The Best Turkish CTF Teams
(2026, Backed by CTFtime Data)

1. The metric: how do you measure "best"?

The only neutral measurement source for a "best CTF team" claim is CTFtime, the independent registry tracking CTF competitions and results worldwide. Organizers upload final scoreboards; the platform assigns points and produces yearly country and world rankings.

That is why this guide reports two metrics separately: (a) the yearly CTFtime points table (volume + consistency) and (b) international placements (single-result quality). The two can crown different teams — which is exactly what is happening in 2026.

2. 2013–2026: yearly CTFtime Turkey champions

The table below is compiled from CTFtime's yearly country tables (verified on August 22, 2026). Note: country tables only list teams inside the world top ~1000; only a handful of Turkish teams cross that bar each year.

* The 2026 row is the in-progress season as of August 22, 2026 — not a year-end result.

3. All-time best world ranks by Turkish teams

• World #38 — The Awakening of Ancient Spirits (2024): 474.85 points over 22 events; the highest world rank a Turkish team has reached on a yearly CTFtime table. The team is absent from the 2025 and 2026 tables — effectively inactive, but the record is theirs.
• World #108 — Nyx (2019): 191.21 points; the second-best yearly rank.

BreakPoint deserves its own paragraph: seven yearly Turkey #1 finishes between 2015 and 2022 make it by far the most consistent team in Turkish CTF history — a decade of uninterrupted activity. The 2023 champion, Ah Yalan Dünya, was that year's hardest-working Turkish team with 50 events, and also organized İGÜCTF'24.

4. The 2026 scene: two different profiles

An honest footnote: AltayCTF's CTFtime profile currently records only Thryve CTF 2026 (8th place, 22.69 rating points) and UIUCTF 2026 (41st, 34.35 rating points) — the HTB Cyber Apocalypse and HTB CTF Try Out results were not uploaded to CTFtime and therefore do not appear there. Which team finishes the year on top will come down to event selection over the remaining season.

5. Who is AltayCTF?

AltayCTF is AltaySec's official CTF team: founded in 2026, captained by Fevzi Ege Yurtsevenler, and representing Turkey in global competitions with a core roster of 16 operators competing across Web, Pwn, Crypto, Reversing, Forensics, OSINT, Coding, and Blockchain.

• Team page: ctf.altaysec.com.tr — roster, results, applications
• CTFtime profile: ctftime.org/team/431443 — independent verification
• Recruiting: [email protected]

6. Frequently Asked Questions

Which is the best Turkish CTF team?

There is no single official title; the answer depends on the metric. On the yearly CTFtime Turkey table, PunkyDediPunky leads 2026 so far (125.14 points, 17 events). Measured by international placements, the strongest 2026 results belong to AltayCTF: world champions of the Thryve CTF 2026 Open division, and first among Turkish teams at both UIUCTF 2026 and HTB CTF Try Out. The highest world rank a Turkish team has ever reached is 38th, by The Awakening of Ancient Spirits in 2024.

What is CTFtime and why is it the standard benchmark?

CTFtime (ctftime.org) is the independent registry that tracks CTF competitions and team results worldwide. Organizers upload final scoreboards; the platform assigns each team rating points based on event weight and placement, producing yearly country and world rankings. Because it is neutral and public, it is the de facto standard for comparing teams.

What is the best world rank a Turkish team has ever achieved?

According to the yearly CTFtime tables, the best Turkish world rank is 38th, achieved by The Awakening of Ancient Spirits in 2024 with 474.85 points. The second-best yearly rank is Nyx's 108th place worldwide in 2019.

What has AltayCTF achieved?

In 2026 AltayCTF finished the Thryve CTF Open division as world champions among 1,100+ teams (7,345 points, 8 First Bloods); placed 1st among Turkish teams and 41st globally at UIUCTF 2026; finished HTB CTF Try Out 1st among Turkish teams and 7th worldwide; and achieved a Full Clear at HTB Cyber Apocalypse by solving all 74 challenges for 136/136 flags. The Thryve and UIUCTF results are recorded on the team's CTFtime profile; the HTB events were not uploaded to CTFtime, so they do not appear there.

7. Sources and evidence boundary

All ranking data in this article was verified on August 22, 2026, by fetching CTFtime's yearly country tables one by one (ctftime.org/stats/<year>/TR, 2013–2026). The HTB Cyber Apocalypse and HTB CTF Try Out results are not recorded on CTFtime and rely on the competition platforms' own scoreboards. The 2026 rows describe an in-progress season and may change by year-end; this page will be updated with new season data (last updated: August 22, 2026). Disclosure: the publisher of this article, AltaySec, fields one of the teams under review (AltayCTF); every claim is therefore linked to third-party sources so readers can verify independently.