Our first black badge
Table of Contents
Wild West Hackin’ Fest
Wild West Hackin’ Fest, hosted by Black Hills Information Security, is an annual cybersecurity conference held in Deadwood, South Dakota and Denver, Colorado. Like other conferences, Wild West features booths with industry leaders, presentations from well-known speakers, competitions, official trainings, and more. It’s a great opportunity for both learning and networking.
Back in January, when our team won CPTC Globals, we were offered free attendance to the 2025 Wild West Deadwood conference! While planning what we wanted to do, we noticed that Wild West offers a black badge to the winners of their Capture the Flag (CTF) competition, hosted by MetaCTF.
Black badges
Black badges, offered by conferences like Wild West and DEF CON, are prestigious awards given to winners of specific competitions. If earned, they often grant lifetime free admission to future conferences and serve as a strong indicator of talent within the cybersecurity community and to employers.
I’ve always wanted a black badge and hoped to reach a point where I was good enough to earn one, so I figured I’d give it a shot!
MetaCTF experience
I participated in this competition with three friends, who were also part of our CPTC winning team. Our team name was Papa Shell, representing Dakota State University.
The competition timeline looked like this:
- October 9, 10:00AM - First set of challenges opens
- October 10, 10:00AM - Second set of challenges opens
- October 10, 12:00PM - Scoreboard is disabled to increase suspense
- October 10, 3:00PM - Competition closes
- October 10, 5:00PM - Competition winner announced
The MetaCTF experience was stressful, challenging, and fun. The first round consisted of roughly 45 scored challenges, and we managed to hold first place the entire day, completing a full solve by 1:00 AM the next morning. We were thrilled with our progress, especially since it meant we could get a good night’s rest before the second round!
On the second day, around 10 additional challenges were released, bringing the total to 55 scored challenges. By noon, another team had tied with us for first place just before the scoreboard was disabled, which certainly did increase tension! When the competition ended at 3:00 PM, we had solved all but four challenges. We noticed that one team had completed two we hadn’t, but since the scoreboard was hidden, we assumed second place had overtaken us in points.
By 5:00 PM, when the winners were announced, it was revealed that second place had remained tied with first and we ended up winning the entire competition, earning a black badge!
The energy was great, and we were all extremely excited about the win. Some of the professors and faculty we look up to had attended Wild West with us, and it was amazing to see how proud they were.
What I’ve learned
I mentioned earlier that I’ve always wanted to earn a black badge and hoped that one day I’d be “good enough” to receive one. I know I’m not the best at CTFs — honestly, I rarely do them — and this black badge doesn’t make me think I’m the best in any way.
Instead, the biggest takeaway simply reinforces a perspective I try to carry with me everywhere, and it’s this:
Just get started. Nobody cares.
Earlier this year, I was contacted and later hired by my dream company, Black Hills Information Security, the organizer of Wild West Hackin’ Fest. Every day, I feel a tremendous weight to impress, perform, and operate at the highest level, especially since many of my coworkers are among the best in the industry.
This pressure easily feeds my imposter syndrome. Sometimes, I catch myself hesitating to try new things out of fear of looking stupid or failing. I think my boss said something like: “Be a redneck hacker and say ‘hold my beer’ before trying something, because you might just surprise yourself.”
Despite how much I try, I still forget this perspective in the face of a big change or challenge. Winning this black badge reminded me that I don’t need to be the best right now — I just have to start. Of course, I couldn’t have done it without my amazing teammates — I was far from carrying the solves — and the outcome of just trying was incredible.