In most sports, the highest form of competitive play is the International, (e.g. the Test Match or the World Cup), in which national teams compete to see which nation is the best in the world at their chosen sport. These events are often epic encounters which stir the best, and sometimes the worst emotions.
In Diplomacy there are tournaments, both face to face, and via the Internet in which players from many nations compete. There have been tournaments in which players are geographically chosen. However, there is no truly national team competition akin to a World Cup. There is no tournament in which, for example, France, England, America, Brazil, Sweden, Australia and Italy compete against each other for the honour of being called the best nation in the world.
The World Cup of soccer, rugby or cricket is played in the real world, but at great expense. The chief advantage of the Internet is that events can be staged at little or no expense, and can potentially involve large numbers of competitors from across the globe. Since Diplomacy is a game, some would argue a sport, which can easily be played over the Internet, it seems strange that no World Cup of Diplomacy has ever been attempted before.
At the end of 2005 a discussion started on DipWorld as to whether such a tournament was a good idea. Opinion was somewhat divided and the idea failed to catch on. This discussion was staged on a few other forums as well, with the general opinion seeming to be that such an idea was worthy but difficult, even foolhardy to achieve. Consequently the discussion was taken to a separate forum This forum met to discuss and amend the World Cup Charter For the better half of 2006 there was a heated debate on the many issues raised by this Charter such as how on earth to select a Team America, or how nationality might be determined, what scoring system would be best, and what interface would best suit a competition of this nature.
A call for bids was made in the end of 2007 and the bid from site www.stabbeurfou.org was selected, to host the first event (site was translated from French to English for the event) after several more discussions on how to set the event.
Edition one took place for September 2007 to May 2009. Round one had teams (finally ranked in this order) from France (3), Argentina, Russia, Australia (2), Italy, China, Germany (2), Romania, USA (6), Sweden, Canada, Turkey, Brazil, Austria, UK, Ireland, South Africa. Round two had the seven finalist ranked in this order : France, Italy, Argentina, Germany, Australia, China and Russia. Team France was led by Captain Gwenn Maggi.
If you would like to join in the fun and sign up for the Diplomacy World Cup Tournament, do the following :
1) Go on the site :
2)
Create an account (if not done already):
MENU Personal space /
Create my account
3) Identify yourself (e.g. log in):
Link
"Identification" on upper left had side corner
4)
Register yourself to the event "Diplomacy World Cup"
MENU
"Personal space" / "Handle my registration" / "My
affiliation to play in tournament"
then
CLICK ON BUTTON
"Put me in tournament" in Diplomacy World Cup line
=>
please enter some text (like the country you intend to play for –
your nationality, not the Diplomatic power)
5) To *read* the latest news from the DNWC preparation :
http://www.stabbeurfou.org/Tournoi.php?nom=Diplomacy_World_Cup
(pink window, upper right hand side)
6) To see the list of people registered on the site for the DNWC event :
http://www.stabbeurfou.org/AffiliesTournoi.php?nom=Diplomacy_World_Cup
7) You are also encouraged to join the Yahoo group which was created specifically for the Diplomacy
World Cup, which can be done at:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DiplomacyWorldCup/
N.B. Changes from previous competition are highlighted in red.
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OFFICIAL LANGUAGE |
English |
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OFFICIAL MAP |
Hasbro international |
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CONDITIONS ON PARTICIPANTS |
To be able to negotiate in English |
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PREREQUISITE NUMBER OF TEAMS OR INDIVIDUALS |
14 teams |
|
ROUNDS |
2 |
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LAST DIPLOMATIC YEAR PLAYED |
No game will go beyond the diplomatic year 1911. |
|
SCORING SYSTEM |
The scoring obeys the system “Detour' see below
|
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ADVANCEMENT |
The 7 best nations (not exactly teams) from round one will advance to round two |
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MEDIAN AND END SYNCHRONIZATION |
End only. |
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RESTRICTIONS ON CROSS GAMING |
|
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RIGHT TO BE IN MORE THAN ONE GAME |
No right |
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IDENTITIES OF PLAYERS IN GAMES |
Known |
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TIE BREAKERS FOR TEAM TITLE |
In the event of equality between teams, the following criteria is used:
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ROUND START |
Third Sunday of September 2010 |
Any disputes are handled by a council, sitting as a mailing list with members from all continents. Chairman of the council is Honourable Thorin Munro (Australia).
Each player will have to communicate his/her real identity (names and first names) in addition to one possible pseudonym. Volunteers for participation to the Diplomacy World Cup tournament will first register individually. The organizer will group the participants into lists according to nationality. Registration of completed team is encouraged, as long as all team members are from same country (and accept to be completed if necessary). When the deadline for registration approaches, lists may be disjoined by organizer or may be merged by organizer. When the deadline is reached, players within a same list will elect their captain. Lastly, the captain will organize the diplomacy countries allocation and register the whole team.
The “stabbeurfou” expression means “Mad Stabber”, the “stabbeur” word being a French (neologism) transcription of the English word. This site is bilingual English/French. Adjudicator is 100% bug free, documentation on the adjudication choices is described on site (referring to the DATC). All tournament may be supervised by a single or couple of individuals (Director and Assistant Director). Anonymous messages are possible on the site. Agreement for earlier adjudication, ending game and players awards are processed by interface (by votes). The negotiations are done using the interface of the site, allowing to know if sent messages have been read by destinee. Negotiations before retreats and adjustements are allowed. All events on site are subject to email notification to player.
First round will have all games and teams in same set of games (no sub rounds as in edition one). Players will be scattered as much as possible to avoid cross gaming. Big nations may come in with several teams, separated by region or whatever.
Second round will gather the seven best nations. If a nation had several teams on round one, only the best team will pass (and may take players from other teams of the nation – having to keep just one from original team). As in previous edition, a lot of cross gaming is to expect (in second round) !
All rounds are played from September to May following year
Deadline for moves : less than a week. Deadline for retreats/adjustements : about two days.
Grace period is 24 hours (orders missing are turned into "all hold" orders 24 hours after adjudication.
Players late too often are expelled from the game (red flag at start, then yellow, then orange, then red, then black !)
Captains may enter orders for players (meant to be exceptional, especially when player is late).
Penalty for being late is shared within the team (the penalty his higher chances of issuing "all hold" orders)
Temas are encourage to share tactical and strategical analysis of the games.
http://www.embassysa.co.za/worldcup/worldcup.php
http://www.stabbeurfou.org/docs/regles/en/DiplomacyNationalWorldCup2_en.html
Available on www.stabbeurfou.org site, MENU "Rules & regulations" / "The rules" and "Rules & regulations" / "The regulations"
Round one :
http://www.stabbeurfou.org/docs/articles/en/dnwc_round1_report.html
Round two (final)
http://www.stabbeurfou.org/docs/articles/en/dnwc_final_report.html
For an outright victory (i.e. 18 centres or more):
O 110 points for the winner,
O 0 point for the others,
For a different ending:
O 2 points each surviving player,
O 1 point for each owned centre,
O 4 points for the first player; 3 for the second; 2 for the third; 1 for the fourth (in case of tie points are allocated as the lowest position (2nd and 3rd tied both get 2 points but a twice tied fourth place or a three time tied third place yield no point))
O the leader gets as a bonus the difference of his number of centres with the second (only if alone),
O all points are standardized so that the total of all scores is 100 (all divided by total and multiplied by 100)
O after this, eliminated players get 0.25 points per year survived but no more than 2 points (an elimination at the end of diplomatic year 1902 yields 0.25 points and so on).