On March 2, 2025, the SECCON CTF 13 Finals, a prestigious global cybersecurity competition, concluded in Tokyo, Japan. Tsinghua University's Blue-Lotus Team secured third place with a total score of 6,296 points after two days of intense competition among nine international teams.
Blue-Lotus Won 3rd Place at SECCON CTF 13 International Finals
SECCON CTF, Japan’s largest and most influential Capture the Flag (CTF) contest, is renowned for its high difficulty and global reputation. The 13th edition included online qualifiers and an offline finals round. Over 600 teams competed in the online qualifiers in November 2024, with eight advancing to the finals. An additional wildcard slot was awarded to the winner of the TSG CTF (hosted by the University of Tokyo in December 2024), which Blue-Lotus won, earning their finals spot.
Blue-Lotus team members compete at SECCON CTF 13 International Finals
The Tokyo finals featured Jeopardy-style challenges and King of Hill (KOH) scenarios, covering web security, reverse engineering, cryptography, and binary exploitation. Blue-Lotus excelled in the KOH segment, leading multiple times on the second day. They finished with 5,123 points in KOH and 1,073 in Jeopardy. Japan’s ierae team claimed first place (7,646 points), while the multinational Super Guesser took second (6,348 points).
Blue-Lotus, founded in 2010 under Tsinghua’s Institute for Network Science and Cyberspace, is a top-tier cybersecurity team with a storied history. They were the first Chinese team to reach the DEF CON CTF Finals (cybersecurity’s “World Cup”) and won second place in 2016. The team has earned over 20 international podium finishes, including championships at HITCON CTF, and continues to cultivate elite cybersecurity talent.
The finals squad included doctoral and undergraduate students Li Yishen, Yu Xinyu, You yufan, Zheng Yitian from Tsinghua’s Institute for Network Science and Cyberspace, Computer Science Department, and other schools, led by advisor Dr. Zhuge Jianwei.
