Tournaments for the Diplomacy board game have been conducted around the world for decades.
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WorldDipCon
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 WorldDipCon (World Diplomacy Convention) was created in 1988 and the winner of the tournament held at this convention becomes the world champion of Diplomacy.
The players taking the top three places in each WorldDipCon tournament are listed below:
DipCon
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, 1969 and 1971.
The winner of each DipCon North American Championship tournament:
North American Grand Prix
The winner of each Grand Prix:
EuroDipCon
The winner of each EuroDipCon tournament:
European Grand Prix
The winner of each Grand Prix:
Bismark Cup
The National Tournaments Championship – comprising the perpetual trophy known as the Bismark Cup – is awarded 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 depends on the size of the tournament and the person's placing in that tournament.
The winner of each Bismark Cup:
Origins of the Bismark Cup
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.
Diplomacy National World Cup
More prestigious web tournament. The third edition begins in 2013.