The National Diplomacy Masters is a tournament held in Las Vegas at the “World Series of Board Gaming (WSBG)” convention (https://wsbgvegas.com/). This year was the first year of what will be an annual event and eventual host tournament of World DipCon in 2027. We had players from all over the US descend on the Horseshoe Casino & Resort to compete alongside “Masters” for the championship and the right to be declared a Master for next year’s event.
A cool feature about the event are the four honored Masters. We selected two tournament champions and two community organizers to receive “Stay & Play” packages for the convention. These ticket packages gave each player a hotel room for the convention, access to all tournaments, access to all events, and some special presents. This isn’t typically done for Diplomacy events, which are usually run on a tight budget and without financial support for the players. Aligning Renegade Game Studios with the host WSBG opened many doors to tournament support.
Our four Diplomacy Masters were:
Dan McNeill – Reigning US Diplomacy Champion
Katie Gray – Reigning DipCon Champion
Manus Hand – Organizer with the most active club in the world
Robert Lacy – Organizer with 3 conventions, a local league, and game store teaching events.
The 2/2 split between organizers and tournament champions is intentional. People who promote the game should be held in the same esteem as champions. This method also provides a path for just about anyone to be a Diplomacy Master. If you can’t travel to a tournament, you can work locally and be recognized with a fabulous event package.
The tournament was held in a specially designated area within the WSBG convention. We had our own storage room and a large space for the giant, walkable map. For those unfamiliar with the convention, it started several years ago as a competitive board gaming event with cash prizes. Every day there are multiple qualifying “Ring” events. The winners of each Ring event (such as Acquire, Azul, Terraforming Mars, etc.) proceed to a sort of playoff to determine the WSBG champion. They have over 200,000 in cash & prizes at the event. With that said, I know what you’re thinking: did Diplomacy have a cash prize? No, we avoided that by supporting our Diplomacy Masters. Cash prizes in Diplomacy events can really alter behavior, and we wanted to avoid that. We invested heavily in prize support for all players: Diplomacy challenge coins, Top Board wooden trophies, Best Country awards, board games, shirts, pens, stickers, magnets, keychains, mugs, tumblers – the list goes on and on.
The event already has several reports published by players, so I thought why not provide a tournament director’s perspective. Given this was the first year of the event AND it was held over weekdays as opposed to weekend, we aimed to have 3 boards per round to start. Socialization is a big aspect of a Diplomacy event, so we provided several potential events the night before the tournament and planned meals after each round. These meals were fully comped for players, their families and their friends. On successive nights we finished the round at 8pm, then went out dining to Guy Fieri’s, then Carmine’s, and finally Giordano’s. This will be a tradition we intend to continue in future years. We want players to enjoy Diplomacy, socialize as a group after the round over a meal, and then be free to enjoy the Vegas nightlife on their own terms.
Our playerbase was a great mix of regulars at Diplomacy tournaments with competitive crossovers from the WSBG events. This was also an outcome we sought from the beginning of the relationship: to bring in people who otherwise wouldn’t attend WSBG, and to provide other competitive events for the existing convention goers. We had players from Boston and LA, from the Midwest and the South. Las Vegas is a destination city and the National Diplomacy Masters is now a destination convention.
The added benefit of our situation with the WSBG is the Organized Play manager for Renegade, Trevor McGregor, is a Vegas local. He’ll be running additional events next year at Dice Tower West. He was a big help navigating Vegas for the many out-of-towners. I’m glad we had such a great group of players and we have such robust support from the convention staff. We’ve got an even better event planned for next year, which will include the first recognized competitive event for Diplomacy: Era of Empire. I will refrain from providing specific details about our Top Board, because as you’ll see below, we recorded the entire thing and will release on YouTube in the coming weeks! Onto the results. . .
Congratulations to Katie Gray on winning the National Diplomacy Masters tournament at the World Series of Board Gaming.
Katie came into the event as one of four honored Diplomacy Masters players and she showed everyone the title is well-deserved. She dominated the Top Board early as France and won via concession before the final bell. This means she’ll be back as an honored guest next year to defend her title.
Congratulations are in order to Robert Zahn and Phil Burk for being named Diplomacy Masters for 2025. Robert Zahn won the US Championship at GenCon and Phil Burk has organized and assisted in numerous Diplomacy tournaments & teaching events. We honor both tournament prowess and event organization skills. Congratulations to Robert and Phil.
Top 7
Katie Gray
Mark Egerman
Nick Benedict
Jack Brawner
Ed Prem
Jeff Hayman
Richard Sweat
Best Country
Austria – Mark Egerman
England – Mark Egerman
France – Manus Hand
Germany – Robert Zahn
Italy – Phil Burk
Russia – Richard Sweat
Turkey – Jack Brawner
Remember to follow Board Game Nation on socials (https://www.youtube.com/boardgamenation). They covered all the Top Board action for YouTube, which included a four-camera setup, mics for all players, and a confessional area for those most secret of admissions. Gary from BGN has informed me there are two videos pending for “Axis & Allies: North Africa” to complete, then we’ll work together to review all the recordings from the National Diplomacy Masters and GenCon. All those audio and video streams pieced together into a coherent narrative is a big challenge that will involve multiple people, but the results will be worth it for this unique experience.
What’s Next?
We’ll be back for “National Diplomacy Masters” in 2025 and 2026 before it becomes WDC in 2027. Next year we’ll shift to four rounds and weekend dates after the success of the inaugural event. In 2026 the “World Series of Board Gaming” moves to Labor Day weekend. Yea for a holiday weekend! These were the contract details I was unable to share in Milan but was given the blessing to relay at this year’s convention. One other detail regarding an online question I received about the age 18+ restriction on certain events: I was told by WSBG that for cash payout events, that restriction needs to be in place (legal reasons). However, since Diplomacy doesn’t have a cash payout, we could host games with under 18 so long as we assign those boards to designated tables in our event space. We have many parent-child pairs at our events, so this will open attendance up for all.
For this event, we used Manus Hand’s tournament software to assign boards. While that worked in the first two rounds, the conflicts created for the third round meant a few players had to play with the same Powers again. They weren’t opposed to the fresh opportunity to earn a Best Country or play their favorite Power again, but that’s something I want to avoid. I’ll work with Manus to make updates or revert to the tried-and-true: draw from a bag with Power restrictions in place.
I think the central clock is a necessity at WSBG because of all the scheduled events, both gaming and social. This year we had reservations set at restaurants on each night; if we had offset timings for the boards then we would likely miss some of the crowd for free dinner & drinks. We had more people at the dinners than play on the boards this year – a consequence of friends & family being invited. The social aspect at a Diplomacy event is just as important as the competition on the board. Given our strong attendance at the dinners, we’ll keep doing what people like.
In 2025 the WSBG runs from September 19-23. We’ll be shifting to a four-round tournament with a Top Board during Round 4. An open question I put to our players this year and the larger Diplomacy community: what is your preferred round structure (2 Saturday & 2 Sunday, 1 Friday & 2 Saturday & 1 Sunday)? Based on player feedback from this year, a group trip to The Sphere (https://www.thesphere.com/shows/the-sphere-experience) seems like a good idea. Let me know what you think – we’ll adjust the event based on player input because it’s your event and will be WDC in 2027.
The WSBG staff were thrilled with our turnout and professional setup. They have some surprises in store sure to delight players next year. Renegade is invested in WSBG as a sponsor so that relationship will continue to grow from Diplomacy and Acquire to include other games. The Organized Play Manager for Renegade being a Vegas local helped immensely this year with running the event; Trevor’s presence in the future will ensure both tournament & social events run smoothly. We also have some fun announcements to make regarding organized play upcoming for Diplomacy games (plural use intentional!). Stay tuned by following Renegade Game Studios on social media and join their official Discord server (https://discord.gg/jp2pc8s4).
Event pictures can be found at:
wdc2027.com 