World dipcon 2025
April 4-6, 2025 in San Francisco, California
The Bay Area Diplomacy Association (B.A.D. Ass.) is thrilled to host World DipCon in 2025 at the Whipping Diplomacy Tournament!
Location: Hotel Spero, 405 Taylor St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Registration for WDC 2025 is now open!
Please use this link to register.
The registration form includes information on how to pay the registration fee; please pay by February 9th to take advantage of advanced registration and get a WDC 2025 shirt.
Online booking for Hotel Spero will open in November. If you would like to book a room now, you can email rsamiha@hotelspero.com and ask for the group rate for the Diplomacy Tournament ($149/night plus taxes).
This website will be the main hub for information about the event, and we will also share details through other media:
- Sign up to join the WDC2025 email list
- Join the North American Diplomacy Federation (NADF) Discord server, and check the #wdc-announcements channel
- Email the organizers at worlddipcon2025@gmail.com
Key dates for this not-to-be-missed event:
October 2024: Room block at Hotel Spero opens; early registration opens
February 7, 2025: Early registration closes; regular registration opens
Preliminary event schedule (updated July 2024):
Thursday, April 3, 2025
- Organized activities for early arrivals. May include wine tasting, hiking in redwoods, sightseeing in SF, etc depending on interests.
Friday, April 4, 2025
- 9am – 5pm: Organized activities for early arrivals depending on interests.
- Noon – 5pm: Open gaming in the convention space
- 5pm – 6pm: Panel discussion featuring Diplomacy hobby luminaries and former world champions
- 6:45pm: Round 1 registration
- 7:00pm: Round 1 begins
Saturday, April 5, 2025
- 8:45am: Round 2 registration*
- 9:00am: Round 2 begins
- 4:30pm – 5:30pm: World DipCon Hobby Meeting [agenda to be posted]
- 6:15pm: Round 3 registration
- 6:30pm: Round 3 begins
Sunday, April 6, 2025
- 8:15am: Round 4 registration
- 8:30am: Round 4 Championship Pool games begin
- 9:00am: Round 4 team tournament games begin
- 4:00pm: Awards ceremony
Registration cost (students are half price):
- Early-bird registration: $60
- Regular registration: $75
* During Round 2, we will have a youth game for players aged 16 and younger to compete against their peers, if there is sufficient interest. The youth game will not count toward tournament scoring, but there will be separate awards for participants. Players of all ages are welcome to participate in the main event as well, of course!
Other important information:
About Whipping:
Over Memorial Day weekend in 2002 in Raleigh, NC at DixieCon, a not-so-coincidental meeting between long-time hobbyist and California resident Edi Birsan and soon-to-be Californian Adam Silverman led to the idea that Northern California needed, no, deserved, a Diplomacy club. Adding in an Edi-recruited a teenage Siobhan Nolen (well, before she was Siobhan Nolen) who had just won Diplomacy at the KublaCon gaming convention, the Bay Area Diplomacy Association (B.A.D.Ass.) was born. In 2004, the first Whipping was held at a tiny (now out of business) game store in Fremont. It was won by local player Josh Shank, whose aggressive play style led to the local Diplomacy term getting shanked. In 2005-2007, the tournament moved to a larger game store in Oakland, and then in 2008 made its debut in San Francisco at the Hotel Tomo in Japantown. Whipping hosted DipCon in 2010, and then went on a hiatus, with smaller events or not happening, until Siobhan revived the tournament in 2017 at a new location at the Hotel DeAnza in San Jose. Whipping hosted DipCon again in 2022, and moved back to San Francisco last year. We are thrilled to be the host of World DipCon in 2025 for its first time ever in California.
What is so special about Whipping, and why is it a must-attend tournament for so many Diplomacy hobbyists year after year? It might be the great food and scenery around the Bay Area for folks who have the time to explore when they visit. It might be the Best Country Bears – as far as we know, no one has collected all 7, but there’s a few folks who are pretty close. It might be the amazing organizing team that has collectively been playing tournament Diplomacy for over 100 years (ok, so that’s mostly Edi; but Siobhan, Adam, and Alex have been around the block a few times too). Or it might be the welcoming inclusive environment, camaraderie on and off the boards, and general good times had with hobby friends. Whatever the reasons, come find out for yourself why Whipping has consistently been a favorite event for its attendees!
About the organizers:
Adam Silverman (Tournament Director): While you can’t trust Adam not to bounce you from Belgium, you can trust him to run a great tournament. Having previously organized and TD’ed over ten Whippings including two DipCons and played on that board at 2016 WDC, Adam knows a thing or two about what makes tournaments and World DipCons awesome. And he promises that 2025 WDC will indeed be awesome. But he doesn’t promise to give you Belgium.
Siobhan Nolen (Assistant Tournament Director, Prize Coordinator): Former President of the NADF, past winner of Tempest in a Teapot and Cascadia Open, Whipping tournament organizer, DBN host – what has Siobhan not done Diplomacy-wise? “Host a World DipCon” is the answer, but we’re getting ready to change that.
Edi Birsan (Minister of Propaganda): Edi didn’t make it into the organizer picture above, but let’s face it, Edi is the only one of the organizers important enough to have his own Wikipedia page. He’s been playing Diplomacy and organizing tournaments longer than the rest of us have been alive.
Alex Amann (Actual Minister of Propaganda): Alex started his Diplomacy “career” in the Bay State, but no one held that against him when he came to the Bay Area. Which isn’t in the Bay State; isn’t that kind of weird? But we digress… As a past organizer of the Boston Massacre, current Diplomacy TD at local gaming convention KublaCon, and active member of the traveling North American Diplomacy community, Alex is thrilled to be part of the WDC 2025 hosting team.
Contact us at worlddipcon2025@gmail.com