The Board Game of the Alpha Nerds (2014)

At a competitive Diplomacy tournament in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the author played the strategic board game for eight hours alongside six other players vying for a world championship title. The game, which requires negotiation and alliance-building among players representing different nations, demonstrated how quickly trust dissolves and betrayals occur, as the author's early alliance with player Brian Ecton ultimately collapsed when he refused to support the author's military position, leaving the author eliminated and other frustrated competitors blaming them for their loss.