Competition¶
The event itself: its name, when it runs, how teams form, and what players may change for themselves.
The settings live under Admin → Settings → Competition.
| Setting | Key | Default |
|---|---|---|
| CTF name | ctf.name |
NexCTF |
| CTF description | ctf.description |
Empty |
| Start time | ctf.start_time |
Empty, open immediately |
| End time | ctf.end_time |
Empty, never ends |
| Freeze time | ctf.freeze_time |
Empty, never frozen |
| Hide challenges before start | ctf.hide_challenges_before_start |
On |
| Max team size | ctf.team_size |
4 |
| Allow registration | ctf.allow_registration |
On |
| Scheduler timezone | ctf.timezone |
UTC |
| Allow team creation | ctf.allow_team_creation |
On |
| Allow team changes | ctf.allow_team_changes |
On |
| Allow profile customization | ctf.allow_user_customization |
On |
| Allow team customization | ctf.allow_team_customization |
On |
| Enable challenge feedback | ctf.enable_challenge_feedback |
On |
| Release writeups after end | ctf.release_writeups_after_end |
Off |
Save sends every changed setting at once, from every tab, and a dot on a tab marks
the ones with unsaved changes. Each save is recorded in the event log
as config.updated, with the old and new value of every key. The
Admin API reads and writes the same keys.
Name and description¶
CTF name is the browser tab title, the text shown wherever no logo is set, and the name in every email the instance sends. CTF description is the blurb on the default home page. Both are part of rebranding the instance; see Customization.
Event times¶
The three times are absolute moments. The picker takes them in your browser's timezone, stores them in UTC, and echoes the result under the field in UTC, and in the scheduler timezone when that is not UTC, so you can check what you entered before saving.
| Time | Before it | After it |
|---|---|---|
| Start time | Submissions and hint unlocks are refused. The challenge list is hidden too while Hide challenges before start is on. | The event is open. |
| Freeze time | The scoreboard is live. | The public scoreboard, score history and team pages stop counting new solves. The admin scoreboard is unaffected. |
| End time | The event is open. | Submissions, hint unlocks and team changes are refused, and nothing scored afterwards counts. |
An empty time imposes nothing: no start time means the event is open from the moment the instance is, and no end time means it never closes. They must come in order, start before freeze before end, or the save is refused.
These rules apply to admins as well when they use the player side, so an admin can check what players see by browsing the challenges. The admin panel itself is never gated.
Hidden or just closed before the start
With Hide challenges before start on, players see no challenges at all until the start, and team pages leave out their challenge progress. Turned off, players can read the challenges in advance, with a banner saying that submissions open at the start, but still cannot submit.
Freezing the scoreboard¶
A freeze keeps the final ranking a surprise. Past the freeze time, the public scoreboard shows the standings at that moment, while the event carries on underneath: solves are still recorded and still scored. A team still sees its own progress on its own team page, and admins see the live ranking under Admin → Scoreboard.
The freeze outlasts the event
The end time does not lift the freeze: the public scoreboard keeps showing the standings at the freeze time after the event is over. To reveal the final ranking, clear Freeze time and save.
Moving or clearing the freeze or end time refreshes the cached scoreboard immediately.
Teams¶
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Max team size | How many active members a team can hold. A player joining with an invite code is refused once the team is full. |
| Allow team creation | Lets players create a team, and become its first member. Off, players can only join an existing team. |
| Allow team changes | Lets players create, join or leave a team, and rotate their team's invite code. |
Team changes close for good at the end time, whatever the setting says.
A team that has scored cannot be left
A player cannot leave a team once it has solved a question, so points never follow a player from one team to another. Admins can still move a player from Admin → Users.
Max team size is checked when a player joins, not afterwards: lowering it leaves existing teams as they are, and an admin assigning a player to a team is not held to it.
Registration¶
Allow registration turns the sign-up form off without touching existing accounts. It also stops external providers from creating new accounts. Saving it from the browser needs a recent sign-in. See Registration for what an open form asks for.
Scheduler timezone¶
The zone cron expressions are read in, so a job set for midnight stays at midnight across a daylight-saving shift. It changes nothing about the event times above, which are absolute.
Profiles¶
Allow profile customization lets players edit their own links and custom fields. Allow team customization lets any team member edit the team name, country, links and custom fields. Turning either off freezes what is already there rather than clearing it, which is the usual way to lock team names once the scoreboard is public. See Customization.
Challenges¶
Enable challenge feedback lets a team rate and comment on a challenge once it has solved every question in it; the results are under Feedback.
Release writeups after end shows every challenge's writeup to everyone once the end time has passed, including challenges a team never solved. Without it, a writeup is only ever shown to a team that completed the challenge.