Face to Face is back! Interview with Jamal Blakkarly winner of PoppyCon 2021

Diplomacy Games

The guys interview Jamal Blakkarly, winner of PoppyCon 2021, the first face to face Diplomacy tournament since Covid (excluding that 7 player European championship.) Plus they chat about Media Wars 2 and much, much more.

Lockdown intro and Diplomacy news

• The guys set the scene about the most recent lockdown in Brisbane and their drinks (0 mins 10 secs)
• They're going to do their first live interview on the show. They set the scenes for the interview (4 mins 20 secs)
• Amby discusses briefly the guys' France v Austria 1 on 1 game on their Patreon feed and give a shout out to our latest Patreon supporter (7 mins)
• Amby flags that their $3 Patreon supporter level which used to get you a position in Kaner's presidential cabinet if he won (9 mins 15 secs)
• He goes onto discuss how Brisbane now has the sole negotiating rights with the International Olympics Committee for the 2032 summer olympics. Amby proposes that we need to get Diplomacy as an offcicial olympic sport and set up a lobbying campaign (10 mins 30 secs)
• Kaner outlines his decision to take a break from playing games at the moment (16 mins 40 secs)

Interview with Jamal Blakkarly

• Kaner & Amby bring Jamal into the interview. He quickly grabs a beverage (20 mins 30 secs)
• The guys congratulate Jamal on his win, beating Shane Cubis by one-eighth of an SC. Kaner asks which was the best game/country he played (23 mins 45 secs)
• Amby asks Jamal what it was like to be at last playing face-to-face tournaments since Covid (23 mins 45 secs)
• They talk about the vibe of the tournament and the players. Kaner asks about how aware Jamal was about the points (28 mins)
• Jamal discuses the mistakes he learnt in the tournament (31 mins 30 secs)
• Amby asks if Jamal's brother Jarni played (34 mins 50 secs)
• They discuss Jamal's game style and how its developed over time (36 mins 20 secs)
• They talk stabbing (39 mins)
• Amby asks about the social aspect of the tournament outside the games (46 mins 45 secs)
• He asks about what interaction he had with Shane as they headed toward the end of the tournament (49 mins 45 secs)
• Kaner asks if Jamal has a favorite country to play (51 mins 30 secs)
• Amby does a couple of shout outs for the other main tournament players (54 mins 40 secs)
• They start wrapping up the interview (57 mins)
• Post interview Kaner discusses how he sucks as England (58 mins)

Media Wars 2

• Amby announces the Media Wars 2 game (a game of Diplomacy content creators) has now started. He gives an outline of the players and the moves at the end of 1901 (59 mins)
• Kaner asks Amby why he thinks Austria tried moving into Venice (1 hr 6 mins 20 secs)
• Amby reflects on the number of units in fall 1901 that just held (1 hr 10 mins 50 secs)
• Amby mentions his plans for why he moved to Tyrolia will be discussed in the Patreon episode before they wrap up (1 hr 15 mins 45 secs)

Venues: Locked down at home, Brisbane

Drinks of choice:

Kaner: Somersby cloudy apple cider

Amby: Wynns Coonwarra estate cabinet shiraz merlot

Just a reminder you can support the show by giving it 5 stars on iTunes or Stitcher. And don't forget if you want to help improve the audio equipment... or get the guys more drunk, you can also donate at Patreon, plus you get extra podcast episodes!

Lastly, don't forget to subscribe so you get the latest Diplomacy Games episodes straight to your phone.

Thanks as always to Dr Dan aka "The General" for his rockin' intro tune.