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In a recent thread on the forum of phpDiplomacy.net, a player asked about forming a World Series of Diplomacy based on the League classification within the site. I responded that it was not exactly a good echo of the Baseball World Series, and put forth that what might be interesting is to treat each of the websites that run Play By e-Mail (PBeM) games like a league/division, with a team formed from players from each site, typically a 7 player team. Stabbeurfou recently ran the Diplomacy World National Cup (DWNC), which ran teams based on countries and nationalities, and was also inspirational in this idea since players often seem to be affiliated with a specific web site, some of which have created their own identification with their players. Part of the attraction for the site owners is that they could then advertise their site and have on their Home Page the Banner: Home of the Diplomacy World Series Champion 2010 Team. Each site should put forth a team of 7 players, led by a Captain with a Lieutenant. Experience with the DWNC seems to indicate that it is a good idea to have 2 backup players or a non-playing captain that can jump in. Ideally it could start with 7 teams, but the DWNC showed that non-multiples of 7 could also work. Experience also shows that the Captain and Lieutenant should be able to jump in immediately to get orders in for their team members to avoid a No Moves Received (NMR) and to act promptly to get replacement players, without causing a problem of the captains playing in too many games. There are plenty of websites and groups running their own games, so finding 7 should not be so hard — though in many cases it will have to be the players themselves, and not the web-masters, who carry the burden of the work in forming and coaching the team. As for the hosting point of the event, there is no place like Stabbeurfou that is actually designed for team play, however the tournament organizer may want to farm out games to the different sites so that players get to be familiar with all the different sites that the player's come from. This would be a decision of the Tournament Director (TD). The TD would also have to set the scoring system for the Tournament including such issues as game length-deadlines-reporting-policies etc. So there you have the idea. Now is there anyone out there that wants to do it???? Editor's Note: Since Edi first issued this challenge, Jérémie LeFrançois of the French language site Le Stabbeur Fou (http://www.stabbeurfou.org/) has indicated interest, and Tom Anthony has really stepped up to the plate (if you'll pardon the expression) and advanced the subject to an ongoing project. You can contact Tom and join in by writing him at [email protected] to indicate your interest. We hope to cover further developments as they happen!
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