This week, three teams from North Hollywood High School - Balto, Togo, and Truman - boarded a flight to Baltimore to participate in the National Cyberpatriot Competition. The competition was composed of several different sections, like Cisco, designed to test competitors’ knowledge and skill. Competitors even had to defend their computers against an attacking “red team” while completing other challenges.
The non-competition highlights for the members of our teams included sleeping in a bathtub, studying for physics, and meeting a dog named Elias from Team Troy. There was also a raffle with about 15 items, including a computer and an iPad. One Togo member won a CISCO backpack and another student (from Balto) won a Raspberry Pi, which he promptly sold to the team captain of Togo.
The Nationals competition was definitely challenging for all of our students. Though Team Togo went into the competition in 4th place in the nation, one member reported that they “were rekt” by the competition at Nationals; the team captain said, “I can confirm one thing. We got our ass kicked.” Members of Team Truman (entering at 8th place) declined to comment when asked about the competition, though one member mentioned he had trouble sleeping due to jet lag. Team Balto (entering at 11th place) felt they didn’t fare very well, stating that they “had 0% uptime.”
Amazingly, and despite their previous fears, Team Togo placed first out of 12 teams total, also winning in the two subdivisions Cisco (with the highest Cisco score ever) and Leidos (which they reportedly didn’t study for). All of the members of Cyberpatriots will be celebrated at the Pep Rally on Friday.
The members of Truman admitted that they were a bit disappointed that they had not beat Togo (one of their goals), but they were happy for them and they assured us that there was always next year.