Manus Hand

 

 

Personal History:

 

Expanded Diplomacy Experience...

 

Manus Hand played Diplomacy in high-school in the early 1980's, then, as with so many players, lost touch with the game for a decade or so.  In 1992 he discovered the Internet Diplomacy judge-play community and the postal zine Diplomacy World.  This inspired him to authorship, and when Diplomacy World ceased publication without putting Manus's contribution into print, the rest, as they say, is history.  To foist his article (a variant concept) on the world, Manus founded The Diplomatic Pouch, and at the last minute decided against it being a postal zine and in favor of publishing the zine on the Internet, making The Pouch the first-ever Webzine.  The rest, as I already said, is history.

The Diplomatic Pouch quickly became the biggest thing in the Diplomacy community, earning Manus the 1996 Don Miller Memorial Award for Meritirious Service to the Diplomacy Hobby.  That year also saw Manus begin to participate in worldwide tournament competition, and he has traveled extensively ever since around the world.  Manus is a multiple tournament winner, he has finished on the top board in multiple world championships, and he is a winner of the 1998 World Team Championship.

Urged by those he met in these travels, Manus decided to form a local tournament group in the Rocky Mountain area that he calls home.  The Association of Rocky Mountain Area Diplomacy Adversaries (ARMADA) sprung into existence in 1999 and its tournament immediately became a major event on the North American tournament schedule.  After hosting the 2001 North American championship (DipCon) and the 2003 World Championships, Manus handed the reins over to the next ARMADA leader.  With this task behind him, and having also passed the title of editor of The Diplomatic Pouch Zine, Manus now devotes his time to tournament play, authoring articles for The Pouch Zine, and to his labor of love, The Pouch's Web and e-mail based Diplomacy gameplay network, the DPjudges, where he has Mastered hundreds upon hundreds of games.

Manus considers his greatest contributions to the hobby to be the creation of The Pouch, the founding of the ARMADA, the creation of the DP judge, the personal assistance he provides to Diplomacy newcomers and rediscoverers, and the creation of the Payola variant (the concept from which all this activity sprang).

Manus lives in Denver with his wife, his daughter, and his son, where he runs the software development division of a company he founded in 1997.  In his spare time not taken up by Diplomacy, Manus has a unique dedication to the trivia surrounding U.S. History, and maintains a Website that shows him visiting the graves of the Presidents, all of which has made him something of a cult figure (someone even started a fan club for him) even outside the Diplomacy community.  On his Website, you can also see him on such arduous treks as climbing to the highest point in the state of Nebraska.

 

 

 

Manus Hand

Sketch by Buz Eddy



Manus Hand established the Diplomatic Pouch in the mid 1990's. Much Diplomacy play is organized around the diplom.org domain that created and maintained for Manus.  The rapid growth of the Denver ARMADA and the development of the Regatta as one of the premier tournaments in North America attests to his skills in envisioning and getting enthusiastic support of others in accomplishing the visions.


Already known to most Diplomacy players via the internet, Manus traveled to events in Portland, Seattle, and Silver Spring in 2002 making new friends in many parts of the country. He established himself as a premier player winning the Portland tournament over the three currently top NADF rated players.

Beyond all of the contributions and accomplishments the attribute that makes him a most valued addition to the NADF All-Stars is that Manus Hand is a genuinely nice person.

 

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