General Rules
All scenarios (with the sponsor and participant consent) are videoed and recorded to assist with after-action reviews. After-action reviews will focus on how well the team functioned, and ways that use of personnel might have been improved. A bomb technician facilitator will be present during all procedures where devices are being examined or worked on, and act as a technical advisor when required. The lead facilitator will work with the “Command Cell” as a staff advisor and technical expert to ensure that during more difficult scenarios, guidance provided to the team downrange is rational, in keeping with standard bomb disposal practices, and safe.
All team members will, unless they opt out, have an opportunity to work on boobytraps and devices. All boobytraps and devices are inert, meaning that no explosive or hazardous components are used, but will have light or sound “penalties” to let participants know if an incorrect action was taken on an item, or that, in the case of timed devices, that time has expired.
Silent Escape: The Evacuation Challenge
Stealth. Strategy. Survival.
Your building has gone eerily quiet.
Hours ago, chaos erupted as armed intruders stormed the facility. Alarms blared. Emergency protocols triggered. Then silence. No more gunfire. No footsteps. Just tension in the air and the knowledge that the exits have likely been boobytrapped.
Your team, tucked away in a secure office deep within the building, remained undetected. You’ve been monitoring the situation as best you can, but communications are down, and the power is intermittent. Now, it’s decision time: sit and wait, or move and act.
You choose to act.
Around you: a scattered collection of hand tools, stray wire, duct tape, a utility knife, zip ties, and other improvised materials. No weapons. No radios. Just your team—and a shared determination to get out alive and clear a safe path for others.
Your mission:
- Move silently through the building without drawing attention
- Identify, assess, and neutralize improvised traps and tripwires set along stairwells, corridors, and exits
- Use improvised tools creatively to solve problems and bypass obstacles
- Mark a cleared path to aid tactical teams and first responders following behind you
Success will require:
- Strategic planning and silent teamwork
- Strong leadership and adaptive problem-solving
- Mutual trust and deliberate, calculated movement under pressure
This is not a race, it’s a covert escape, and every step must be earned. Miscommunication, hesitation, or poor planning could cost your team valuable time, or worse.
The mission: Escape undetected. Clear the path.
The clock is ticking, and no one else is coming to save you.
Executive Decision: Hostage Vest Challenge
Critical Thinking Under Pressure
Your team receives an urgent call to report outside the executive office suite. Security briefs you in hushed tones: the CEO has been found unconscious and duct-taped to a chair in their office, wearing what appears to be a suicide vest rigged with explosives.
Surveillance footage confirms the horrifying truth: earlier this morning, a disgruntled former employee entered the building under false pretenses. At gunpoint, they forced the CEO to don the vest, armed the device, sedated him, and vanished. The perpetrator remains at large. The CEO is still unconscious. And the timer on the vest is counting down.
Worse yet, analysis suggests the device may have secondary triggers like motion sensors, light-sensitive relays, or tamper switches. One wrong move could endanger everyone in the room.
Your team is now activated as an Emergency Technical Response Unit. Your objectives:
- Conduct a thorough visual and diagnostic assessment of the device
- Identify and disable all possible triggers using limited tools and time
- Coordinate remotely with a command support team using video and audio link
- Safely release the CEO before time runs out
To succeed, your team must rely on:
- Clear, high-stakes communication
- Collaborative analysis and rapid decision-making
- Calm execution under pressure
This scenario will challenge your ability to work as a unit when every second—and every decision—matters.
The CEO’s life is in your hands.
The countdown has already begun.
What will your team do next?
The Office Party Bitcoin Bomb Threat
Time Remaining: 1:41
Your company’s annual holiday party has taken an unexpected turn.
Just as the festivities hit their peak, Security discreetly pulls your team aside. A large, unmarked box has been discovered near the buffet line, with wires spilling out of its sides, a digital countdown timer flashing red, and a note taped to the top with a chilling demand:
“Transfer $20,000,000 in bitcoin within 2 hours or the building will be destroyed.”
As security quietly begins evacuating the room, two additional identical devices are found in separate locations across the event space. All three are synchronized. All are suspected to be live. The original two-hour countdown has already ticked down. You now have 1 hour and 41 minutes.
Your group will be divided into specialized two-person Bomb Tech Teams. Each team is responsible for:
- X-raying one of the devices to reveal its internal configuration and potential anti-tamper traps
- Sharing critical findings in real-time with other teams to identify patterns, common threats, and possible weak points
- Coordinating a unified strategy for safely disarming all devices, either together, or not at all
This challenge is not about who works the fastest, it’s about who works the smartest. Success demands:
- Clear communication
- Collaborative problem-solving
- Calm decision-making under pressure
This is your opportunity to show what your team is made of. When the stakes feel real, the clock is ticking, and everyone’s counting on you.
Will your team rise to the challenge, or will the holidays go out with a bang?
Unattended Threat: The Van Recon Challenge
Observation. Action. Precision.
It started as a routine day, until a report came in from Security: A small cargo van has been parked just outside the building’s main entrance for over an hour. Hazard lights blinking. Engine cold. No driver in sight.
When a security officer went to investigate, they noticed something disturbing:
- A strong chemical odor coming from inside the van
- A metal box behind the front passenger seat of the vehicle with visible toggle switches, a blinking timer, and wires disappearing into the box
- All attempts to identify the vehicle’s owner have failed
The building has been partially evacuated, and your Emergency Response Team has been activated.
Your mission:
- Approach and assess the vehicle safely, identifying hazards and possible points of entry
- Gain access to the van interior without triggering any potential devices or tamper traps
- Inspect, analyze, and x-ray the metal box and any suspicious cargo in the rear compartment
- If an IED is confirmed, develop a neutralization strategy based on available information and tools
- Coordinate decisions and communicate findings with your command element
This challenge is about:
- Smart risk management and attention to detail
- Effective division of roles (e.g., HQ Staff, Team Leader, Recon Team, Tech Specialist, Communications)
- Creative problem-solving under uncertain and evolving conditions
- Crisis communication and rapid consensus-building
This is a realistic, high-stakes simulation designed to test how well your team operates when decisions must be made quickly, confidently, and collaboratively.
The van isn’t going anywhere. But the clock just started ticking.
