The competition hosted two brackets with six teams per bracket. All four of Taylor's teams placed within their respective brackets. Taylor Purple took home the first-place spot in the championship bracket and Taylor Gold took home third. In the lower bracket, Taylor Maroon placed second and Taylor Blue took home the third-place finish. These results were the same as last year's placings.

Last year, Taylor's first year in the competition, Taylor teams placed first and third among the competing teams.

Dannie Stanley, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, was first introduced to the competition last year after meeting Nathan Backman, a professor at BVU, and Stanley accepted his invitation to join.

“Students don't often get an opportunity to compete against others using programming skills,” Stanley said. “Capture the flag is a game that requires unconventional, creative and strategic thinking. It is this kind of battle of wits that draws many to the field of cybersecurity.”

Stanley's goal for this event is to give students the opportunity to practice offensive hacking skills as well as defensive hacking maneuvers. (The term “hacker” is used here in the non-pejorative sense of the word- “A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary”) This competition, while good fun, presents students with real life experience.

“If students don't patch their own vulnerable software, they lose. This is how it is in real life. Students can't patch a vulnerability until they understand it well enough to exploit (attack) it,” Stanley said. “Cybersecurity is a high-stakes game. This simulation helps students approximate the risks associated with developing non-secure software.”