Google Capture the Flag 2021 Official Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. CONTEST IS

OPEN TO RESIDENTS OF THE 50 UNITED STATES, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND

WORLDWIDE, EXCEPT FOR QUEBEC, CRIMEA, CUBA, IRAN, SYRIA, NORTH KOREA, and

SUDAN.

This Contest consists of two events: the first is a distributed, wide-area security exercise, whose goal

is to test the security skills of the participants (the “qualification stage”). From this first exercise

Google will select a number of finalists to compete in another distributed, wide-area security exercise

(the “final stage”).

The qualification stage will consist of a set of challenges for participants to solve. There are two

ways for participants to achieve rewards based on solving these challenges: (1) by submitting written

challenge solution descriptions (“write-ups”) rewards, where Google will give cash rewards to the

best challenge solution descriptions that participants submit; and (2) by earning points for solving

challenges within the Contest time period—as described further below, teams earning the most

points will qualify to participate in a final stage contest where additional cash awards are possible.

The final stage will consist of an online contest where selected teams will compete to solve another

set of challenges in a fast-paced setting. The contest will be recorded and the recording will be

published for educational purposes.

Term of qualification stage: The Contest begins at 00:00:01 A.M. UTC on **July 17 2021** and

ends at 23:59:59 (11:59:59 P.M.) UTC on **July 18 2021** (“Contest Period”). ENTRANTS ARE

RESPONSIBLE FOR DETERMINING THE CORRESPONDING TIME ZONE IN THEIR

RESPECTIVE JURISDICTIONS.
Sponsor: Google LLC located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 is the

sponsor of this Contest ("Google").

Eligibility: The Contest is open to individuals who are (1) over the age of eighteen (18) at the time

of entry; (2) not a resident of Quebec, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea or Crimea; (3) an individual

who is not restricted by applicable export controls and sanctions programs; and (4) people who have

registered at capturetheflag.withgoogle.com. Current employees, interns, contractors, officers, or

directors of Google or Alphabet or their affiliates, are not eligible to participate in the Contest. VOID

WHERE PROHIBITED. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. Google reserves the

right to verify eligibility and to adjudicate on any dispute at any time.

How to Enter: Eligible participants may enter by registering at capturetheflag.withgoogle.com and

completing the tasks as detailed on the site. Participants may enter only once. Participants may work

in groups; however, the prize money will be awarded solely to the person whose email is listed on

the team registration. It is the sole responsibility of the registrant to distribute any potential winnings.

Google takes no liability for the distribution of payment to other group members.

Any entries, points or flags are void if they are in whole or in part illegible, incomplete, damaged,

irregular, altered, counterfeit, produced in error, forged or obtained through fraud or theft. By entering

you agree to be bound by these Official Rules and that all decisions of Google are final. If you are

entering on behalf of your employer, these rules are binding on you, individually, and your company,

and your company has consented to your entry and potential receipt of the Prize.

Qualification stage rewards:

Write-up Rewards: There will be a write-up submission form on the website

capturetheflag.withgoogle.com, where all participating teams will be allowed to voluntarily submit a

summary on how they solved any challenge from the online qualification stage (excluding beginners

quest), and any code or tools used to solve those challenges. The write-up rewards do not award

participants any points on the online qualification stage, nor in the final stage. Google will reward up

to 12, 2 per challenge category, of the best write-up submissions with 500 US dollars. Google will

reward up to 30, 1 per challenge, of the remaining best write-up submissions with 100 US dollars.
Only write-up submissions that are sent in before 23:59:59 (11:59:59 P.M.) UTC on August 2 2021

are eligible for rewards. The selection of the up to 42 winning submissions will be decided at

Google's sole discretion.

The list of write-up rewards recipients will be announced on or about August 30 2021, and they will

be contacted and asked to claim the prize. If a potential reward recipient does not respond to the

notification attempt within 3 days from the first notification attempt, then such potential reward

recipient will be disqualified and an alternate potential reward recipient will be selected from among

all eligible entries based on Google's sole discretion.

Rewards for Points Accumulated: There will be a scoreboard where points will be assigned at the

end of the competition based on the challenges that were completed. Each challenge will have an

amount of points based on the number of teams that solved it. Winners will be selected based on the

greatest number of points earned. In case of a tie, the team with the earlier submission of the last

flag will be the winner. Note that write-up rewards do not give any points for the qualification stage.

At the conclusion of the qualification stage, Google will select those teams that have earned the

sixteen highest points scores. On or about July 26 2021 these potential finalist(s) will be selected

and notified by email. If a potential finalist does not respond to the notification attempt within 3 days

from the first notification attempt, then such potential finalist will be disqualified and an alternate

potential finalist will be selected from among all eligible entries received based on the judging criteria

described herein up until the 50th place team is reached

If no entries are received, no prize will be awarded. Determinations of the judges are final and

binding.

Final stage: Finalists chosen from the qualification stage will be invited to participate in the final

event in November 2021, where they will have to solve more challenges. From this final stage,

Google will select the 4 final winners.

During the final stage, only a single computer ("Team's Computer'') in the possession of the

participating team will be allowed to access the competition infrastructure. The final stage will consist
of 4 Qualification Rounds and 1 Final Round. The initial 16 teams will be assigned into 4 groups of

up to 4 teams. Each group will participate in 1 Qualification Round. A single winning team of each

Qualification Round will then participate in the Final Round. All round participants will be required to

provide a live video stream from the Team's Computer’s desktop. During the rounds, points will be

assigned based on challenges completed. The winner will be based on the highest points score

achieved, and in case of a tie, the shortest time to reach those points will be the deciding factor.

Each round will take up to 90 minutes. The 4 Qualification Rounds will take place on November 6

2021 and November 7 2021. The exact time will be communicated to participants after group

assignment. The Final Round will take place on November 13 2021, with the exact time being

communicated to participants of the Final Round.

Privacy: Google will be collecting personal data about participants when they register and enter the

Contest. Google will treat this data in accordance with its privacy policy, located at

http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.

Qualification Stage Prize: First place winner will receive 13 337 US dollars. Second place winner

will receive 7 331 US dollars, and third place winner will receive 3 133.7 US dollars. Prizes may be

subject to terms, restrictions and conditions imposed by Google.

Final Stage Prize: First place winner will receive 3 000 US dollars. Second place winner will receive

2 000 US dollars. Third place winner will receive 1 000 US dollars. Fourth place winner will receive

500 US dollars. Prizes may be subject to terms, restrictions and conditions imposed by Google.

Further, all prize winners will need to provide all requested personal (and if applicable, company)

information to prove residence eligibility and that they are not restricted by applicable export controls

and sanctions programs.

Google and its affiliates, subsidiaries and related companies, or their respective officers, directors,

employees, representatives and agents will not be liable for unsuccessful efforts to notify a winner.

The prize will be delivered within 60 days after the conclusion of the contest. No prize transfer,

assignment or substitution by winner permitted except at Sponsor’s sole discretion. If the prize

becomes unavailable, Sponsor reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value. All
federal, state and local taxes, fees and surcharges on prizes are the sole responsibility of the winner.

If a potential winner declines the prize, does not respond to the prize notification, fails to claim the

prize, is unavailable for prize fulfillment, fails to abide by the Official Rules, or is ineligible, Google

may select the next highest scoring team as the winner.

Publicity: By entering, entrant agrees and consents to permit Google and its agencies to use his or

her name, photographs and/or likeness, write-ups,code and any provided or recorded/streamed

video for advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation.

Intellectual Property Rights: By submitting a code in this Contest, the entrant warrants and

represents that the code, including the programming and related material, is open source and is

released subject to the Apache License 2.0 or any suitable BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution)

license and not subject to the proprietary rights of any person or entity.

Warranty, Indemnity and Release: Entrants warrant that their codes are their own original work

and, as such, they are the sole and exclusive owner and rights holder of the submitted code and that

they have the right to submit the code in the Contest and grant all required licenses. Each entrant

agrees not to submit any code that (1) infringes any third party proprietary rights, intellectual property

rights, industrial property rights, personal or moral rights or any other rights, including without

limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, privacy, publicity or confidentiality obligations;

or (2) otherwise violates the applicable state or federal law.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, each entrant indemnifies and agrees to keep indemnified

Google at all times from and against any liability, claims, demands, losses, damages, costs and

expenses resulting from any act, default or omission of the entrant and/or a breach of any warranty

set forth herein. To the maximum extent permitted by law, each entrant agrees to defend, indemnify

and hold harmless the Google from and against any and all claims, actions, suits or proceedings, as

well as any and all losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys

fees) arising out of or accruing from (a) any code or other material uploaded or otherwise provided

by the entrant that infringes any copyright, trademark, trade secret, trade dress, patent or other

intellectual property right of any person or defames any person or violates their rights of publicity or
privacy, (b) any misrepresentation made by the entrant in connection with the Contest; (c) any

non-compliance by the entrant with these Rules; (d) claims brought by persons or entities other than

the parties to these Rules arising from or related to the entrant’s involvement with the Contest; and

(e) acceptance, possession, misuse or use of any prize or participation in any Contest-related

activity or participation in this Contest.

Entrant releases Google from any liability associated with: (a) any malfunction or other problem

with the Contest Site; (b) any error in the collection, processing, or retention of entry information; or

(c) any typographical or other error in the printing, offering or announcement of any prize or winners.

Right to Cancel: If for any reason the Contest is not capable of running as planned, including

tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, printing errors, or any other causes

which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the

Contest, Google reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the

Contest. Google further reserves the right to disqualify any entrant who tampers with the submission

process or contest, cheats, deceives, abuses, annoys, threatens any other entrants or Judges, or

otherwise violates any law or behaves in an unfit manner as determined by Google.

Limitation of Liability & Disclaimer of Warranties: IN NO EVENT WILL GOOGLE OR ITS

AFFILIATES, SUBSIDIARIES AND RELATED COMPANIES, OR THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS,

DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, REPRESENTATIVES AND AGENTS, BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE

FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LOSSES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,

CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE

CONTEST OR FOR ANY ACTION OR OMISSION MADE IN CONNECTION WITH THE CONTEST.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, EVERYTHING IN THESE RULES AND IN THIS

CONTEST, INCLUDING THE PRIZES AWARDED, IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY

OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE

IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR

NON-INFRINGEMENT. SOME JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATIONS OR

EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR EXCLUSION

OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES SO SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS MAY

REGARDING THESE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS.

Governing Law. This Contest is governed by the laws of California without regard to the conflict of

laws provision.

Winners List. You may request a list of winners after November 22 2021 by writing to:

google-ctf@google.com