CCDC Rules

The following are the approved national rules for the CCDC season. Please refer to the official rules for your specific CCDC event for any local variations.

Throughout these rules, the following terms are used:

  • Gold Team/Operations Team – competition officials that organize, run, and manage the competition.
  • White Team – competition officials that observe team performance in their competition area and evaluate team performance and rule compliance.
  • Red Team – penetration testing professionals simulating external hackers attempting to gain unauthorized access to competition teams’ systems.
  • Black Team – competition support members that provide technical support, pick-up and deliver communications, and provide overall administrative support to the competition.
  • Blue Team/Competition Team – the institution competitive teams consisting of students competing in a CCDC event.
  • Team Captain – a student member of the Blue Team identified as the primary liaison between the Blue Team and the White Team.
  • Team Co-Captain – a student member of the Blue Team identified as the secondary or backup liaison between the Blue Team and the White Team, should the Team Captain be unavailable (i.e. not in the competition room).
  • Team representatives – a faculty or staff representative of the Blue Team’s host institution responsible for serving as a liaison between competition officials and the Blue Team’s institution.

Read the full CCDC Rules document here.

Midwest CCDC Schedule

10/18/2025 – Invitational

10/25/2025 – Invitational

11/01/2025 – Invitational


1/31/2026 – IN/MN Qualifier

2/07/2026 – OH/MI/KY/IA/WI Qualifier

2/14/2026 – IL/MO Qualifier 

2/21/2026 – Wildcard Qualifier


3/20-21/2026 – MWCCDC Regional


TBA – National CCDC


All second- and third-place teams from their state qualifying CCDC events will advance to the Wildcard CCDC, where they’ll battle for another chance to move forward. The top teams from each state qualifier, along with the Wildcard champions, will earn their spot at the Erich J. Spengler Midwest Regional CCDC, taking place March 20–21, 2026.