History Main / CaptureTheFlag

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' didn't launch with one, but added "Capture the Rooster" as its featured mode for the Chinese New Year event in 2017 (which, despite the name, used the traditional flags). The reason it lacked one to begin with was because mobility based heroes would have been {{Game Breaker}}s, however the mode got around this by requiring a player to stay on the flag for a few seconds to capture it (giving the opposing team a chance to knock them off the point, instead of allowing Tracer or Genji to rush in and out with it).

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} didn't launch with one, but added "Capture the Rooster" as its featured mode for the Chinese New Year event in 2017 (which, despite the name, used the traditional flags). The reason it lacked one to begin with was because mobility based heroes would have been {{Game Breaker}}s, however the mode got around this by requiring a player to stay on the flag for a few seconds to capture it (giving the opposing team a chance to knock them off the point, instead of allowing Tracer or Genji to rush in and out with it).

The flag generally [[MacGuffin has no capabilities of its own]]; it's not a weapon and brings no particular advantages to the team that holds it. In fact, many games will restrict the movement of the flag carrier, make him highly visible, make him unable to use a weapon while holding the flag, and/or increase the damage he takes, to encourage pursuit and discourage "keep away" tactics in which the carrier simply hides with the flag in order to deny victory to the enemy. In some games, the latter is even considered a form of [[{{Griefer}} Griefing]].

* ''Literature/Divergent'': Yet another example of capture the flag being used as a military exercise.

[[folder: ProfessionalWrestling]]

* The kids at [[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians Camp Half-Blood]] play Capture the Flag, but with the addition of magic items (such as Annabeth's Yankee cap of invisibility) that they've received from their [[DivineParentage Greek god parents]].

* ''VideoGame/AtlasReactor'' has a variant called Extraction: Both teams are competing to capture a single, neutral 'flag' (a briefcase) and bring it back to their extraction zone to win. Each team's extraction zone spawns when that team reaches 10 points (holding the flag for one round is a point, and killing an opposing team's freelancer is two points) on the opposite side of the map of their current location, and the flag has its own health bar which, when depleted, causes the carrier to drop it in his/her current square, allowing the other team to pick it up.

* ''Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief'' actually provides a filmic example of the protagonist warriors engaging in a practice mode of this game at their home base.
* In ''Buck Privates'', with Abbott and Costello, they 'volunteer' for the army (the recruiting station was a theater, and they thought they could hide from the cops and watch a movie). Their unit is participates in a war game in which their side wins if they blow up a blockhouse. They win.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''SaluteYourShorts'' had a DayInTheLimelight episode centered around a Capture the Flag game with a rival camp, where the unathletic Donkeylips wanted to prove his mettle as a [[TheStrategist Strategist]].
* An episode of ''HeyDude'' had the ranch hands engage in a covert, late-night game of capture the flag where the object was to run the enemy team's flag up a flagpole. It ended in a draw when the team captains ran headlong into each other at the finish line, knocking themselves out, and a sleepwalking Mr. Earnest forced them to call things off.

* An episode of ''Manga/KeroroGunsou'' had the characters playing a capture-the-flag snowball fight with human flags (Momoka and Natsumi, respectively).

* ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}'', like most modern FPS games, features it as a multiplayer mode. Later games introduce an inversion in the Assault gametype (teams trying to deliver a bomb into the enemy base) and the option of a single flag that the teams take turns guarding and attacking.
** ''Halo's'' CTF mode[[note]]And ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'', made by the same company, although that game did it with skulls[[/note]] is special in that smacking someone with the flag is a OneHitKill. However, in the Creator/{{Bungie}}-made games you cannot use any other weapons (you hold the flag in your hands, after all), so this is your only means of attack. Aggressively using the flag as a serious weapon is ill-advised.

** In the Creator/ThreeFourThreeIndustries-made games, the Flag Carrier has access to an [[HandCannon M6H Magnum]] with infinite ammo. However, there's a slight accuracy penalty (considering you're firing it one-handed while carrying the flag in the other hand), and when carrying the flag you can't use any Armor/Spartan abilities (''especially'' including Sprint, for obvious reasons). Melee attacks with the flag are still one-hit kills, though. While in ''{{VideoGame/Halo 4}}'', the carrier could no longer voluntarily drop the flag so as to better defend themselves when attacked like they could in previous games, ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'' restored the ability to do so in response to fan outcry.

** Bungie's ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' (December, 1994) was planned to have this mode, but it was cut due to taking too much time. In Marathon 2, it's Capture the Skull.

** ''Halo's'' CTF mode[[note]]And ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'', made by the same company, although that game did it with skulls[[/note]] is special in that smacking someone with the flag is a OneHitKill. However, you cannot use any other weapons (you hold the flag in your hands, after all), so this is your only means of attack. Using the flag as a serious weapon is ill-advised.
** Starting with ''VideoGame/{{Halo4}}'', the Flag Carrier has access to an [[HandCannon M6G Magnum]] with infinite ammo. However, there's a slight accuracy penalty (considering you're firing it one-handed while carrying the flag in the other hand), and when carrying the flag you can't Sprint or use Armor Abilities. Also, if attacked you can no longer voluntarily drop the flag so as to better defend yourself like you could in previous games. Melee attacks with the flag are still one-hit kills, though.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'' starts one episode with the family playing a 3-on-3 game. [[ImpossibleThief Wadi]] is able to defeat the opposing team at least six times in a row. By herself. With a new time record every time.

* The Castle Wars game in ''{{RuneScape}}''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' has an odd take on the formula with Rainmaker. In this mode, the eponymous Rainmaker sits on the center of the stage as a single "flag", with the objective being to take hold of it and carry it to the enemy base. The Rainmaker gives its holder access to a slow but powerful ChargedAttack; however, it slows the holder down severely, constantly marks their location to opponents, and it self-destructs if they hold on to it for too long, doing it faster if they try to retreat. If no team manages to carry it all the way, then the team that made the most progress to the enemy base with it is the victor.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' has an odd take on the formula with Rainmaker. In this mode, the eponymous Rainmaker sits on the center of the stage as a single "flag", with the objective being to take hold of it and carry it to the enemy base. The Rainmaker gives its holder access to a slow but powerful ChargedAttack; however, it slows the holder down severely, constantly marks their location to opponents, and it self-destructs if they hold on to it for too long, doing it faster if they try to retreat. If no team manages to carry it all the way, then the team that made the most progess to the enemy base with it is the victor.

* The UrExample for video games was ''RiseOfTheTriad'' in 1995.
** Bungie's ''Marathon'' (December, 1994) was planned to have this mode, but it was cut due to taking too much time. In Marathon 2, it's Capture the Skull.

* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' has a few CTF battlegrounds.

* ''RedFaction'' Guerrilla also uses the one hit kill flag.

* ''{{S4 League}}'' has Touchdown mode, which is a variant of CTF designed to look more like soccer. There's only one flag (or "ball" as the game calls it, in keeping with the ball game theme), placed initially in the center, anyone can take it, and it has to be taken to the ''enemy''[='=]s goal rather than your own. Or in other words, very much like ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004''[='=]s Bombing Run mode, which in that game is considered distinct from normal CTF. Yeah.

* WiiWare FPS ''WaterWarfare'' has a "Capture the Treasure Chest" mode, with the provisos that you can't use items if you're carrying a chest, the chest slows you down, and you cannot capture the chest if the enemy has your chest.
* ''Day of Defeat'' games typically require the sides to capture territory, each territory having a white neutral flag which changes to the side holding that territory upon capture.

* ''{{xkcd}}''; [[http://xkcd.com/569/ "This is the worst Capture The Flag server ever!"]]

* Epic RealLife variant: [[http://www.cmukgb.org/activities/ctfws_rules_useful.php Capture the Flag with Stuff]].[[note]]Incidentally, the designer of the earliest version of this game was Andrew Plotkin, aka the well-regarded InteractiveFiction author Zarf.[[/note]]

* ''GangGarrison2'' , a {{Retreaux}} VideoGameDemake of the aforementioned ''Team Fortress 2'', also features Capture the Flag as its most popular game mode.

[[caption-width-right:350:And by flag we mean a glowing briefcase.]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' series has used this in every incarnation so far. Initially justified by the eponymous competition, but played differently in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournamentIII'', where a key element to the story is that the respawner technology from the tournaments has been brought to the battlefield, and resulted in battles which actually resemble tournament games - right down to capture the flag battles, where the flag is a "'''F'''ield '''La'''ttice '''G'''enerator", and capturing it three times takes the enemy unit's respawner offline.

* {{Atari 2600}} example from 1978: ''VideoGame/FlagCapture''.

* The Creator/AchievementHunter guys created a version in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' called Capture the Tower, played twice so far in their ''[[LetsPlay/AchievementHunterMinecraftSeries Let's Play Minecraft]]'' series. The two teams play on an arena, each holding two of the four pieces of the Tower of Pimps. First team to erect a complete tower at their base wins.

* ''TheSecretSaturdays'' starts one episode with the family playing a 3 on 3 game. [[ImpossibleThief Wadi]] is able to defeat the opposing team at least six times in a row. By herself. With a new time record every time.