I hope you don't mean me. If all goes well, then Rait will get what's coming to him... muahhah... ;) Its been a VERY tough game though.

thanks...at least now our turns can run faster...
anyway, Ironclad, you have been eliminated, so no matter...it was only 1 DP anyway...

so how many people go through to Round 2?
Game 2 is also going into a France-Germany-Austria trio, where Austria isn't likely to get to 18...

It should not be 3 from each game then, you should be selecting the top 21 from all games combined. (you'll end up with 4 players from one game and 2 from another, etc)

how do join tournaments or did just a group get together and make this?

Game 2 is drawn...
France, Germany, Austria

Should be top 3 from each game.

Game 4 is over.me won

Just to clarify, for the benefit of viewers who have just joined us:
The Grand Festive Diplomacy Tournament was conceived and implemented during last month. It is the first of its kind (I believe) on this site, but hopefully the first of many.

The current format is a three-round structure. The first seven games feed into three round 2 games, which feed into a single round 3 game. The top three players in each game will go through to the round two. Then, the top two in each of those games, and the "Third placed player with the highest number of SCs" will go through to the final.

I hope that makes sense. It did at the time. Updates on the actual games:
Game 1: seems to be a 4-way power struggle.
Game 2: Over. Three way draw between Gobblededook, wamlam59 and Mythago.
Game 3: Over. Won by Merano. Cri_ned and ravendevil also go through.
Game 4: (as good as) over. Won by stoni90. Chairman Mao and Evilduck also go through.
Game 5: Ongoing. Six players still in it.
Game 6: Ongoing. All seven players still in it.
Game 7: Ongoing. Down to three players, who will go through whatever the result. They are abab, mightyrobot, and fidlesquidge.

Finally, to clarify dangermouse's point, whether it should be the top three from each of the seven games, or the top 21 from all players pooled - we are operating that it is the top three from each game. Hope that makes it clear.

This is how the tournament was set up to run, so this is how it should run, but next time I think the aim of diplomacy (to win!) should be the target for it, with 1 going through...

Next time I think it will resemble a league, or a traditional Dip Tourney, a little more. Each and every player plays seven games, and gets a score based on the results of them all. So winning will be rewarded, but so will placing high every game. The only snag to such an arrangement would be the timescale - unless you have all forty-nine games running together it would take many months. A logistical nightmare, but I intend to have a post-Tournament review of 1) how it went and 2) how future ones should be run.
Stay tuned!

....Postscript
Of course, it reaches the point where there has to be some tangible benefit, whether in points or a marker on your profile or something, to intice people. The unwieldy beast I descibe above offers little that playing regular games doesn't. The potential for reward will also be discussed for future tournaments.

Will the tournament stop during the Christmas?

I would imagine so...hell, will all of the games be done by then, even? ;)

We *finally* eliminated someone in Game 6.

Barring a strange last minute backstab Game 5.1 should be done soon Myself, Signalseven and Lucasvonlucas moving on.

Since this thread is being used also, i will say that game 7 is finished.

The tournament will go ahead in the following manner, to avoid Mr Cock-Up's long occupation of the guest room in round one:

Once the draw for round two has been decided, the players for each game will be contacted directly and given the password and instructions for joining the game, rather than scattergun approach of the first round, where players who hadn't signed up snuck in to games. When all the players have responded, the games will commence; this way, there won't be long periods of hanging around waiting for players to check the sight- everyone will know that the game starts at 2200 hours (or 10 o clock for the rest of you) and be able to jump on board.

If a player says 'Oooh, I can't do it over Christmas; I have other commitments more important than Diplomacy', they will of course be shot. By Genghis Khan. No, seriously, that'll probably be fine.

5.1 is done now.

TheMaster ( 6 SC's)
Signalseven (10 SC's)
LucusVonLucus (18 SC's)

ooh, so now it's just down to game 1 and game 6...exciting...game 6 will probably still be a some years yet...

TOgilve - i understand what you say, but for simple convience it seems to me irrational to start the game at christmas, when by waiting a few days longer it can be make sure that all players will play properly...

I prefer to start after new years. I live in Japan, and New Years is the day that you spend time with your family. Christmas is just a day for going on dates and eating chicken. (I'm not actually joking.)