Dixiecon began as a way for the Carolina Amateur Diplomats to get more involved in the wider Diplomacy hobby. In 1984, the core CADs discovered the game when they tired of rolling all the dice in a Risk game. Centered in Charlotte at that time, the CADs played close to 100 recorded games with their own scoring system before they discovered the wider hobby in 1986.
Team members Hudson Defoe and Tim Richardson show off their Team Tournament medals.
Other awards include plaques for the top three finishes, certificates, the Golden Blade/ I Got Hammered awards, and of course the traditional Brick.
With David Hood, Michael Lowrey, Paul Woods and others moving to Chapel Hill for college in fall 1984, the CADs branched out to the eastern part of the state and began to build their numbers to a much larger size. After a trip to Dipcon 1986 in Fredricksburg, VA, the CADs decided after urging from hobby legend Larry Peery to begin Dixiecon both as a club gathering and a wider hobby tournament.
The 1987 event was largely CADs and nearby Virginians, but over the next couple of years interest swelled in the event, largely because the games were conducted without time limits and because of the high quality of the play. By 1990, Dixiecon was hosting Dipcon and World Dipcon on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, with a total attendence of about 120 (some of whom played the side tournaments in 1830, Titan and Nuclear War, big Dixiecon favorites at the time.)
The 1990's saw big changes with Dixiecon. The first Beltway Invasion began, with a group of Maryland/DC area Dippers beginning to dominate play, such as Mark Franceschini and Jim Yerkey. Later in the decade, this would be supplemented with a new wave from the same area of the country, the Pitkissers from the Potomac Tea and Knife Society. Although Diplomacy hobbyists sometimes assume that good players will get destroyed in later tournaments because of their reputations, the evidence at Dixiecon does not bear this out. Strong players show up in the Hall of Fame list multiple years, with Chris Martin doing a hard-to-believe repeat in 1998/99 as well as David Miller in 2018/2019.
What keeps people coming back for more? Many of the best Diplomacy players in North America and beyond come every Memorial Day to face off against each other in a format which allows for the true "Diplomacy Cream" to rise to the top. Diplomacy is played best as you first learned it - without time limits. Except for the Sunday round, which by necessity must be ended by 5:30pm at the latest, the Dip games at Dixiecon end when someone gets a solo win, or when everyone still alive on the board says it ends!
Some people come because of Dixiecon's long tradition of fine play, good sportsmanship, and infectious comradeship born of sharp play over a map of Europe. Some people come because they want to match wits with other games in the Iron Man of Gaming, the tournament for all the non-Diplomacy games played over the weekend. (We will also hold a standalone Terraforming Mars tournament for the third year - we call it Terradipping.)
And there really are some who come just to eat Eastern North Carolina style barbeque on Saturday night!
Whatever you are looking for, we hope you will find it at Dixiecon 38 this Memorial Day Weekend!
2022 Dipcon winner Tanya Gill ponders her next move.
ORDER OF THE KNIFE (Past Winners)
Morgan Gurley (North Carolina) 1987 and 2002
Mark Stegeman (Virginia) 1988 and 1991
Dave McCrumb (Virginia) 1989
Jason Bergmann (California) 1990
Mark Franceschini (Maryland) 1992
Jim Yerkey (Maryland) 1993
Marc Peters (Wisconsin) 1995
Bruce Allen (North Carolina) 1996
Bruce Reiff (Ohio) 1994 and 1997
Chris Martin (D.C.) 1998 and 1999
Tom Kobrin (North Carolina) 2000, 2003, 2013, 2016
Roy Rink (Delaware) 2001
Doug Moore (Maryland) 2004, 2007, 2011
Brian Ecton (Maryland) 2005
Jim O'Kelley (Illinois) 2006
Thomas Haver (Ohio) 2008 and 2014
Adam Sigal (New York) 2009, 2013, 2015
Graham Woodring (New York) 2010
Peter Yeargin (D.C.) 2012
Andy Bartalone (Maryland) 2017
David Miller (Maryland) 2018 and 2019
Christian Kline (Illinois) 2020
Karthik Konath (California) 2021
Brandon Fogel (Illinois) 2022
Mikalis Kamaritis (United Kingdom) 2023
2023 Winner Mikalis Kamaritis
2023 Second Place to Doc Binder
Steve Cooley takes Third Place in 2023
2023 Full Results (no rank=only played 1 round)
Mikalis Kamaritis
Doc Binder
Steve Cooley
Doug Moore
Peter Yeargin
David Miller
Andrew Goff
Tanya Gill
Jason O’Donnell
Johnny Gillam
Brian Lee
Zachary Moore
Jason Bennett
Adam Silverman
David Maletsky
Emmett Wainwright
Alex Maslow
Jaromir Sulja
Ben Durfee
Chris Barfield
Karthik Konath
Mark Franceschini
Ben Kellman
Jonathan Strange
Todd Craig
Andrew Zick
Brian Ecton
David Harshbarger
Hal Schild
John Darges
Jack Craig
Tim Richardson
Ian Rudnick
Cameron Higbe
Ryan Rutledge
Hudson Defoe
Luke Cronin
Ed Turnage
Jason Mastbaum
Jeff Pierce
Claude Worrell
Emily Turnage
Nick Koehler
Chris Kremer
Steven Hogue
Nicholas Spencer
Brad Blitstein
Tarzan
Mitch McConeghey
Rick Desper
Keith Worstell
Andy Bartalone
Best Country Awards
A - Steve Cooley
E - Mikalis Kamaritis
F - Doug Moore
G - Steve Cooley
I - Peter Yeargin
R - Karthik Konath
T - Doc Binder
Death with Dignity recipients
(List coming)
The Brick: Hudson Defoe
I Got Hammered: Steve Hogue
Golden Blade: Johnny Gillam
Players Choice: Emily Turnage
Iron Man Tourney Winner: Kevin Brown
Team Tourney: Goff, Gill, Binder
DIXIECON HALL OF FAME (Top Three Finishers)
1987 - Dixiecon I
1. Morgan Gurley (NC)
2. Rob McCarter (VA)
3. Jim Ulaky (NC)
1988 - Dixiecon II
1. Mark Stegeman (NC)
2. Morgan Gurley (NC)
3. Chris Kremer (NC)
1989 - Dixiecon III
1. Dave McCrumb (VA)
2. Morgan Gurley (NC)
3. Dan Sellers (NC)
1990 - Dixiecon IV/Dipcon/World Dipcon
1. Jason Bergmann (GA)
2. Jeff Bohner (NY)
3. Steve Cooley (CA)
1991 - Dixiecon V
1. Mark Stegeman (VA)
2. Carl Willner (DC)
3. Bob Odear (NC)
1992 - Dixiecon VI
1. Mark Franceschini (MD)
2. Tom Kobrin (NC)
3. Phil Sasse (GA)
1993 - Dixiecon VII
1. Jim Yerkey (MD)
2. Steve Nicewarner (NC)
3. Todd Craig (NC)
1994 - Dixiecon VIII/Dipcon
1. Bruce Reiff (OH)
2. Mark Franceschini (MD)
3. Marc Peters (WI)
1995 - Dixiecon IX
1. Marc Peters (WI)
2. Bruce Reiff (OH)
3. Todd Craig (NC)
1996 - Dixiecon X
1. Bruce Allen (NC)
2. Steve Koehler (NC)
3. Bruce Reiff (OH)
1997 - Dixiecon XI
1. Bruce Reiff (OH)
2. Todd Rogers (NC)
3. Steve Koehler (NC)
1998 - Dixiecon XII/Dipcon/World Dipcon
1. Chris Martin (NY)
2. John Quarto (MA)
3. Mark Fassio (NY)
1999 - Dixiecon XIII
1. Chris Martin (NY)
2. Dan Schlick (CA)
3. Mark Franceschini (MD)
2000 - Dixiecon XIV
1. Tom Kobrin (NC)
2. Bruce Reiff (OH)
3. Andy Marshall (MD)
2001 - Dixiecon XV
1. Roy Rink (DE)
2. Steve Koehler (NC)
3. Brian Ecton (MD)
2002 - Dixiecon XVI/Dipcon
1. Morgan Gurley (NC)
2. Chris Martin (NY)
3. Sandy Wible (VA)
2003 - Dixiecon XVII
1. Tom Kobrin (NC)
2. Chris Martin (NY)
3. Ike Porter (MD)
2004 - Dixiecon XVIII
1. Doug Moore (MD)
2. Andy Marshall (MD)
3. Rick Desper (MD)
2005 - Dixiecon IX
1. Brian Ecton (MD)
2. Doug Moore (MD)
3. Dave Maletsky (MA)
2006 - Dixiecon XX
1. Jim O'Kelley (IL)
2. Chris Martin (MD)
3. Doug Moore (MD)
2007 - Dixiecon XXI
1. Doug Moore (MD)
2. Graham Woodring (NY)
3. Mike French (MO)
2008 - Dixiecon XXII
1. Thomas Haver (OH)
2. Andy Bartalone (MD)
3. Eric Grinnell (KY)
2009 - Dixiecon XXIII
1. Adam Sigal (NY)
2. Richard Maltz (VA)
3. Brian Ecton (MD)
2010 - Dixiecon XXIV:
1. Graham Woodring (NY)
2. Peter Yeargin (IL)
3. Tom Kobrin (NC) and Doug Moore (MD)
2011 - Dixiecon XXV:
1. Doug Moore (MD)
2. Peter Yeargin (IL)
3. Christian Pedone (PA)
2012 - Dixiecon XXVI:
1. Peter Yeargin (DC)
2. Michael Binder (FL)
3. Tim Richardson (VA)
2013 - Dixiecon XXVII
1. Tom Kobrin (NC)
1. Adam Sigal (DC)
3. Graham Woodring (NY)
2014 - Dixiecon XXVIII/World Dipcon
1. Tom Haver (OH)
2. Dan Lester (UK)
3. Philippe Weissert (Holland)
2015 - Dixiecon XXIX
1. Adam Sigal (MD)
2. Bill Hackenbracht (NC)
3. Tom Kobrin (NC)
2016 - Dixiecon XXX
1. Tom Kobrin (NC)
2. Chris Martin (MD)
3. Emily Pollock (MA)
2017 - Dixiecon XXXI
1. Andy Bartalone (MD)
2. Tom Kobrin (NC)
3. Hudson Defoe (DC)
2018 - Dixiecon XXXII
1. David Miller (MD)
2. Andy Bartalone (MD)
3. Doug Moore (OR)
2019 - Dixiecon XXXIII
1. David Miller (MD)
2. Bill Hackenbracht (NC)
3. Brad Blitstein (VT)
2020 - Dixiecon XXXIV
1. Christian Kline (IL)
2. Andrew Goff (Australia)
3. Jonathan Saul (CO)
2021 - Dixiecon XXXV - coverage: DBN 2021 Dixiecon
1. Karthik Konath (CA)
2. Ed Sullivan (TX)
3. Johnny Gillam (WA)
2022 - Dixiecon XXXVI - coverage: DBN 2022 Dixiecon
1. Brandon Fogel (IL)
2. Brian Ecton (MD)
3. Ed Sullivan (TX)
2023 - Dixiecon XXXVII/Dipcon 52 - coverage: DBN 2023 Dixiecon
Mikalis Kamaritis (UK)
Doc Binder (FL)
Steve Cooley (MA)