In this episode the guys discuss the cross-site Online Diplomacy Championship happening over at PlayDiplomacy and interview the tournament director Carebear. 
Fast news
First up a quick update on the 1 vs 1 WebDiplomacy tournament and the shock news of Devonian and a number of other great players losing their games (2 mins 20 secs)
It looks like the face-to-face DiplomacyCast podcast website is off the air again. Amby has emailed one of its co-hosts twice to find out what's happening but hasn't had a reply (5 mins 40 secs)
Amby and Kaner explain how they're getting busy in real life and will be changing their recording schedule. Basically they'll catch up a little less often and record two episodes at once - which is what they start doing from today (7 mins 15 secs)

Carebear interview
Special note: Carebear asked if we could mask his voice a little, so we did our best...
Amby explains he had some recording problems with his questions, so he's tried to amplify his voice to make it clearer for listeners (8 mins 30 secs)
The guys set the scenes for the interview and the Online Diplomacy Championship which includes players from PlayDiplomacy, webDiplomacy, vDiplomacy, Stabbeurfou, BackStabbr and face-to-face players (10 mins)
Carebear discusses how he got started in Diplomacy 30 years ago and tracked down the first Diplomacy instances online (11 mins)
Amby asks why Carebear ended up ultimately at PlayDiplomacy and why he likes it (13 mins 45 secs)
A brief discussion about the how the PlayDip forum is very different to other Dip forums (15 mins 15 secs)
Carebear gives an overview about the Online Diplomacy Championship originally created by ghug and why the second championship is being held at PlayDiplomacy (16 mins 20 secs)
Invited players from other sites are getting access to PlayDip's tournament interface during the competition without having to purchase a premium membership (18 mins)
Players not from PlayDip are invited provided they have high rankings and reliability on their respective sites. To reduce the chance of players from PlayDip from NMRing/CDing, only the  top 150 players from there are being considered (22 mins)
Kaner clarifies what the PlayDip vernacular "surrendering" means (24 mins 30 secs)
Kaner asks about how the various Dip sites factor in reliability (25 mins)
Cut off deadline for Round 1 at the ODC is 15 February 2017. There'll be additional deadlines for the second and third rounds, with some solid reliable players able to join later, although it'll be harder to reach the top board (26 mins)
Amby asks about the tournament system being used to manage the championship. Carebear explains how preliminary round scores are aggregated so the top seven scoring players make the top board for the fourth round. There may be two other boards running for players who don't quite make the top board (27 mins)
Kaner double checks its being played on the standard Classic board. Carebear confirms, although its called Pure Diplomacy at PlayDiplomacy and will be played by standard rules (29 mins)
In discussing PlayDip, Carebear mentions the interface isn't brilliant on mobile devices, but changes are currently being worked on to improve the experience. The interface at PlayDip also allows you to put in illegal orders eg army Munich move to Sevastopol, which is changed by the system adjudicator as a hold  (29 mins 45 secs)
In PlayDip there are many more options for how you can post messages which allows you to send a single message to multiple players in the group you choose (32 mins)
Amby asks about whether invited non-PlayDip players can try the interface before the game. Carebear clears things up saying there is a free membership at PlayDip but there are limitations of a maximum of 3 games and only on the Pure Diplomacy board. For those wanting to access the features above that you'd need to pay to be a premium member (34 mins)
Carebear discusses the Guest Guide for non-PlayDip players about PlayDip, and recommends jumping