Labs

Labs are hands-on courses in the Customer Portal, separate from individual worlds. They are useful for guided learning, pre-event preparation, and extra practice outside a timed CTF.

What Labs are for

• Browse labs and courses available to your organisation.
• Open a lab or course when your organisation plan includes access.
• Continue guided practice outside a timed event.
• Use labs for training before or after a CTF.

Labs are not where you register for events, create worlds, manage teams, or edit challenge banks. Use Events for joining competitions and Worlds for organiser setup.

How to access

1. Log in to the Customer Portal.
2. In the sidebar, click Labs.

Access depends on your organisation's plan (e.g. Pro or higher). If you do not see Labs or get a plan message, your org may need to upgrade. Participants and organisers use the same portal; when Labs are enabled for your org, anyone in the org can open Labs from the sidebar.

How Labs differ from worlds

• Labs are structured courses, not timed event maps.
• Labs are accessed from the Portal, not from a specific world's control panel.
• A world can still reference Labs in its organiser content or event instructions, but Labs are managed as a plan-gated Portal feature.
• If Labs are not available, check the organisation plan before troubleshooting user permissions.

What participants use Labs for

Participants use Labs for guided practice without needing to join a live event. A lab can be useful before a CTF starts, after a training session, or as part of an internal learning path.

Typical participant flow:

1. Open Labs from the Customer Portal sidebar.
2. Choose an available lab or course.
3. Work through the guided content.
4. Complete tasks or challenges in the lab environment.
5. Return later to continue practice if the lab remains available.

Labs are not the same as a world map. If a participant is trying to join a competition, they should use Events, not Labs.

What organisers use Labs for

Organisers use Labs to support learning around worlds and events.

Common uses:

• Pre-event preparation for beginners.
• Follow-up practice after an event.
• Internal training courses.
• Skill tracks for a specific team or organisation.
• Guided material that does not need a timed scoreboard.

Labs can be referenced from world homepage content, event instructions, announcements, or onboarding material, but they are still managed as a Portal feature rather than inside a single world's control panel.

Access and plan checks

If Labs are missing or unavailable:

• Check the organisation plan.
• Confirm the user is signed in to the correct account.
• Confirm the user belongs to the organisation that has Labs enabled.
• Check whether the lab or course is available to that organisation.
• Use the Portal plan or support flow if the organisation needs access.

World roles do not automatically enable Labs. Labs access is organisation and plan based.

Labs vs events

Need	Use
Timed CTF with registration, teams, map, scoreboard, and event period	Events / Worlds
Guided course or practice material outside a timed event	Labs
Live challenge infrastructure for a world	Launchable challenges
Organisation-wide learning access	Labs, if included in the plan

See also: Worlds, Finding and joining events, and Plans and billing.