THE THIRD DIPLOMACY WORLD CUP

by Chris Babcock


Registration for the third DWC is still open.

The DWC is the world's premier team Diplomacy tournament. As we enter the fall season, more teams can join and all teams need more players. If you haven't registered yet for this cutthroat win-only scoring system, this is what you are missing…

  • Twelve of the first seventeen qualifying games completed ended in solos.
  • Over 70% of the qualifying games completed as of August first have ended in solos.
  • The solo percentage estimated for the qualifying round was 35%. The actual solo percentage has been over twice that.
  • Did we mention that there have been a lot of solos?

Action in the qualifying rounds has been fast and furious as players from 37 teams struggle to gain representation in the finals.

Meta-gaming, which was always a feature of the World Cup, has been as expected for the qualifiers. The finals, however, are expected to see greatly reduced meta-gaming due to the supreme importance of the solo in the victory condition of the tournament, since wins for your opponents are as much a setback for you as a gain for them. (See �The Diplomacy World Cup: Do You Have What It Takes?� in the W2012A issue of the Pouch.)

The field right now consists of approximately 230 players representing 33 national teams (including Team US and Team Scotland) and four regional teams within the USA. Anyone can join as a member of the team of the nation in which the currently reside by going to http://aqmn.asciiking.com and following the instructions at the top of the page under �Do this first�. Contact the tournament director at [email protected] for information on forming new teams or joining as a member of Team Scotland or one of the US regional teams.

We are almost halfway to our goal of 500 players and we are barely into the second round of play. There is a special need for new US regional teams and players from outside the US. While a team with 7 or more players is more likely to be competitive, it takes just one player to form a national team and 3 players to start a regional team, so there's no excuse to miss out on the fun. Register at http://aqmn.asciiking.com today.

Here's how you do it:



Chris Babcock
([email protected])

If you wish to e-mail feedback on this article to the author, and clicking on the envelope above does not work for you, feel free to use the "Dear DP..." mail interface.