📖 Note: This article explains how participants can successfully attempt team-based competitions on the platform.
Accessing a Team-Based Competition
You can access your assigned competitions from your Participant Home Page. To enter a team-based competition, simply click the relevant Enter button for the competition you wish to enter.
Navigating the Waiting Bay
Waiting Bay Logistics
If you are entering a competition you are attempting for the first time, you will be taken to the competition waiting bay, where you will be able to see the Competition Instructions [1] and the Competition Availability Period [2]. You can enter the competition any time during its availability period by clicking the Enter Competition [3] button.
Viewing your Registered Team Members in the Waiting Bay
You can also view the aliases of your registered team members in the Team Member Table at the bottom of the page, as shown in the image below.
Applying Event Tags in the Waiting Bay
If your event administrator has created event tags for the team-based competition you are participating in, you will be able to see a section called Apply Event Tags.
What are Event Tags?
Event tags are competition-specific tags which may be created by competition administrators. In individual-based competitions, participants can apply event tags to themselves in their competition waiting bay and overview page. In team-based competitions, team members can apply event tags to their team in their competition waiting bay and overview page.
Not every competition will have event tags for your application. Event tags will only show up if your competition administrator has opted to create them for the competition you are participating in.
Once you apply event tags, only your competition administrator will be able to see them on their admin-side view of the competition. You will not be able to see tags other competitors have applied to themselves, and others will not be able to see tags you have applied. The only tags you will be able to see applied are the tags you have applied to yourself (in an individual competition), and/or the tags you and your team members have applied to your team (in a team competition).
Application of event tags is also optional - you don't need to apply any tags if you don't want to and/or if you don't align to any of the provided tags. However, applying event tags helps competition administrators to better identify and sort you for initiatives such as prizes and other recognition activities.
Lastly, note that application of event tags only lasts in the context of a specific competition. Your applied event tags do not carry on to other events, and will not be visible anywhere outside of the competition where they are applied.
If you wish to apply event tags to your team, click the Edit button. This will open an edit menu where you can select and unselect tags in the dropdown using the checkboxes provided. The dropdown input box for applying event tags is also searchable - you can type in the box to filter down the tags which appear in the dropdown list.
Once you are ready, click Save [1] to apply selected tags (or remove unselected tags) to your team. Click Cancel [2] if you change your mind. After you have finishing editing event tags applied to your team, you can always click the Edit button again if you wish to edit your applied event tags again.
If any of your team members have applied event tags to your team already, you'll be able to see the already applied tags saved in the Apply Event Tags section. Any event tags applied or removed by you and your team members will populate (or be removed) your team's Apply Event Tags section upon refresh.
Navigating the Competition Challenges Table
You can view the challenges within the competition by clicking on the Challenges [1] tab. The Points [2] card tells you the amount of points your team has secured. The First Bloods [3] card tells you how many challenges your team was the first to solve, and the Solved [4] card shows you how many challenges your team has solved.
The Challenges Table [1] lists all of the challenges in the competition. You can search for a specific challenge by clicking on the Search [2] icon. This will open up a text box that will enable you to search for challenges by keywords.
You can also filter which challenges are shown in the table by clicking on the Filter [3] button. This will let you filter challenges based on each column in the table.
You can remove a filter by clicking on the Cross [1] icon next to the filter you wish to remove. You can navigate between the different pages of the table by clicking on the Arrow [2] buttons. You can also change the number of rows displayed on the table by clicking on the Row [3] dropdown menu and then selecting the number of rows that you would like to view.
You can view any activity markers left by your team members on a challenge by hovering over the icons in the Activity column, as shown in the image below.
Attempting and Solving Challenges
To view a challenge, click on the Row of the challenge you wish to view. This will open up the challenge on the side of your screen. Once the challenge has been opened, you will be able to see key details about the challenge, such as its description. When you're ready to start attempting the challenge, click Start Solving.
The Activity [1] section lets you communicate with your team. For example, you can tell your team that you are working on the challenge, or that you need help. The Description [2] section provides information about the challenge. You can download any attachments associated with the challenge by clicking on the relevant link in the Attachments [3] section.
📖 Note: the Attachments section will not display in a challenge if there are no attachments for the challenge.
Attempting Lab Challenges
Once you have clicked Start Solving on a lab challenge, you'll see a Lab Details section. By default, your lab will be in Not Started status. Each lab has a duration of 2 hours.
Click Start Lab to spin up a lab instance to begin working on. Once you start your lab instance, the Lab Time Remaining timer will begin counting down from 2 hours.
Once you have started your lab, your lab will be in Ready status. The lab timer will begin countdown from 2 hours, and you'll see an Extend Lab button and a Reset Lab button. These buttons will aways be present when your lab is in Ready status (and when you have time left in the Lab Time Remaining countdown timer).
You can extend your lab as many times as you wish during the event. Extending a lab simply resets the countdown timer for your current lab instance back to 2 hours, allowing you to continue working on your current lab instance with progress being unaffected. Although you can extend your lab infinitely during the event, the maximum time available on the Lab Time Remaining countdown timer at any given point is 2 hours. You won't be able to stack more time on time of this maximum by extending your lab. For instance, if you extend your lab while there is 1 hour 50 minutes remaining, your lab time will be reset to 2 hours, not 3 hours 50 minutes.
If the lab countdown timer reaches 0, your lab instance will be deleted (all progress will be lost). You'll be able to restart your lab again to continue work. However, once you start your lab again, a new lab instance will be deployed with all progress being refreshed - you won't be able to recover your previous lab instance once its lab timer runs out, so please watch the timer carefully while you attempt the lab and extend your instance if required to avoid losing your progress.
If you wish to manually deploy a new lab instance for yourself (i.e. before this is automatically done when the lab timer runs out) while working on a lab challenge (if for example, you have run into an error or simply wish to reset your lab progress), click Reset Lab. This will delete your current lab instance (and any progress along with it). Upon a brief loading period, your lab will return to Not Started status. You'll be able to start your lab again by clicking Start Lab. Once your lab has started up and is in Ready status again, you'll be able to begin working on your new lab instance.
If you would like to restart your current lab instance (rather than reset your lab to get a new lab instance), please raise a support ticket. The FifthDomain team will be able to restart your current lab instance for you.
Note that you can interact with labs in lab challenges for the entire duration of the competition, or until you have solved the challenge (i.e. submitted the correct flag).
Submitting Flags
Once ready, you can enter a solution for a challenge by typing in the Submit Flag [4] text box and then clicking Submit [5]. You will then receive a message that states whether your solution was correct or incorrect.
You can close a challenge by clicking on the Cross icon, as shown in the image below.
Viewing the Competition Overview Page
You can view the competition’s instructions (as well as a list of your registered team members) at any time during the competition by clicking on the Overview tab.
Applying Event Tags in the Overview Page
If your event administrator has created event tags for the team-based competition you are participating in, the same Apply Event Tags section you saw in the waiting bay will appear in the Overview tab.
Click Edit to add or remove tags as you require.
Viewing the Scoreboard
To view the scoreboard, click the Scoreboard tab, as shown in the image below. Note, your competition organiser may decide to hide the scoreboard. In this case, you will be unable to view the scoreboard.
To see how your team’s progress compared to others, look at the Score Progression [1] chart. You can hover over the chart to see who captured a flag and when. To check where your team is ranked in the competition, look at the Leaderboard [2] table.
To learn more about how you can see a rival team's approach in a competition, read this article.