Hack The Madness: How 64 universities battled for cyber supremacy

In Spring 2025, Hack The Box launched Hack The Madness, a cybersecurity tournament like no other. It’s modeled, of course, after NCAA March Madness^TM but instead of jump shots, we’ve got payloads. 

Let’s set the scene: 64 universities, one single-elimination bracket, and a noble quest to crown the most elite squad in the realms of US higher education.

Over the course of four weekends, university cyber teams went head-to-head in Capture the Flag (CTF) events where only the fastest, sharpest, and most strategic minds made it to the next round. 

For the Final Four and Championship rounds, we turned up the pressure with exclusive custom content that tested not just technical chops, but nerves of steel.

Let’s get into the details. 

How it works: Real pressure, real skills, real fun

Universities are no strangers to competition. From cyber clubs and red vs. blue exercises to national CCDC events, the thirst for high-stakes, high-impact training is real—and growing by the day. 

And Hack The Madness taps directly into that enthusiasm. Here’s a snapshot of what that looks like:

• All of the 64 US universities invited opted in.

• Professors, deans, and even university presidents followed along, cheering for their teams.

• Custom final-round content sparked post-match analysis sessions on campus and online.

• Participants got a crash course in real-world incident response that was valuable, but fun thanks to the gamification element.

Why the weekend match model is a safe bet

Like its NCAA counterpart, Hack The Madness works with a regional bracket system and scheduled matchups across every weekend in March, leading up to a stunning April finale. But this format was more than a happy accident:

• Weekend matches made it possible for more students to participate, especially those balancing classes with jobs.

• Spectator appeal was off the charts, with brackets driving anticipation, excitement, and predictions across social media.

• The intense momentum kept engagement high from start to finish.

TL;DR: We didn’t just attract players. We won some amazing fans.

Beyond the tournament: A Model for cyber talent development

Hack The Madness isn’t just fun and games—it educates, assesses, and motivates. Here's a rundown of how some top organizations are already adapting the format for themselves:

• As a recruitment playbook: Cleared Defense Contractors (CDCs) are watching and taking notes. They see this kind of tournament as a direct pipeline to the best cyber talent out there, complete with a performance snapshot that goes way beyond a résumé and reflects real-world skills. 

• University use cases: Schools are already building similar bracket-style mini-tournaments for internal training and club tryouts. The demand for hands-on, competitive learning is clear.

• Government partnerships: This isn’t just for universities. As part of the CAE (Center of Academic Excellence) ecosystem, the event showed US government stakeholders a new path for scalable, skills-based cyber education—and sparked interest from global education ministries looking to replicate it.

Hack The Box has long believed that cybersecurity training doesn’t need to be boring—or static. Hack The Madness proves it.

Find out how to build and launch a CTF in 10 mins

CTFs were originally made for training; but with a little imagination, and some tweaks to the format, what you’ve got is a talent discovery engine, community-building event, and a an adrenaline-fuelled spectator sport

What’s next?

Hack The Madness was just the beginning of a wider vision to energize cyber education and take it to the next level across the public sector, academia, and industry. 

The bottom line is this: Cyber doesn’t have to be siloed. It can be a sport. It can have a story. It can be a spectacle worth following. And with the right format, it can transform how you find, train, and mobilize the next generation of defenders.