UniVsThreats 26 Finals
UniVsThreats 26 Finals
After the end of the UniVsThreats 26 qualifiers, write-ups were submitted, reviewed, and final confirmations were received. The qualifiers brought together 565 registered teams, 314 scoring teams, and 2,029 total solves across 23 challenges.
Across the event, UniVsThreats26 also brought together 1,271 active participants from 86 countries and 548 institutions, with an average challenge rating of 4.42/5.
There was also strong interest around the event online, with the qualifiers page recording 3,016 pageviews across 2,150 visits in the lead-up to the competition.
Across the full event window, the website recorded 2,354 visits and 5,079 pageviews, with ctftime.org driving 1,505 visits.
The finals took place on 2-3 May 2026, over 2 days, at Institutul de Cercetări Avansate de Mediu - ICAM.
These were the confirmed teams that joined us on-site for the finals:
Event Structure
- Saturday - Non-AI track
- Sunday - AI track
The first day focused on human-only solving, while the second day introduced an AI-assisted track with a different challenge format and strategy layer.
The event wrapped up on Sunday with the final scoreboard and award ceremony.
On-Site
During the event, participants had access to:
- food and drinks
- bean bags / chill areas
- the possibility to remain at the venue until the end of the competition, including overnight for sleeping
Results
In the university category, the podium brought together teams from three different countries: RubiyaLabs from South Korea took first place, followed by H-T8 from Finland and sarrus from Algeria. In the high school category, the top three were WiWiWi x 🍁, selfwash, and Dacia Team.
Forensics/Hardware Challenge
The finals also included a Forensics/Hardware challenge where players were given evidence collected by the “police”:
- a laptop
- a strange device, described as a bomb
- a USB stick
Participants had 10 minutes to recover the deleted Bomb Defusal Manual in order to disarm the bomb. They then had to use a flashlight to transmit a specific word in Morse code, use a potentiometer to tune to the correct frequency, and finally cut the correct wires.
How The Finals Went
The Non-AI track on Saturday was intentionally demanding. Out of 15 registered teams, 14 scored, producing 65 solves from 742 attempts. The low 8.8% global success rate made the first day feel tense and technical, with teams needing to rely on careful reasoning, persistence, and classic CTF skill rather than automation.
Sunday’s AI track changed the rhythm of the competition. All 14 teams scored, and the day produced 136 solves from 489 attempts, raising the success rate to 27.8%. The challenges were still competitive, but the AI-assisted format made the second day faster, more experimental, and more focused on how teams could combine their own judgment with tooling.
Across both days, feedback stayed strong: the Non-AI track averaged 4.47/5, while the AI track averaged 4.91/5. The contrast between the two formats gave the finals a clear identity: one day tested human-only problem solving under pressure, and the other explored how CTF strategy changes when AI becomes part of the workflow.
Event Photos
Participant Feedback
Wanted to thank everyone for this amazing CTF on behalf of me and my team Amigos. It was really fun overall and well organized. Huge thanks to the organizers and authors for being really friendly and helpful too :D
Thank you everyone again 🤍
Everyone was so kind and the CTF was so fun and well organized. Everyone in our team said they wish every CTF were like this, and we also wish we could stay longer here.
Really appreciate this event and the team of organizers for having us and making the challenges interesting, especially the hard ones. The infra was really good, stable, and had no downtime.
We would like to thank the UVT organizers and all the teams for making this one of the best events we've had the pleasure of attending. We will definitely be here next year as well!
Thank you for such an amazing experience. The challenges were really interesting and gave us a lot of adrenaline while solving them. Thank you for the warm welcome.
It really was an interesting format of CTF. In the Human-only day we learned a lot, and the AI day was really fun, especially the Discord game.
The Non-AI track was very fun and nice. We enjoyed it a lot, actually having to think on challenges.
The organizers were really welcoming and very well organized. We liked the challenges, the first blood announcements, the venue, and everything else.
I enjoyed the challenges, which were really creative and fun. We also went out as a group after the CTF and had a good time connecting with each other.
We are hoping every on-site CTF is organized like that. Thanks very much for this experience.
Good job to all the organizers for the hard work, you made a great event :)
Peak CTF, see you next year.
Loved this event
wonderful event with great challenges
great
Cool
nice
Best
great
Venue
Institute For Advanced Environmental Research, on Oituz Street, No.4, Timișoara.
Sponsors & Partners
We want to thank our sponsors and community partners for supporting UniVsThreats26 and helping us bring the finals to life. Their support helped us cover the practical side of the event, welcome teams on-site, and keep building UniVsThreats as a serious student-focused cybersecurity competition.
