I. Tournament Format
1. Overview: The DipWorld 2002 tournament features two aspects of play: team and individual. The first round of games played is designated as the "Team Round", and teams of seven or more players vie with one another to produce the best aggregate (team) score. Following the Team Round, the highest scoring individuals will advance to the "Final Round", and play for the individual championship.
Negotiations will generally be carried out through E-mail or other electronic forms of communication. Spring and fall movements will be approximately one week apart, unless other arrangements have been made between the GM and players of a specific game.
2. Eligibility: This tournament is open to all members in good standing of Yahoo! Clubs DipWorld. To join DipWorld, one must establish a Yahoo! ID and join the DipWorld main clubhouse at http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/DipWorld.
3. Rules: These tournament rules supersede any DipWorld House Rules, GM-applied rules. They will also supersede the official Hasbro rules of Diplomacy wherever there is a conflict.
4. Scoring
The scores for individual players will be calculated following each fall season for each game. The scoring system will be the "standard" DipWorld system, which ranks players within a game based on supply center counts, and distributes points according to this ranking. The actual algorithm is nontrivial to explain in a paragraph, and is available upon request of the Tournament Director.
In essence, the score for a user is the count of supply centers plus the number of submitted movement orders in the game and a "bonus", less points for each NMR. For the top few players on the board, the bonus will heavily outweigh the movement and SC figures. A solo win will earn about 130 points for a player. A player tied for second place in a draw will generally earn about 43 points. Players that are eliminated, victims of a solo, or finish near the bottom of a large draw will often earn less than 15 points.
In summary, strive for more SCs than your competitors at the end of the game to maximize your individual score.
5. Tournament Officers
The Tournament Director ("TD") has overall responsibility for the administration and operation of the tournament. GMs will work closely with the TD to provide consistent policies and timely adjudications. The TD will provide periodic interim results and current scores as the tournament progresses.
The Tournament Ombudsman ("TO") is responsible for timely resolution of questions or disputes during the tournament. Under some circumstances, the TO may choose to defer resolution of a dispute to the DipWorld War Council ("WC"). The Tournament Ombudsman and the Dip World War Council are responsible for ensuring the integrity of all games.
For the 2002 Tournament, Barry "bajchi"
Johnson is the Tournament Director (TD) and Peter "pjrich_uk"
6. Official Publications: The Tournament "headquarters" will be located at the main DipWorld clubhouse, http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/DipWorld. All official tournament-wide communications will be published at this site.
Each of the tournament games will be assigned to a separate Yahoo! Clubs clubhouse. All official game-related communications will be published at these sites.
II. The Team (First) Round
1. Team Structure: Teams are composed of seven to nine individuals. Seven of the team members must be designated as "players". The team must also designate a "captain" and a "GM".
2. Player Responsibilities: Each of the players will participate in one game during the first round of the tournament. Each player will control a different power, and no two team members will play in the same Team Round game.
3. Player Substitution: During the tournament, the team captain or his designate may submit orders on behalf of a teammate under one or more of the following circumstances:
a) The player informs the GM in advance that a teammate will be substituting for him for a specified period of time;
b) The player has resigned or abandoned his position;
c) The player is disqualified from the tournament;
d) The Tournament Ombudsman specifically approves such a submission for a reason not considered in these rules.
The team captain or his designate may also submit "preliminary" orders to a GM to avoid an "NMR". If the player also submits orders before the season is adjudicated, the player's orders will always override the team-supplied orders.
4. Team Advice: Team members are encouraged to monitor the games of their teammates and to suggest such approaches or strategies that they think would be advantageous. A player is not obligated to follow the advice of his teammates or captain.
5. Player Replacement: The team captain may provide a substitute, subject to the approval of the Tournament Director, for a player that has resigned or abandoned a position. The captain should make a concerted effort to locate a substitute that is not involved in any other game within the tournament. The Tournament Director will reject a proposed substitution if, in his sole opinion, there could be a "conflict of interest" caused by the substitution.
A player will be considered to have abandoned his position after two successive (or four total) failures to submit a set of movement orders before the adjudication. For the purposes of this paragraph, a set of orders is considered to have been submitted only when it has been received by the GM at his designated email address.
A player that has abandoned his position may only return to the game with the permission of his team captain and the tournament director.
5. Captain Replacement: In the event that a captain resigns, abandons a playing position, or is disqualified from the tournament, the remaining team members are responsible for designating a new captain in a timely fashion.
6. GM Replacement: In the event that a GM resigns, is disqualified from the tournament, or fails to adjudicate his game in a timely manner, the captain is responsible for designating a new GM. The new GM may not manage a game in which he is currently playing.
7. Team Round Length: Games in the team round will end after the first occurrence of one of these events:
a) The GM declaration of a solo victory or a draw,
b) at the conclusion of the Fall 1909 Season (after supply centers have changed ownership, if necessary), or
c) at the conclusion of the first Fall Season adjudicated on or
after
8. Cross-Gaming Permitted With Limits: During the Team Round, it is recognized that there will be a certain amount of cross-gaming and inter-team bargains, which might in the normal way conflict with item I.2 and I.3 the Club Code of Ethics. This type of cross-gaming is allowed provided that:
a) A GM does not cross-game within the game he is managing,
b) It does not involve any games outside of Round 1 of the Tournament,
c) It ends when Round 1 of the Tournament ends.
9. Team Scoring and Champions: The score of a team is the summation of the Team Round score of the individual players on that team. At the conclusion of the Team Round, the team with the highest team score will be considered the Tournament Team Champions and accorded appropriate honor.
If two or more teams are tied for the highest score, then the championship will be allocated according to the following tie-breakers:
a) Highest total SC count at the end of the respective games;
b) Fewest NMRs by team members;
c) Coin Toss (or other random determination) by the Tournament Director.
10. Aliases: Aliases are discouraged for tournament play.
If a player wishes to play in the
tournament under an alias, he must make it known to the Tournament Director.
III. The Individual Finals
1. The fourteen players with the highest individual scores from the first round will be eligible to enter the final round. This will comprise a top table and a second table. The overall tournament winner will come from the top table, which will comprise the top seven players from the first round. Should the score seventh-place player or fourteenth-place plater be tied with any other player's score, the following tie-breakers will be used:
a) Highest SC count
b) Fewest NMRs
c) Differential of each player's score over the average for the same power
d) Coin toss.
2. The Tournament Director will solicit replacements from the remaining tournament players in descending order of their score, if any of the qualifying players decline to enter the round.
3. These players will be assigned countries based on their preferences using standard preference list adjudication rules.
4. The Final Round is expected to begin during the first week in September, and will end when an outright solo victory is achieved or when a draw is declared.
5. At the conclusion of the game, the highest scoring player will be declared the 2002 DipWorld Individual Champion and accorded appropriate honors.
6. Should the game conclude with two or more players tied for the highest score, the following tie-breakers will be used:
a) Highest SC count
b) Round 1 individual score
c) Fewest NMRs in Round 2
d) Fewest NMRs in Round 1
e) Differential of each player's score over the average for the same power in Round 2
f) Differential of each player's score over the average for the same power in Rounds 1 & 2
g) Club Rating
IV. Rulebook and Code of Ethics.
1. Rulebook: With the exception of the items listed in section V of these Tournament Rules, the 2000 Diplomacy rules as published by Hasbro and published at http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy.PDF will be used.
2. Code of Ethics: All players and GMs are expected to adhere to the DipWorld Code of Ethics. Failure to do so may result in expulsion from the tournament and the club.
3. Cheating: Cheating, to include forged email to the GM, hacking into someone's email/Yahoo account, playing more than one power, including GM, in the same game, GM-related offenses (i.e. revealing orders to other club members), and certain types of cross-gaming (such as allowing one player to win one game in exchange for him helping you win a second game) will result in all offending players involved being permanently deleted from this club. Note: You must also comply with Yahoo! Terms of Service to remain an eligible club member.
4. Player's Obligations: Players will provide the GM with clear, concise, and unambiguous orders. Email subject line should contain the game identifier, season, year, and power. Players should retain a copy of all orders sent in case there is problems with email between the player and GM. Any press submitted will not be overly personal, derogatory, or in any way slanderous towards other players, GMs or members of the club, or to other diplomacy clubs or players. Players are also obligated to comply with the DW Code of Ethics.
5. Gamemaster's Obligations: The GM shall provide accurate season adjudication within reasonable time to the players, and should assure the accuracy of all posted game maps. The GM shall try to send reminder messages to all players roughly 24 hours before the deadline. GMs should ensure that they are aware of any technical problems within their own mail systems, or a player's email system, that could cause players orders to be delayed beyond the deadline. Any orders that have been timestamped before the deadline should be accepted.
V. Order Writing.
1. Movement Orders: A unit ordered to move will not be allowed to receive support to hold, irrespective of whether the unit is able to move in the manner stated. For example an army in Rome ordered to move to Vienna, or Fleet Barents Sea ordered to move to Tahiti, will not be permitted to receive support to hold. A misorder not implying movement, for example, Army Rome Eats Pasta or Fleet Barents Sea Goes Fishing, will be adjudicated as an order to hold. If an order set has been submitted, an unordered unit or units will be considered to have been ordered to hold, and may receive support to hold.
2. Convoy Orders: The newest Hasbro rules (http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy.PDF) have language that addresses how an army moves if it has both overland and convoy routes to the same destination. Specifically, the rules now say:
"If at least one of the convoying fleets belongs to the player who controls the army, then the convoy route will be used, [and] the land route will be discarded. If none of the convoying fleets belongs to the player who controls the army, then the land route is used. However, the player controlling the army can use the convoy if he/she indicated "via convoy" on the Army move in question."
"This prevents foreign powers from kidnapping an army and convoying it against its will."
3. Support Orders: Coastline indicators ("Spain North Coast", "BUL/EC", "STP(sc)") are neither significant nor required on support orders. The orders "F Marseilles Support Mid-Atlantic to Spain; F Mid-Atlantic to Spain North Coast" are legal and valid. In the orders "A GAS S MAO to SPA SC; F MAO to SPA NC", the coastal designation on the support order is extraneous information to be ignored by the GM, so the support order is valid.
4. Abbreviations: Please note that the Hasbro rules (http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy.PDF) now include a commonly accepted list of abbreviations. To quote from those rules, "You may devise your own abbreviations, but remember that abbreviations subject to different interpretations may result in the failure of an order."
5. Multiple sets of orders: The last set of orders submitted before the adjudication takes place will be used. In the event a partial set of revised orders is submitted, previous order sets will be disregarded when a revised order set comes in. The GM shall not look to an earlier order set to fill in missing orders in a revised order set.
6. Multiple Orders for Units: In the event that a unit is ordered twice within the same set of orders, the last order reading from top to bottom of the order set will be used.
7. Omitted Designations: An omitted or inaccurate designation of the type of a unit (A or F) will not invalidate the order unless there is another order with the correct designation of the unit in the same order set.
8. Nationality of Units: An omitted or inaccurate designation of the nationality of a supported foreign unit will not invalidate the order unless there is another order with the correct designation of the unit in the same order set.
9. Excess Builds or Disbands: If a player attempts to build or disband more units than the position would allow, the builds or disbands will be followed in order, from bottom to top of the order set until the necessary number of builds or disbands are reached.
10. Multiple Builds in a Center: If a player attempts to build two different units in the same supply center, the first build order, reading from bottom to top of the order set will be followed.
11. Contingent Retreat or Adjustment Orders: Retreat or adjustment turns shall be separate from movement turns. Contingent retreat or adjustment orders are not required, and negotiations are allowed prior to a retreat or adjustment turn. Players are strongly encouraged, however, to submit contingent retreat, build or disband orders, when the situation of the game permits, as this will help speed the pace of the game and reduce the likelihood of NMRs occurring.
VI. Submission and Acknowledgement of Orders.
1. Final Orders: All orders will be considered Preliminary unless marked "Final".
2. Order Submission: The GM will clearly publish the methods by which orders will be accepted. At a minimum, this will include email to a single, private address. The GM is encouraged (but not required) to also accept orders through alternative addresses or techniques such as Yahoo! Messenger.
3. Receipt Acknowledgement: The GM is *strongly* encouraged to acknowledge receipt of all orders and other communications in a timely manner. If the GM has any constraints on when (s)he will be able to acknowledge orders (for example, "only during the working day"), then players should be informed of those constraints. Should a player fail to receive an acknowledgment from the GM, the player should consider the orders to be *not* received, and take appropriate action.
VII. Deadlines.
It is the responsibility of each player to make sure that a set of orders is submitted as required before each turn. Individual and/or broadcast reminders may be given, but the lack of a reminder will not serve to excuse failure to submit orders.
1. Publication of Deadline: The deadline for the following season will be published by the GM with each set of results posted. If it is necessary for the deadline to be delayed, the revised deadline must be posted in a separate message within the Yahoo! club, with a subject that clearly indicates that the deadline is being changed. GMs are strongly encouraged (but not required) to publish the upcoming deadline as a "Founder's Message" and to record deadlines on the Yahoo! club's calendar.
2. Deadline Adjustments: A previously published deadline may never be moved to an earlier date or time without the explicit consent of all surviving players. As discussed in section V, deadlines may be extended to later dates for a number of reasons.
3. Timing of Adjudication: Adjudication of a turn may take place early if all players have submitted final orders.
4. Orders After Deadline: Orders will be accepted until the start of adjudication.
5. Deadline Definition: All deadlines are considered to be for the receipt of orders by the GM, not the deadline for submission of orders by the players. Orders that arrive after a deadline because of email transmission problems and other related problems will not be accepted by the GM.
VIII. Length of Turns and Delay Requests.
1. Turns: At least 4 days will normally be allowed for each movement turn. At least 1 day will be allowed for each retreat or adjustment turn. The GM may speed up or slow down the timing depending on the perceived complexity (to the GM) of the game situation, or speed up the timing as players are eliminated, but will adhere to the original schedule if a faster pace is a hardship to any player.
2. Delay Requests: Requests for delay received before the deadline will generally be granted. The GM reserves the right, after a warning is given, not to grant further delay requests if the play, in the sole opinion of the GM is being unduly or excessively disrupted. The GM may replace any player whose extended absence, in the sole opinion of the GM, would unduly or excessively disrupt the flow of the game.
IX. NMRs.
1. No Movement Orders Received (NMR): The GM will adjudicate with orders missing from one or more powers, but will grant a one time grace period of 48 hours to each player to attempt to prevent what would otherwise be the first NMR for that particular player. The grace period shall begin at the deadline for submission of the relevant order set. The GM may, but is not required, to notify the non-submitting player that the grace period is in effect, and the GM shall not inform the other players as to the reason for any delay in adjudication. Players failing to submit orders must contact the GM within 48 hours, or the GM will arrange for a replacement. The GM will normally attempt to contact the NMRing player publicly and privately before arranging for a replacement, however, the GM, in the sole discretion of the GM, reserves the right to immediately replace an NMRing player after one or more NMRs.
2. Automatic Replacement: If a player fails to submit movement orders twice in a row, or 4 times in one game, without good cause (in the opinion of the GM), the game will be put on hold until a replacement is found.
3. Civil Disorder Disbands: When a removing player fails to order
sufficient removals, the GM removes further units to meet the required
number. He removes first the units that
stand most distant from home. To measure
the distance from home, an army counts the smallest number of moves it would
have to make to reach a home center in its own
country, if it were the only unit on the board and if it had the fictional
ability to enter both bodies of water and land provinces (but not Switzerland);
a Russian army in Constantinople, for example, would stand two spaces distant
from home. A fleet measures the distance
from home a little differently: it counts the smallest number of legal
fleet-moves it would have to make to reach a home center
in its own country, if it were the only unit on the board, but with no
fictional ability; a Russian fleet on the south coast of Bulgaria, for example,
would stand three spaces distant from home.
It does not matter for this purpose, incidentally, whether a foreign
Power controls the nearest home center; in the
examples, the Russian army and the Russian fleet could still trace routes to
When an army and a fleet stand equally distant from home, the GM removes the fleet before the army. When two units of the same kind stand equally distant from home, the GM removes first the unit that stands in the space whose name comes earlier in English-language alphabetical order. For the purposes of this rule, the names of the spaces and provinces are those listed within the Hasbro rules.
X. Adjudication and Publication of Results.
1. Adjudication Algorithm: The GM will adjudicate the orders using whatever technique the GM so chooses. However, in the event of a dispute regarding the outcome of the adjudication, with the exception of the items listed in section II of these Tournament Rules, the 2000 Diplomacy rules as published by Hasbro and published at http://www.hasbro.com/instruct/Diplomacy.PDF will be used.
2. Errors in Adjudication: Players discovering errors in adjudication must bring them to the attention of the GM immediately. If the error is not brought to the attention of the GM within 24 hours of the release of the results or before the next adjudication is due, whichever is the later, then the error shall stand.
3. Publication of Results: The official source for publication of results for each game will be the Yahoo! club designated for that game. The GM shall publish adjudication results in a timely fashion, normally within the first 12 hours after the deadline has passed. The GM is encouraged to send a copy of the results to the players via email, but the failure of the GM to do so, or the failure of a player to receive the results via email, will not serve to excuse failure to submit orders for the following season.
4. Maps: The GM may choose to publish maps, graphically showing the results of a season and/or the position of units for the next season. These maps are considered to be an aid to players, but are not an official part of the tournament. Errors in the published map should be brought to the attention of the GM immediately, but errors in the published maps are not sufficient excuse for errors in submitted orders. The failure of a GM to publish a map will not excuse the failure of a player to submit orders prior to the published deadline.
XI. Official Communications and Press.
1. Official Communications: Official game-related communications from the GM to the players must be posted as messages on the Yahoo! club message board designated for the game, and such posting is considered to be a sufficient method for distribution to the players. GMs are strongly encouraged (but not required) to distribute copies of those official communications via email directly to the players.
2. Publication of Press: Player may choose to publish "press": messages posted within the designated Yahoo! club for any purpose they choose. Any press submitted will not be overly personal, derogatory, or in any way slanderous towards other players, GMs or members of the club, or to other Diplomacy clubs or players. Violation of this policy may result in expulsion from the tournament and/or from the DipWorld Diplomacy club. Players may also submit articles to the GM to be published as a standalone communication or as part of the results for any season.
3. Acceptable Press: The GM, in the sole discretion of the GM, reserves the right to refuse to publish a piece or pieces of press for any reason. In general, press correctly identifying the author (white press), press to be published anonymously (gray press), and press unofficially attributed another person (dark gray press) will be accepted. Press officially attributed by the GM to another person (black press) will not be accepted. The GM shall publish all press not correctly or officially identifying the author (non-white press) in an "Anonymous or Unofficial Press" section of the adjudication separate from the orders of the individual players.
4. Disclosure of Authorship of Gray or Black Press: The GM will never reveal Authorship of gray or black press.
XII. Votes, Draws and Concessions:
1. Wins: Wins may be conceded only to a single player, and a concession must be agreed upon unanimously by all players remaining in the game with a single negative vote defeating the proposal. All games are presumed to continue until the deadline published prior the beginning of the game or until a player wins by reaching eighteen supply centers, so an abstention counts as a negative vote and defeats the proposal.
2. Draws: Draws may or may not include all survivors, but must be agreed to unanimously by all players remaining in the game. A draw that does not include all players presumes the elimination of the players not included in the draw. A single "No" vote defeats the Draw proposal, however if one or more players fail to submit votes, but a majority of the remaining players vote unanimously for the draw, the Draw proposal succeeds.
3. Confidentiality and Limitation of Proposals: Votes will be due simultaneously with the next due date for orders. All votes will be secret and the result will be published instead of the relevant adjudication if the proposal is approved, or together with the adjudication, if the proposal fails. All votes may be submitted confidentially, players may submit revised votes, and the GM shall never reveal any information regarding the specific votes of an individual power, or the total of votes for or against any proposal. The GM, in the sole discretion of the GM, may choose not to allow repetitive proposals or humorous proposals.
4. Voting Against Own Proposal: Players may vote for or against proposals that they submit.
XIII. Ownership and Integrity of Communications
1. Ownership of Communication: Emails and other communications are the intellectual property of the person transmitting them, but the GM and players, by virtue of agreeing to GM or play in the game, freely give permission for the use of those communications by other participants as part of the play of that particular game, with the restrictions stated in the next paragraph.
2. Forwarding Email: Forwarding of emails, or even attempted impersonation of one player by another will not be restricted by the GM, as long as this occurs between the players without the involvement of the GM, and does not involve subversion of the email systems of others.
3. Deception of GM: Any attempt to deceive or impersonate the GM, or to subvert the integrity of the email system of the GM or another player, will be grounds for immediate replacement.
XIV. Disputes
It is recognized that disputes between players and/or the GM may arise during the course of the tournament. The GM is offered wide latitude for resolving these disputes within a game, within the constraints of non-partisan actions that are consistent with previously published policy. Players are encouraged to accept GM rulings on these matters.
However, should a player believe that a GM has not acted in accordance with these rules, the Tournament Ombudsman may be asked to review the circumstances. The Tournament Ombudsman's ruling shall be final, unless the Tournament Ombudsman elects to allow a further appeal to the War Council, in which case the War Council's ruling shall be final.
To request such a review, the player should notify the GM via email of such a request, and should email the Tournament Ombudsman at pjrich@ntlworld.com The GM should suspend the game for the duration of the review.