Team Austria is the Austrian National Team competing in the European Cyber Security Challenge (ECSC).
This year, ECSC 2026 is hosted in Bochum, Germany from 12th to 16th of October 2026!
The team is selected through a national qualification process and consists of 10 of the country’s best young talents:
- 5 junior (born in 2006 or later)
- 5 senior (born in 2001 until including 2005)
The team is supported by a group of trainers and coaches that help the participants prepare for the competition.
Eligibility#
The qualification process is available to a pool of participants from the current and past editions of the Austria Cyber Security Challenge. To be eligible for the qualification, participants must be Austrian citizens and must be born between 2012 and 2001. You are eligible for the qualification if you meet at least one of the following criteria:
- You were a member of Team Austria in any of the previous 2 editions of ECSC (2024, 2025).
- You were/are in the top-20/21 for your age group (junior or senior) in the Austria Cyber Security Challenge qualifiers in 2025 or 2026 (this year!).
Qualification#
To expedite the qualification process this year and allow for more team-building and training afterwards, the qualification process will start with the Austria Cyber Security Challenge qualifiers. It is important to note, that it is not necessary to be in the top ranks in the qualifiers to be able to qualify for Team Austria. Still, it will be counted towards your overall performance in the qualification process.
After the ACSC qualifiers, participants from the pool will be invited to play two selected CTF events, after which the final team will be chosen.
You will be asked to keep track of your performance in these events and submit short write-ups (for challenges solved during ACSC qualifiers as well as for the two other overall CTFs). The coaches will use this information and the live performance during the CTFs to select the team.
Below is a tentative timeline for Team Austria this year:
| Month | |
|---|---|
| March | ACSC Qualifiers |
| April | ACSC Qualifiers |
| May | CTF |
| June | CTF & Team Selection |
| July | Vienna Bootcamp & potential training Retreat |
| August | Slovak Bootcamp |
| September | ACSC |
| October | ECSC |
Team 2025#
The team for the 2025 edition of the ECSC was:
- Dominik Fluch
- Hannah Fluch
- Jannik Schager, PWND Labs
- Lukas Eschbacher
- Matthias Pleschinger
- Christoph Tantscher, Anexia Cloud Solutions
- Georg Felber, TU Wien
- Johannes Berndorfer
- Lea Holter (captain)
- Sebastian Felix
Coaches:
- Patrick Pirker, Syslifters
- Manuel Reinsperger, A1 Digital and TU Wien
- Marcel Schnideritsch, HTBLA Kaindorf and CANCOM
- Marco Squarcina (head coach), TU Wien
Team 2024#
The team for the 2024 edition of the ECSC was:
- Fabian Gurtner, JKU Linz
- Sarah Nöbauer, JKU Linz
- Matthias Pleschinger
- Johannes Puinbroek
- Jannik Schager, HTBLuVa Villach
- Lea Holter (captain), TU Wien and ETH Zürich
- Dominik Apel, TU Wien
- Johannes Berndorfer, TU Wien
- Jonas Heschl, GF passgenau-digital GmbH
- Georg Felber, TU Wien
Coaches:
- Patrick Pirker, Syslifters
- Manuel Reinsperger, A1 Digital and TU Wien
- Marcel Schnideritsch, HTBLA Kaindorf and CANCOM
- Marco Squarcina (head coach), TU Wien