CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — Team pwngenius from Mindanao State University – General Santos captured the Region XII Grand Championship in the DICT HackForGov 2026 Capture-the-Flag competition held Nov. 9 to 11 at Dreamweavers Hotel.
Composed of BS Information Technology students Alvin Jay Deleverio, John Clifford Paunte, Earl Warren Pecajas, and Jeehan Mikayla Barbero, the squad topped 23 competing teams across two regional qualifying rounds to advance to the national finals.
Grand Champions
Coached by Irene T. Bernadas, Pwngenius scored 1,160 points to lead the initial Nov. 9 leg against 12 teams, solving challenges in networking, open-source intelligence, web exploitation, steganography, and digital forensics.
Deleverio, Pecajas, and Paunte also received individual Excellence Awards after scoring 470, 300, and 290 points, respectively, despite limited lead-up time before the tournament.
"Preparation namin for the competition was very minimal with last minute pa nag download ng mga tools," Paunte said.
Leg Standings
A second MSU-GenSan squad, neopwngenius, placed first runner-up in the Nov. 9 leg with 510 points under team captain Rizza Mae W. Colis alongside King Rendall Rhey L. Poquita, Klint Vincent Lloren, and Leigh Alfonso Louis Malones.
Team Phaethon from Notre Dame of Marbel University finished second runner-up in the first batch with 450 points.
National Qualifiers
Alongside Region XII Grand Champion pwngenius, DICT Region XII named two individual wildcard qualifiers from SOCCSKSARGEN and BARMM to represent the region in the national finals.
Christian R. Agapay of team H4cktiv8 from Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Colleges – Marbel and Anjuvh Baldwin J. Yguinto of team p@wnd3S@l from the University of Southern Mindanao secured the wildcard berths.
Other Winners
In the second qualifying leg, teams from the College of Information and Computing Sciences also recorded podium finishes under coaches Sayyedatel Janna M. Gubat and Azima D. Ampuan.
Hackstreet Boys—composed of Monthafer A. Barani, Rod B. Gumaid, Abdullah A. Lacsaman, and Hussien Aldondie O. Banocag—took second runner-up, while The Larpers—Abdul Khaliq R. Solaiman, Hafsa R. Mangorangca, Mohaymen B. Omar, and Jhon Lloyd M. Estrada—placed third runner-up.
