DBN Invitational 2022 Lineup and Rules
The second DBN Invitational brings together the top performers of the 2021 face-to-face Diplomacy season, both in-person and virtual, along with some of the top performers from the extended-deadline community. Click here to learn more about the qualification process and to see the final standings. And check out Bryan Pravel and Zach Moore revealing the field on Countdown.
Broadcast Schedule:
- Semifinal Rounds 1 and 2: Saturday, February 19, 1p EST
- Semifinal Rounds 3 and 4: Sunday, February 20, 3:30p EST
- Top Board: Saturday, February 26, TBD
The Field
Schedule
Round Assignments
Rules
Power Auction
The Field
Below are the participants for the 2022 DBN Invitational, in seed order.
- 1 Seren Kwok
- 2 Karthik Konath
- 3 Nicolas Sahuguet
- 4 Evan Swihart
- 5 Farren Jane
- 6 Nicolas Taillet
- 7 Jason Mastbaum
- 8 Matthew Crill
- 9 Greg Matthews
- 10 Ed Sullivan
- 11 Johnny Gillam
- 12 Vincent Reulet
- 13 Mikalis Kamaritis
- 14 Katie Gray
- 15 Riaz Virani
- 16 Brandon Fogel
- 17 Russ Dennis
- 18 Liam Stokes
- 19 Tommy Anderson
- 20 Ben Kellman
- 21 Christophe Borgeat
- 22 Wesley Ketchum
- 23 Sabi Ahuja
- 24 Peter McNamara
- 25 Robert Schuppe
- 26 Tim Crosby
- 27 Ruben Sanchez
- 28 Chris Brown
- A1 Chris Ward
- A2 Eskil Sandblom
- A3 Andrei Gribakov
Schedule
- Semifinal Round 1: Friday, February 18, 6p EST / 11p UTC / 10a AEST
- Semifinal Round 2: Saturday, February 19, 10a EST / 3p UTC / 2a AEST
- Semifinal Round 3: Saturday, February 19, 6p EST / 11p UTC / 10a AEST
- Semifinal Round 4: Sunday, February 20, 10a EST / 3p UTC / 2a AEST
- Top Board: Saturday, February 26 (start time TBD)
Players are required to check in and finalize their power bids 30 minutes prior to the start of the round.
Round Assignments
Round 1
- 2 Karthik Konath
- 4 Evan Swihart
- 5 Farren Jane
- 7 Jason Mastbaum
- 8 Matthew Crill
- 9 Greg Matthews
- 14 Katie Gray
- 16 Brandon Fogel
- 18 Liam Stokes
- 19 Tommy Anderson
- 20 Ben Kellman
- 23 Sabi Ahuja
- 24 Peter McNamara
- 26 Timothy Crosby
Round 2
- 1 Seren Kwok
- 3 Nicolas Sahuguet
- 6 Nicolas Taillet
- 10 Ed Sullivan
- 11 Johnny Gillam
- 12 Vincent Reulet
- 13 Mikalis Kamaritis
- 15 Riaz Virani
- 17 Russ Dennis
- 21 Christophe Borgeat
- 22 Wes Ketchum
- 25 Robert Schuppe
- 27 Ruben Sanchez
- 28 Chris Brown
Round 3
- 2 Karthik Konath
- 5 Farren Jane
- 7 Jason Mastbaum
- 8 Matthew Crill
- 9 Greg Matthews
- 15 Riaz Virani
- 16 Brandon Fogel
- 17 Russ Dennis
- 18 Liam Stokes
- 19 Tommy Anderson
- 21 Christophe Borgeat
- 23 Sabi Ahuja
- 24 Peter McNamara
- 26 Timothy Crosby
Round 4
- 1 Seren Kwok
- 3 Nicolas Sahuguet
- 4 Evan Swihart
- 6 Nicolas Taillet
- 10 Ed Sullivan
- 11 Johnny Gillam
- 12 Vincent Reulet
- 13 Mikalis Kamaritis
- 14 Katie Gray
- 20 Ben Kellman
- 22 Wes Ketchum
- 25 Robert Schuppe
- 27 Ruben Sanchez
- 28 Chris Brown
Rules
- Code of Conduct: The 2022 DBNI will be governed by the DBN Code of Conduct. Violations of the Code of Conduct will not be tolerated and may result in disqualification from this and future DBN events.
- Title: The winner of the DBN Invitational will be heralded as the DBN Diplomat of the Year. No other awards will be given.
- Seeding: All players will be seeded prior to the tournament according to their place in the final DBNI Standings.
- Semifinals and advancement:
- All invited players are scheduled to play two semifinal games. If an invited player cannot play their first game, they will be replaced in both of their games by the next available alternate. If an invited player plays their first game but cannot play their second, they will be replaced by the next available alternate and will be ineligible to advance. Alternates will be eligible to advance with one score.
- After the semifinal rounds, the players will be ranked by the sum of their game scores. Ties will be broken by seed order, with higher seeds ranking higher. The top seven players will advance to the top board.
- Scoring: Individual games will be scored using the OpenTribute system. Calculate scores easily using the scoring system calculator.
- Game rules:
- Rounds 1 and 2 will be time-limited. No year can begin more than 7.5 hours after the game starts. This should allow for 13-15 years.
- Rounds 3 and 4 are time-unlimited and year-unlimited.
- 1901-1907: 20 min for Spring 1901 negotiations. Thereafter, 15 min for spring and fall negotiations, 3 min for retreats and adjustments.
- 1908 onward: 10 min for spring and fall negotiations, 3 min for retreats and adjustments.
- 3 minute grace periods are provided to prevent NMRs caused by technical difficulties. Deliberate use of grace periods will be considered a CoC violation.
- Draw votes are by secret ballot and must be unanimous to end the game. Players may propose and publicly veto proposals without limit, but no more than one vote can be held per spring or fall season (and none during retreats or adjustments). Draw votes are held on the clock. No information about the vote will be revealed.
- Solos cannot be conceded.
- Negotiations are not allowed during retreat and adjustment phases.
- The game will end if three consecutive game years occur with no changes in center ownership. The GM may end the game at their discretion if they determine that the only changes in center ownership during three consecutive game years are agreed upon between allies.
- Power selection:
- Semifinal rounds: Blind auction. See the Power Auction tab above.
- Top Board: Paris method, with seed order determined by preliminary round ranking.
Power Auction
In the Calhamer spirit, we have chosen a system for assigning powers in the semifinal rounds that has no element of chance. It is a variation of a blind auction system that has been around for a while. Note that, with this method, the highest seeded players can guarantee themselves a particular power once during the semifinal rounds, but they cannot predict which board they will be on. Note also that for any player to submit the maximum bid on any power, they must give up nearly all of their ability to influence the power selection in their other game.
Check out this demo page to see how it works.
- Confidentiality:
- Players are prohibited from sharing their bids with other players or negotiating about their bids prior to the round. Any negotiation about bids will be considered a violation of the Code of Conduct and may result in disqualification.
- The rank of each player’s bid will be made public (i.e., whether they got their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. choice), but the full bids will be kept confidential until at least the broadcast of the 4th round.
- Recommendations:
- Keep it simple and use the bids to reflect your power preferences. The system is complex enough that it is unlikely you will find a way to use it to get an advantage over other players.
- Splitting your points evenly between your games is a perfectly reasonable strategy. If you feel strongly about getting a particular power at least once, then it makes sense to shift some points to one or another of your games.
- Bids:
- Each player receives 200 points to bid on powers for the whole tournament.
- For every game, each player submits a set of bids on all seven powers, subject to these constraints:
- Each bid must be no less than 0 and no more than 164 points.
- The player may not bid the same amount on any two powers (in that game).
- The player may not bid more than 179 points in total for a single game.
- Players are not required to use all of their points.
- Replacement players will inherit the points available to the player they are replacing.
- Order of resolution:
- The bid-sets for all players in a given round are evaluated together.
- The next power to be resolved is always the one with the highest remaining bid.
- If multiple powers have the highest remaining bid, the power to be resolved is the one involving the lowest seed among those highest remaining bids. (Note that the #1 seed is the highest seed.)
- Resolving bids:
- The remaining player who bid the most on the selected power is assigned that power.
- If multiple remaining players bid the most on that power, the player with the highest seed is assigned that power. (Note that the #1 seed is the highest seed.)
- Board division:
- Once a power has been assigned for the second time, the two players assigned that power are assigned to boards.
- The player with the higher seed is assigned to the board with the lowest overall seed average.
- If the boards are tied in overall seed average, then the player with the higher seed is assigned to Board 1.