So..... super cool. Super hard. I sucked, but it looks like most everyone else sucked as well.
I loved the challenges. Your site ssl certificate could probably have been done better. Did you use a trusted CA? What was the problem? No one on my team(several unique net connections) had an easy time creating an exception, so we went with the SSH route(which was *awesome*).

Initiate whining sequence: I'm kinda new to CTFs, why did BKP take down their challenges so soon? Is this normal? I'm going back through the writeups to some challenges that I *barely* missed(didn't notice a space, and forgot to include enter character)... I can't test the write up. Too bad, most of those challenges were really fun and they were mostly at a near-obtainable level for me! I can't recreate some of the challenges that I missed. *sigh* I guess it's the magic of hacking. I hope that hacking continues to have an exponential learning curve, it gives me something to shoot for.

Saint Saint , the challenges are taken down quickly because we have a quite limited budget and maintaining finicky services isn't exactly fun either ;).

If you missed a binary/script or need help recreating an environment feel free to shoot me an email and I'm more than happy to help!

Wow! Super thanks! Expect an email in 10 min.

Could you please give somewhere this short description of tasks which was displayed after SSH connection?

This one?: http://pastebin.com/FJynSphJ

Nice, mixed web challanges, required a lot of mixed knowledge. Good job. More web in next year please.

While I liked the challenges (they were challenging!), the support (when I asked a question, got an answer right away) and the infrastructure (files hosted on AWS, fast and reliable), not much good can be said about the interface for the CTF.
The connection timed out fairly quickly, so you had to paste the api key each time you wanted to check the scoreboard or send the flag.
The scoreboard only showed top 10 + your team's position (obviously it couldn't print all of it because it would be crazy long in a terminal, but that just puts the idea of ctf via ssh to question).
The challenge list was hard to read, the categories, points and solves were not aligned, why not have them as a markdown table? But at least the solved ones were green.
No feedback was given when sending the flag, you had to check the challenge list to see if it turned green, why not a simple Yup/Nope.
Not sure what was the exact issue, but I could not select text on the website, I had to go to source and select there. It might be my browser, but still...
This was our first BKP, so I'm not sure if it's always been like this, but even if you don't want to spend time developing a website, there are open source ctf frameworks (like the one Internetwache used recently, it was really nice), why not use those?

Might sound like a lot of negativity, but as I mentioned, the challenges were really good, and in the end that's what matters the most.

I'd be happy to help a little bit with some of your issues:
*) I agree that the interface wasn't super intuitive. Though I really like the SSH interface, there should have been a more-functional web interface to back it up.
*) I decreased my font-size and maximized my terminal before connecting via SSH. Their SSH interface used relative positioning. I bounced in my seat when I found that out.
*) I found the timeout for the API Key to also be annoying, but I was able to stay connected for >5 hours at a time. I got booted twice in the beginning, but it wasn't horrible after that.
*) The top 10 positions when you hit "S" can be scrolled. I was able to hold the "down" key to find my unfortunate attempt. I assume you tried holding "down", perhaps this is an issue with your terminal?
*) I agree: A mark down table would have been easy to implement and highly functional, though it would have been boring. I like the bygone callback to the olde skool. I feel that a functional website analog was a hilariously unexpected missing piece. It seems the CTFs with harder challenges often refuse a simple and elegant interface in favor of a wacky, but intriguing one( BKP, SSCTF, even the DefCon Prequals). I'm okay with that I guess. As long as it doesn't prevent legitimate teams from competing.
*) There was a simple "Yup/Nope" it was a "Solved by you: True/False". You can hit space on a challenge to see it. You can also look at the ASCII character directly under the challenge name on the map. Not sure what you mean by "the solved ones were green".
*) I didn't even try logging into the CTF site. Either I have an SSL spoof on my *entire* team(not impossible), no one has accepted the root CA that BKP went through, or there's something wrong with BKP's CA. Internetwache's website was boring but stable. BostonKeyParty needed something boring but stable to work with their awesome but really buggy SSH. That said, I really enjoyed the kicky SSH interface and I think that it set BKP apart. A nonbuggy interface is important, but I don't feel that it prevented teams from competing against each other.

Take my mild criticism with a grain of salt. I've only participated in 4 ctfs in my life. You're probably doing the right thing... Though I *have* read Hacking Exposed cover-to-cover back in 2003 and I have some magics worth between 6.2 and 8.7 on a CVE. I'm hilariously new to the TTP of a cookie-cutter hacker. I mean... I just heard about sqlmap last June. I feel like a shitty carpenter who spent his whole life happily using hand tools as the world band saws circles around him. I'm embarrassed with the speed it takes me to craft exploits, but I'm not ashamed of the results.

Saint, I was using the simpler game3@ctf.bostonkey.party server, I guess you used the flashy game@ctf.bostonkey.party, the servers (and website) are now down, so can't confirm your comments, but I trust what you're saying is true ;)

I only used the "flashy" version for a moment, but didn't like that i had to navigate the map to see the challenges, maybe there was a way to see a list, but you know how things are at the beginning of a CTF, heart racing, want to get started as soon as possible, so I went for the simpler one and stay with it.

Anyway, I'm not saying there *has* to be a website, but the simple ssh interface could have used some polishing.
Oh well, no big deal, I had fun, I was challenged, we got some points, all that matters :)

Great CTF. The interface was hard at first because of the load, but once load was gone it was great. I wish I had realized that game3@ was the same as the web interface (which went down a lot...I wouldn't recommend having it next time).

Challenges were hard but I expected that for a defcon CTF. They were also very interesting.

Support and IRC control was very good.

Overall, an excellent CTF.

Yep. I used the flashy version.

I completely understand the feeling at the beginning of a CTF. I call it "a happy panic" as "anxiousness" doesn't do it justice.

Good to hear you got points. I somehow came ridiculously close to several challenges without obtaining a single one. Here are my two closest screw ups:
1) Created a website with and "../../flag". Chased the "file://" scheme far too long... Don't really want to talk about it more... I feel foolish now...
2) Crafted a socket.send SQL inj "or 1=1" with \uBF5C and even \u005C".... got answer but didn't notice the result in my view. Even induced that the challenge needed me to SQL inject to get the first table result without looking at the code. Once I saw the code, I wrote a script to try all 256 combinations of \u??5C and \u??22(just for fun). I would try one every 30 seconds(10x slower than I type). So I wouldn't burden the server.

I think this challenge was a big double face palm for me. No real excuse for my failure. Four 3-hour attempts should have been enough to get a couple challenges. This last failure brings my average down to "top" 30%. It will take a while to get back to top 20%, but I'm not discouraged.

On a seemingly unrelated note, does anyone in the US have $75K they want to invest at 10% APR? I'm buying an income property for a hackerspace.