Tournaments for the Diplomacy board game have been conducted around the world for decades.
During the 1970s, there were very few Diplomacy tournaments outside North America. At that time, the winner of the tournament held at American DipCon was considered by the North American players as a world champion of Diplomacy.
The World Diplomacy Convention (WorldDipCon or WDC) was created in 1988 and the winner of the tournament held at this convention ("The World Diplomacy Championship") is acknowledged as the World Diplomacy Champion (also called the WDC Champion).
The location of each WDC, with the players taking the top three places in the tournament held there, are listed below:
Year | Host City | Host Country | World Champion | Second | Third |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | Birmingham | Great Britain | Phil Day | Matt MacVeigh | Jim Mills |
1990 | Chapel Hill | United States | Jason Bergmann | Jeff Bohner | Steve Cooley |
1992 | Canberra | Australia | Steve Gould | Eric Roche | Bruno-André Giraudon |
1994 | Birmingham | Great Britain | Pascal Montagna | Stéphane Gentric | Bruno-André Giraudon |
1995 | Paris | France | Bruno-André Giraudon | Antonio Ribeiro da Silva | Thomas Sebeyran |
1996 | Columbus | United States | Pitt Crandlemire | Leif Bergman | Björn von Knorring |
1997 | Gothenburg | Sweden | Cyrille Sevin | Roger Edblom | Borger Borgersen |
1998 | Chapel Hill | United States | Chris Martin | John Quarto-von-Tivadar | Mark Fassio |
1999 | Namur | Belgium | Christian Dreyer | Leif Bergman | Ivan Woodward |
2000 | Hunt Valley | United States | Simon Bouton | Brian Dennehy | Matthew Shields |
2001 | Paris | France | Cyrille Sevin | Brian Dennehy | Chetan Radia |
2002 | Canberra | Australia | Rob Stephenson | Grant Steel | Yann Clouet |
2003 | Denver | United States | Vincent Carry | Edward Hawthorne | Frank Johansen |
2004 | Birmingham | Great Britain | Yann Clouet | André Kooy | Cyrille Sevin |
2005 | Washington [1] | United States | Frank Johansen | Tom Kobrin | Edi Birsan |
2006 | Berlin | Germany | Nicolas Sahuguet | Cyrille Sevin | Yann Clouet |
2007 | Vancouver | Canada | Doug Moore | Jake Mannix | Mark Zoffel |
2008 | Lockenhaus | Austria | Julian Ziesing | Cyrille Sevin | Daniel Leinich |
2009 | Columbus | United States | Andrew Goff | Daniel Lester | Jim O'Kelley |
2010 | The Hague | Netherlands | Gwen Maggi | Igor Kurt | Xavier Blanchot |
2011 | Sydney | Australia | Andrew Goff | Grant Steel | Liam Cosgrave |
2012 | Chicago | United States | Michael A. Binder | Don Scheifler | Matt Shields |
2013 | Paris | France | Cyrille Sevin | Toby Harris | Gwen Maggi |
2014 | Chapel Hill | United States | Thomas Haver | Daniel Lester | Phil Weissert |
2015 | Milan | Italy | Toby Harris | Rubén Sanchez García Luengo de Madrid | Thomas Haver |
2016 | Chicago | United States | Chris Brand | Doug Moore | Andrew Goff |
2017 | Oxford | Great Britain | Doug Moore | Marvin Fried | Tanya Gill |
2018 | Washington | United States | Andrew Goff | Doug Moore | Adam Sigal |
2019 | Marseille | France | Gwen Maggi | Andrew Goff | Christophe Borgeat |
2020 and 2021 | Event not held | ||||
2022 | Dover | United States | Daniel Lester | Peter McNamara | Peter Yeargin |
2023 | Bangkok | Thailand | Jamal Blakkarly | Brandon Fogel | Chris Brand |
2024 | Varedo | Italy | Nicolas Sahuguet | Peter McNamara | Fabian Straub |
2025 | San Francisco | United States | |||
2026 | Athens | Greece |
The 2020 event was originally scheduled for Dover, USA, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the already-selected 2020 (Dover) and 2021 (Bangkok) events were pushed back two years.
Online play with real-time voice negotiations, known as virtual face-to-face, became widespread in 2020, leading to three major annual competitions with global participation.
The VDC is an open tournament held over a single weekend in December. Rounds are scheduled to be convenient to players around the world.
The VDL is an open league with monthly gamedays and rounds convenient to players around the world. The season culminates in a championship game held in January.
The DBNI is an invitational tournament held annually in February. Players earn invitations based on their performance at a wide variety of Diplomacy competitions over the previous year, including in-person face-to-face, virtual face-to-face, and extended deadline online play. The champion receives the title "DBN Diplomat of the Year".
Year | Diplomat of the Year | Runners-up |
---|---|---|
2021 | Peter McNamara | Matthew Crill |
2022 | Jason Mastbaum | Brandon Fogel |
2023 | Brandon Fogel | Chris Brand |
2024 | Peter McNamara | Johnny Gillam |
Created in 2015, the Online Diplomacy Championship occurs once every two years, rotating between a number of Diplomacy websites. The winner is considered to be the World Champion of Online Diplomacy, a format in which phases are processed once every one or two days, and all correspondence is sent in written form via the host site. Players in online tournaments typically play under pseudonyms, and accept the title under these names.
The players taking the top three places in each ODC tournament are listed below.
Year | Host Website | Online Champion | Second | Third |
---|---|---|---|---|
2015 | webDiplomacy | Octavious | VillageIdiot | Yonni |
2017 | PlayDiplomacy | Steve Cooley & Bravo Papa Alpha [2] | Machiara | |
2019 | webDiplomacy | Brumark | Teccles | Napoleon of Oz |
2022 | PlayDiplomacy | RedCandle | Pootleflump | Yonni |
The winner of the DipCon (Diplomacy Convention) tournament is the North American champion. The title of North American champion was not given at the beginning, but since 1972 has been awarded to each winner of the convention tournament. DipCon was created in 1966 and occurred each year (except in 1967 and 1968). There was no tournament in 1966, [3] 1969 [4] 1971, and 2020.
The winner of each DipCon North American Championship tournament:
Year | Host City | Host Country | North American Champion | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | Oklahoma City | United States | John Smythe | |
1972 | Chicago | United States | Richard Ackerlay | |
1973 | Chicago | United States | Conrad von Metzke and John Smythe tie | |
1974 | Chicago | United States | Mike Rocamora | |
1975 | Chicago | United States | Walter Blank and Bob Wartenberg tie | |
1976 | Baltimore | United States | Thomas Reape | |
1977 | Lake Geneva | United States | Mike Rocamora | |
1978 | Los Angeles | United States | David Lagerson | |
1979 | Chester | United States | Ben Zablocki | |
1980 | Rochester | United States | Carl Eichelberger | |
1981 | Burlingame | United States | Ron Brown | [5] |
1982 | Baltimore | United States | Konrad Baumeister | |
1983 | Detroit | United States | Joyce Singer | [6] |
1984 | Dallas | United States | Jeff Key | |
1985 | Seattle | United States | J.R. Baker | |
1986 | Fredericksburg | United States | Malcolm Smith | [7] |
1987 | Madison | United States | David Hood | |
1988 | San Antonio | United States | Dan Sellers | |
1989 | San Diego | United States | Edi Birsan | [8] |
1990 | Chapel Hill | United States | Jason Bergmann | [9] |
1991 | Scarborough | Canada | Gary Behnen | |
1992 | Lenexa | United States | Marc Peters | |
1993 | San Mateo | United States | Hohn Cho | |
1994 | Chapel Hill | United States | Bruce Reiff | |
1995 | Baltimore | United States | Sylvain Larose | |
1996 | Columbus | United States | Pitt Crandlemire | [9] |
1997 | Seattle | United States | Chris Mazza | |
1998 | Chapel Hill | United States | Chris Martin | [9] |
1999 | Columbus | United States | Chris Mazza | |
2000 | Hunt Valley | United States | Simon Bouton | [9] [10] |
2001 | Denver | United States | David Hood | |
2002 | Chapel Hill | United States | Morgan Gurley | |
2003 | Washington | United States | Edward Hawthorne | |
2004 | Portland | United States | Ken Lemere | |
2005 | At Sea | United States Mexico Belize | Rick Desper | [11] |
2006 | Charlottesville | United States | Hohn Cho | |
2007 | Vancouver | Canada | Doug Moore | [9] |
2008 | Tysons Corner [12] | United States | Chris Martin | [13] |
2009 | Columbus | United States | Andrew Goff | [9] [14] |
2010 | San Francisco | United States | Eric Mead | |
2011 | Fairlee, Vermont | United States | Chris Martin | |
2012 | Chicago | United States | Michael A. Binder | [9] |
2013 | Silver Spring | United States | Nate Cockerill | |
2014 | Seattle | United States | Dan Lester | [15] |
2015 | Philadelphia | United States | Chris Martin | |
2016 | Chicago | United States | Chris Brand | |
2017 | Killington, Vermont | United States | Doug Moore | |
2018 | Washington | United States | Andrew Goff | [16] |
2019 | Seattle | United States | Steve Cooley | |
2021 | Dover, Vermont | United States | Adam Silverman | [17] |
2022 | San Jose | United States | Tanya Gill | |
2023 | Chapel Hill | United States | Mikalis Kamaritis | [18] |
2024 | Surrey | Canada | Katie Gray | |
2025 | Chicago | United States |
The winner of each Grand Prix:
The location and winner of each EuroDipCon tournament is listed below:
Year | Host City | Host Country | European Champion | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1993 | Paris | France | Samy Malki | |
1994 | Linköping | Sweden | Xavier Blanchot | |
1995 | Cirencester | Great Britain | Inge Kjøl | |
1996 | Oslo | Norway | Inge Kjøl | |
1997 | Namur | Belgium | Cyrille Sevin | |
1998 | Bedford | Great Britain | Toby Harris | |
1999 | Turku | Finland | Simon Bouton | |
2000 | Paris | France | Leif Bergman | |
2001 | Dublin | Ireland | Paraic Reddington | |
2002 | Malmö | Sweden | Frank Johansen | |
2003 | Dogana | San Marino | Yann Clouet | |
2004 | Darmstadt | Germany | Edi Birsan | [19] |
2005 | Utrecht | Netherlands | Simon Bouton | |
2006 | Cheshunt | Great Britain | Benjamin Pouillès-Duplaix | |
2007 | Marseille | France | Fabien Grellier | |
2008 | Brunate | Italy | Luca Pazzaglia | |
2009 | Bonn | Germany | André Ilievics | |
2010 | Paris | France | Fabian Straub | |
2011 | Derby | Great Britain | Gwen Maggi | |
2012 | Serravalle | San Marino | Nicolas Sahuguet | |
2013 | Namur | Belgium | Gwen Maggi | |
2014 | Rome | Italy | Peter McNamara | [20] |
2015 | Leicester | Great Britain | Cyrille Sevin | |
2016 | Paris | France | Gwen Maggi | |
2017 | Milan | Italy | Gwen Maggi | |
2018 | Paris | France | Lei Saarlainen | |
2019 | Marseille | France | Gwen Maggi | |
2020 | Sion | Switzerland | Alex Lebedev | |
2021 | Serravalle | San Marino | Alex Lebedev | |
2022 | Sierre | Switzerland | Christophe Borgeat | |
2023 | Paris | France | Jelte Kuiper | |
2024 | Sion | Switzerland | Karthik Konath |
The winner of each Grand Prix is listed below:
In the early 1980s the Diplomacy scene in Australia was built around several PBM Diplomacy magazines, of which the most significant titles were Rumplestiltskin, The Go Between, Beowulf, Victoriana, The Journal of Australian Diplomacy, and The Envoy. Most of the tournament players were subscribers, players and editors of these magazines. The Envoy, which was published between 1986 and 1991, ran a series of articles which were both popular and influential. Purportedly written by Arthur von Bismark and styled as lecture transcripts, the character of Arthur von Bismark became celebrated among the contemporary Diplomacy subculture in Australia.
The articles were popular at a time when tournament play in Australia had become more organized, with well-attended tournaments in Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. Rating systems at the time were being hotly debated and many players desired a way to assess the best player in the tournament scene for a calendar year, as a way of overcoming the perceived inconsistencies of rating systems within one event. The annual trophy concept was accepted among the then-principle organizers of these tournaments and the title Arthur Bismark Cup was suggested by The Envoy's then-editor Mathew Gibson.
The real author of these Arthur von Bismark articles was never announced publicly, but was suspected as being either Harry Kolotas, Marion Ashworth, Neil Ashworth or Luke Clutterbuck.
When The National Tournaments Championship was created, its perpetual trophy was named The Arthur Bismark Cup (usually referred to as simply the Bismark Cup). The title of Bismark Cup Champion is awarded by the Diplomacy Association of Australia and New Zealand (DAANZ) for the best aggregate tournament results at Diplomacy tournaments held during the calendar year. It is an annual (short term) ranking. The exact number of points awarded depends on the size of the tournaments and the person's placing in that tournament.
The winner of each Bismark Cup is listed below:
As the Cup has not been awarded since that year, the 2016 winner Tim Jones is still considered the "current holder of the Bismark Cup". [21]
The Diplomacy World Cup is a team-based tournament in Online Diplomacy, a format in which phases are processed once every one or two days, and all correspondence is sent in written form via the host site. Players in online tournaments often play under pseudonyms, and accept the title under these names.
Two different tournaments, the Diplomacy National World Cup and the webDiplomacy World Cup, are grouped together in this category. The Diplomacy National World Cup only ran twice, once in 2007 and once in 2010. The webDiplomacy World Cup had its first iteration in 2010, and runs once every two years, with the exception of 2014 as the 2012 World Cup was still ongoing. WebDiplomacy World Cup teams are not country-specific, and can instead be from regions.
Edition | Members of the World champion team | Members of second team | Members of third team |
---|---|---|---|
2007 [22] | France Emmanuel du Pontavice Fabrice Essner Jean-Luc Granier Fabien Grellier Michel Lacroix Gwen Maggi Jean-Pierre Maulion Nicolas Sahuguet Rubén Sanchez García Luengo de Madrid Cyrille Sevin | Italy Enrico Agamennone Alessio Cei Giovanni Cesarini Davide Cleopadre Marco Noseda Pedraglio Luca Pazzaglia Roberto Perego Leonardo Quirini Andrea Ziffer | Argentina Leonardo Colangelo Pablo Echevarría Mike Goldfeld Martin Kaplan Marcelo Larroque Ismael Puga Felipe Sanchez Ariel Max Sanchez Romero |
2010 [22] | Ireland Mike Cosgrave Brian Dennehy Aidan Duggan Conor Kostick Cian O'Rathaille Nigel Phillips Rick Powell | United States Kevin Dietz Jim Green Melinda Holley Brian McCain Pete Marinaro Charles Mullin Kyra Olson Yashwant Parmar Eric Sorenson | France Frédéric Coste Fabrice Essner Gwen Maggi Jean-Pierre Maulion Jean-François Mougard Reynald Nicod Vincent Reulet Nicolas Sahuguet Rubén Sanchez García Luengo de Madrid Cyrille Sevin |
2010 [23] | South America Rubetok (Captain) Xapi JesusPetry rdrivera2005 | Southeast Europe hellalt (Captain) Kompole Dejan0707 Ouraguinus | Iberia JECE (Captain) Silver Wolf StevenC. Troodonte |
2012 [23] | California A The Hanged Man (Captain) uclabb (Assistant Captain) Tasnica Mujus | Iberia JECE (Captain) Troodonte (Assistant Captain) gantz MuadDib | The Balkans hellalt (Captain) Hellenic Riot (Assistant Captain) rokakoma Kompole |
2016 [23] | Cascadia ghug (Captain) VillageIdiot (Assistant Captain) MadMarx Balki Bartokomous thatwasawkward | Dixie Gen. Lee (Captain) ckroberts (Assistant Captain) eturnage The Czech DrCJG | Sweden Vixol (Captain) Seichuto (Assistant Captain) AronAmbrosiani SunRa |
2018 [23] | Cascadia Balki Bartokomous VillageIdiot ghug cspieker MadMarx | Greatest Lakes Tom Bombadil Durga Yigg Yoyoyozo peterwiggin jmo1121109 | California ezio micha slypups Ogion The Hanged Man |
2020 [23] | Yorkshire Puddings CaptainMeme (Captain) Brumark Scarabus desdemona22 teccles | Eastern Canada Hamilton Brian (Captain) cdngooner Yonni Peregrine Falcon Lando Calrissian | Prosecco gimix (Captain) Riccardo Falconi Babbo Natale Superwerty Randaz20 |
The current holder of the Bismark Cup (the 2016 winner) is Tim Jones.
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