CyberPatriot Competition

Past Participation

For the CyberPatriot IX season, 528 CAP teams registered but roughly only 50% participated. Historically, only 35% to 40% of CAP teams that register actually compete. Various issues have been identified that prevent teams from competing. The primary reason is that coaches did not fully understand the CyberPatriot program and CAP leadership did not provide the resources and guidance to teams necessary to get started. The resources were available, but difficult for the non-technical coach or squadron commander to access in a meaningful way.

Three Competition Divisions

There are three divisions within the CyberPatriot program. Teams from one division do not compete against teams from another division. The three divisions are:

• Open High School Division - Open to all high schools, scouting units, Boys and Girls Clubs, and approved high school home school programs across the country.

• All Service Division - Open to High School JROTC Programs (Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines), Civil Air Patrol units, and Naval Sea Cadets.

• Middle School Division - Open to teams of middle school students.

Civil Air Patrol cadet and composite squadrons can compete in the All Service Division and the Middle School Division. Cadets must be in the 9th through 12th grade to compete on an All Service Division team or be in the 6th through 8th grade to compete on a Middle School Division team. It is quite possible for a CAP squadron to have a team of middle school cadets for one team and another team for their high school cadets. Special permission can be granted by AFA CyberPatriot to move a middle school cadet to an All Service Team if there isn't enough middle school cadets to make up a full middle school team. The Coach requests in writing to AFA CyberPatriot the circumstances to request which cadet(s) to move to an All Service Team. Some restrictions will apply to cadets under 13 years old for access to the Cisco Networking Academy content since Cisco does not permit access to the content to those younger than 13; coaches can, however, still present the Cisco content to cadets under 13 years old.

Competition Model

As a squadron initially forms a team, it is not likely they will be a national contender in their first year and the Air Force Association has recognized that there are different skill levels associated with different teams. To that end, they have broken the competition down into three tiers for the Open Division and All Service Division. The Middle School Division currently does not have a tier structure.

All teams within the Open and All Service Divisions compete on the same systems for the first two rounds of competition. Based on the team’s aggregate scores in these two rounds, the team is placed into one of three tiers. The top 30% of teams are placed in the Platinum Tier, the middle 40% are placed in the Gold Tier, and the bottom 30% of teams are placed in the Silver Tier.

The complexity of subsequent rounds of competition is based on the tier. That is, the Platinum Tier teams can expect to have the complexity of the required tasks to increase in the State Round (the third round of competition) while Silver Tier teams will have the complexity remain lower so they can gain experience, confidence, and knowledge while learning valuable skills.

Likewise, Middle School Division teams will see an age appropriate level of complexity.

CyberPatriot Rules Book

CyberPatriot's complete set of rules is posted at http://www.uscyberpatriot.org/competition/rules-book and should be throughly reviewed prior to the start of each competition season. The Rules Book is reviewed each competition season by members of the CyberPatriot Rules Advisory Group ("CRAG"); members of the CRAG are experienced coaches from both high school teams and All-Service Division teams who advise CyberPatriot on changes to the Rules Book. Civil Air Patrol's CRAG representative is Lt. Col. Paul Creed III; input regarding the rules of the competition can be submitted to him at [e-mail].