spyVspy 3: Rat Race Rules

When hunting caches, please remember to behave like a spy.

• Leave caches as you find them.
• Be sneaky so curious onlookers don't come and steal the caches.
• Be cool.

Running an event at DEF CON is a lot of work, and we'll be checking on these regularly, but it's still a pain to replace them. If we believe a team is disrupting caches for any reason, we'll remove that team from the contest.

Gameplay

At each appointed time in the below schedule, a new set of challenges ("Rat Races") will be opened on the CTF site, with the first starting at noon on Friday. Each Rat Race will contain a handful of puzzles. Once your team solves every puzzle in a Rat Race, a new dead drop (geocache) challenge will appear. When you find a dead drop, enter the flag on the CTF site. If you are the first team to find it, great - you're in the Final! Come to the contest table and collect your pass! If not, come to the contest table anyway and have a chance to win a slabbed card for your team! Rat Races will remain open and continue awarding a chance for a slabbed card until the contest ends on Sunday (with a break during the Final).

Requesting Hints

Use the hint-requests channel on our spyVspy Discord server to request hints on any puzzle or dead drop. Other spies are welcome to jump in and give any hints they want in that channel. We will keep track of what hints are being requested, and what puzzles and dead drops might need hints. If we decide to give any hints for any puzzles or dead drops, we will drop those in the hints channel during one of the Possible Hint Drop slots in the below schedule. We also aren't above being socially engineered out of hints at the contest table.

Making The Final

• There will be 8 slots available in the Final.
• Seven of those slots can be won through auto-qualifier Rat Races. The team that wins each of those Rat Races, by being the first to find its dead drop, will earn a spot in the Final. The 8th slot will be filled by the team with the highest score that did not win a Rat Race.
• A team may only earn one Final spot. If a Rat Race is won by a team that has already earned a spot in the Final, that Rat Race will not award a Final spot.
• At the end of the initial contest, any of the 8 Final slots that remain open (either a single team won multiple Rat Races, or one or more Rat Races were not won), the empty slots will be filled based on total points of the teams that did not win a Rat Race. So if there are 3 open slots in the Final, the top 3 teams that are not already qualified will fill those slots.
• Positions in the Final will be based on total score, with Rat Race winners being ranked above points qualifiers.

Schedule

Friday

• 10am - Contest Opens. Several introductory categories open (no Final spots available, but slabbed cards can be won).
• 12pm - New Rat Race Begins
• 1pm - Possible Hint Drop
• 2pm - New Rat Race Begins
• 3pm - Possible Hint Drop
• 4pm - New Rat Race Begins
• 5pm - Possible Hint Drop
• 6pm - New Rat Race Begins
• 7pm - Possible Hint Drop
• 8pm - New Rat Race Begins

Saturday

• 10am - New Rat Race Begins
• 11am - Possible Hint Drop
• 12pm - New Rat Race Begins
• 1pm - Any UNSOLVED Dead Drops will be opened up - the challenge gates will be removed.
• 2pm - Initial Contest Ends
• 2:30pm - Final Begins
• 5:30pm - Final Ends. World's greatest spy team awarded the Whack Badge.
• 5:30pm - Contest opens back up - slabs can once again be won.

Sunday

• 12pm - Contest Closes

If you believe anything might be broken, please let us know at the table.