If you’ve read my stuff and followed me long enough, you’d know I’ve spent years in this industry listening to CISOs and cybersecurity leaders. REALLY listening.
And the thing I have heard underneath every research interview, every podcast conversation, every dinner, is this:
“I love this community. I am exhausted by it. And I have nowhere to put any of this.”
The average CISO lasts 26 months in the role.
The weight is unsustainable and the support is almost nonexistent.
The industry that needs them most has built an entire economy around selling to them and almost nothing around taking care of them.
This kept brewing within me.
And it was also stirring within my co-founder, Cecil Pineda (a lot of you know him as Cecil the CISO and co-founder of CISO XC), who has 34 years in the cybersecurity space and has watched peers burn out, get blamed for things outside their control, and disappear after tenures that should have been celebrated.
After years of working alongside this community, watching the people who defend the world give everything and receive so little in return, it was the first (second, actually) idea Cecil and I had come up with that matched the size of what we both felt needed to exist.
Something meaningful.
Something built for the people, not around them.
Something that would still matter in ten years.
A program that would champion the people who have earned the right to feel like they won something and who desperately need a place to channel everything the job puts into them.
Eight teams. Five athletes each. One full tournament day.
Real physical and mental challenges designed so the marathon runner and the person who just walks their dog every morning both have a role.
A seeded bracket.
And a medal ceremony at the end where someone wins and a charity check goes out in their name.
It is not a conference.
It is not a panel.
It is not a networking event with a shallow keynote you’ll forget by Tuesday.
It is the first radically human program this industry has seen that says your health matters. Your joy matters. The person behind the title matters.
Season 1 launches in Vegas this summer, literally right before Black Hat USA.
We are hosting the first CISO Games Huddle - a happy hour for the people who are going to help make this real.
The 15 seed athletes who have already been recruited.
The Charter Partners who want to be first in.
And anyone in the security community who has looked at what we’re building and felt something they haven’t felt about an industry event in a long time.
We are keeping it small. And we want you there.
It is part celebration, part preview, and part collaboration.
We will share the full vision for CISO Games - the format, the games, the bracket, the medal ceremony, the charity component, and what it actually feels like to be part of a tournament designed specifically for this community.
We will introduce the athletes who have already committed.
We will recognize the Charter Partners who are stepping up to make it happen.
And then we are going to ask the room a question we genuinely don’t know the answer to yet - because we want the people in this community to help us design part of CISO Games themselves.
Because we are firm believers that The Games should built by the community and driven by competition.
Space is limited and by invitation only.
If you want to sponsor The CISO Games Huddle and become a Charter Partner:
Charter Partners are the founding sponsors who make Season 1 happen.
This is a category-exclusive relationship - one sponsor per team - where your people and your brand are woven into the experience itself.
When you become a Charter Partner, you sponsor a team. Your name is on their jersey. Your team competes. You’re in the huddle, on the floor, and in the medal ceremony footage.
You get direct access to and relationships with the security leaders on your team - not a 10-minute “shark tank” speed-round, but a shared athletic experience that creates the kind of relationship that no booth or dinner ever has.
Charter Partners also lock in the lowest rate we will ever offer.
These spots are category-exclusive and limited.
When they’re gone, they’re gone.
If you are a cybersecurity vendor who is done with the same conference circuit and actually wants to be remembered by the buyers you need - this is your moment.
A full day of physical competition designed for every fitness level - not just the athletes in the room
Movement that breaks the cycle of ten-hour sedentary workdays and chronic desk stress
A structured physical outlet for the cortisol and tension that accumulates in a high-stakes role
Optional pre-season training community to prepare alongside other athletes in your city
Mental challenges embedded inside every physical game - strategy, sequencing, memory, and decision-making
A complete context switch from the threat landscape you live in every day
The psychological reset that only comes from playfully competing for something that has nothing to do with incident response
A day where your brain is fully present because the stakes are real and the outcome is earned
The experience of being celebrated - loudly, publicly, and without an agenda - for who you are, not what you protect
A medal ceremony that honors every person on the floor, winner or not
A charity donation made in your name, to a cause you chose, in front of a crowd that watched you earn it
The specific feeling of being part of a team that chose you, competed with you, and stood next to you at the end of the day
A team of peers who become something more than contacts - because you went through something real together
Access to a network of CISO Games athletes across every season, every city, and every tournament
A permanent place in the CISO Games alumni community - a record that you showed up and competed
Hall of Fame eligibility for champions and standout competitors across multiple seasons
A competition jersey with your name on the back - yours to keep permanently and wear whenever you want
Custom engraved Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal with your season and year marked
Your full tournament footage - every match, every reaction, every medal moment - delivered within 10 business days
A Hall of Fame induction if you compete across multiple seasons and leave your mark on the community
A charity donation in your team’s name if you win Gold - doubled live on stage by the Charity Match Sponsor
A contribution to the season-long charity total announced publicly after the Q4 Championship regardless of result
The knowledge that your participation put real money into real causes, chosen by the people who competed for them
CISO Games launches in Las Vegas, August 1st, 2026 .
Become an official sponsor here.
CISO or Security Leader? Join a team here.
See you on the field,
Dani
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