | 2 | +1 |
| 51 | Chile | 0 | 2 | +2 |
| 52 | Antarctica | 2 | 2 | – |
| 53 | Zimbabwe | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 54 | Uzbekistan | 2 | 1 | -1 |
| 55 | United Arab Emirates | 2 | 1 | -1 |
| 56 | São Tomé and Príncipe | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 57 | Svalbard and Jan Mayen | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 58 | Sri Lanka | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 59 | Slovenia | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 60 | Slovakia | 1 | 1 | – |
| 61 | Serbia | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 62 | Republic of Lithuania | 1 | 1 | – |
| 63 | Panama | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 64 | Pakistan | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 65 | Niue | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 66 | Nigeria | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 67 | New Zealand | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 68 | Nepal | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 69 | Myanmar (Burma) | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 70 | Ireland | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 71 | Iceland | 1 | 1 | – |
| 72 | Hungary | 1 | 1 | – |
| 73 | Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan | 1 | 1 | – |
| 74 | Haiti | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 75 | Guatemala | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 76 | Estonia | 1 | 1 | – |
| 77 | Ecuador | 2 | 1 | -1 |
| 78 | Djibouti | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 79 | Central African Republic | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 80 | Brunei | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| 81 | Belgium | 11 | 1 | -10 |
| 82 | Belarus | 4 | 1 | -3 |
| 83 | Azerbaijan | 1 | 1 | – |
| 84 | Argentina | 5 | 1 | -4 |
The country data above was collected from teams’ profiles. During the sign up, a country field was automatically filled in according to GeoIP data provided by MaxMind, yet a team was still able to change it.
P.S. Funny, we still have two teams apparently playing from Antarctica :)
P.P.S. Further posts will focus on task metrics. Stay tuned!