Greetings fellow Methuselahs
You look a bit pale, are you sure you had enough sun lately? Did I say sun?! I mean BLOOD of course – have who had enough blood? There´s nothing like a good old hunt action is it? Or maybe you prefer a bleed for six pool? Anyway, EC 2017 is over, and what an experience it was. And now the NAC is coming up, with no less than eleven tournaments!


EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 SUMMARY
Five V:TES tournaments where played during the World of Darkness Berlin convention, a big gathering of all kinds of World of Darkness-related stuff, hosted by White Wolf on 11-14 May. We won´t delve much further in the non-V:TES-activities, but there were several large larps, playtesting of next V:TM, workshops, contests, presentations, speeches (White Wolf, Mark Rein-Hagen, Justin Achilli, etc.) – if you want to know more about all that, check out www.worldofdarkness.berlin

On Friday: Nation´s Cup gathered 76 players and had two finals. The “best players final” was won by Alain Greiner (FRA) playing a Nephandus deck. The “best team final” was won by Emiliano Imeroni representing Belgium, playing a ani-weenie deck with anarch tech.

On Friday: Storyline “Ascension of Caine” had 39 players and was won by Rudolf Garski (GER) playing a Lasombra Baltimore Purge deck (list here). 

On Saturday: EC 2017 day 1 had a whopping 157 starting players, which is a record for the EC day 1 tournament. Winner was Francois Greiner (FRA) playing a Ventrue princes with sticks deck (list here).

On Sunday: A “Shadow Twin” standard constructed tournament replaced the usual First Chance Qualifier event. 88 persons entered and Cedric Goffaux (FRA) won with a Nana Buruku & Enkidu ANI+POT rush deck (list here).

On Sunday: EC 2017 day 2 was fought by the top 40 players from day 1. The new European champion is Danilo Torrisi (ITA), playing a Saulot & The Capuchin wall deck with anarch tech. See below for an interview with Danilo. More information on all decks that was played on day 2 can be found here. A transcript of the final table can be read here.

The total sum of the turnout at EC 2017 is 400, which is the most since Budapest 2012. This is the first time attendance didn´t require qualification, but another reason for the high attendance was of course the Anthology set, given and sold to all event ticket holders. A complete card list for the new set can be found at www.worldofdarkness.berlin/vtes

Another storyline, “The Line”, was played in a less formal fashion during the weekend. Storyline coordinator Mike Nudd will tell more about the results of the storylines later – you are all still welcome to run your own storyline events and report your results to

A couple of interesting meetings also took place. Representatives from V:EKN met White Wolf to discuss the future of V:TES – it was a good meeting but we have nothing to disclose at this moment. However, we recommend you to watch the White Wolf keynote presentation from Berlin. V:TES is mentioned a couple of times and you are given some peeks into the upcoming metaplot for the World of Darkness setting. Also the annual National Coordinators meeting was held. Among the things that were discussed was where the 2018 EC will be arranged – more about that later.

The V:EKN would like to give a special acknowledgement to the non-European players who came a long way, from Brazil, Chile, USA and other places. Also a special thanks to the players took the time off to run V:TES demo games for interested not-yet-V:TES-players at the event, primarily Kai Kimmerle. There was a constant pressure for such games, and those who volunteered are worth great praise. And also of course thanks to the tournament organisers: Mike Nudd, Hugh Angseesing, Serge Cirri and Vincent Ripoll. Thank you!

You can read more about EC 2017 at Extrala´s special blog vtesec2017.wordpress.com, including deck lists for final tables, statistics and reports of Extrala´s own efforts.

Congratulations to all winners and thanks to everyone who attended!


INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH: DANILO TORRISI, EUROPEAN CHAMPION 2017

Congratulations Danilo! Let´s start with the day 1 tournament. What deck did you play and what was your strategy?
- I played a very aggressive political/bleed deck with Rafael de Corazon, Mistress Fanchon, Rebekah and Maris Streck. The strategy is to start fast with Zillah´s Valleys, bleed with Flurry of Action at superior and then vote. I played this kind of deck because I think many players have aggressive decks in day 1 to try to take a single game win to qualify for day 2. I used a bleed+political deck because many players have defense agains bleed but nothing against political.

How did it go?
- It worked very well in the first round. I took 4 vp in less than 50 minutes. In the second round unfortunaly there was a Tupdog deck at the table. It rushed down all vampires cross table, so zero points for me. In the third round I was in a table with two wall decks; one Gangrel deck and one Carna grinder deck. No ousts and 0,5 vp for everyone – a very boring game. So I got to day 2 with 1 gw and 4,5 vp.

So, what about day 2? How did you choose your deck?
- In day 2 I played a wall deck based on auspex and fortitude. The two big vampires in the crypt are Saulot and The Capuchin, but there are also some smaller vampires with aus and for, and Anarch Converts for an anarch strategy with Anarch Revolts and some other cards. I chose to play a wall because in day 2 there is less aggressive deck, so the game is usually slow. A deck like mine needs time to grow up, but when I have Saulot, The Capuchin and maybe another vampire, and eleven cards in my hand, I feel kind of immortal! My strategy is to stay alive, let some players be ousted and then play Smiling Jack or Anarch Revolt and try to defend it against only two methuselahs to take the game win. (Danilos deck list http://www.vekn.net/forum/event-reports-and-twd/75788-ec-2017-day-2-tournament-winning-deck#81853)

How did you perform in the preliminary rounds?
- The first round I took zero vp. There was two animalism-weenies, one Nana Buruku deck and one gargoyle bruise-bleed deck at the table, so my Saulot had to visit torpor many times. The second game was me > Toreador AAA guns > Toreador AAA guns > Celerity weenie with guns > Toreador AAA vote. Many contests in that game! The third game was me > Arika vote > Giotto Verducci bleed/vote > Montano Baltimore Purge > MMPA animalism with Aksina & Cybele. Both these games was good for me because they were slow. I had time to build my wall defense and won both games with 4 vp, so I was first seed in the final with 2 gw and 8 vp.

What was your strategy in the final? What was the threats for you on that table?
- My strategy was sit with Noora as predator because Saulot is immune to damage from The Unnamed and I can deflect bleeds on my prey. That way I can focus on Orian and try to stop him cross table with Eagle´s Sight or Delaying Tactics. I have no problem with Nephandus because my vampires can prevent damage and kill them easy. So my greatest problem was the Tzimisce deck, because I didn´t know what kind of combat he played and I don´t know the player. So I tried to play with two alternative strategies: block everything threatening and try to keep all players alive for two hours, or with Nooras help kill my prey with deflected bleeds. The first one worked better! :-)

Is there anyone you want to thank who helped you succeed in the EC this year?
- I want to thank all my friends in Team Italy. We talk a lot and try to help each other to build decks and choose what decks to play. This year it worked out very good for me! :-)


NAC AND WEEK OF NIGHTMARES COMING UP
North American Championship events at Origins and Week of Nightmares events are posted on the vekn.net calendar.

Week of Nightmares events start on Saturday, June 11 and will be at Fabian's Pizza at 691 N. High St in Columbus, just down the street from the convention center.
Sunday June 11: 2:00 pm start
Monday June 12: 11:30 pm start and 6:00 pm start
Tuesday June 13: 11:30 pm start and 6:00 pm start
Wednesday June 14: 11:30 pm start and 6:00 pm start

North American Championship events are at Origins starting on Thursday, June 15:
Thursday June 15: Constructed, 11:00 am start
Friday June 16: NAC Day One, 11:00 am start
Saturday June 17: NAC Day Two, 11:00 am start
Sunday June 18: First Chance Qualifier, 10:00 am start

Be sure to sign up for a FULL SHOW BADGE and use the VEKN club code. This coupon code will remove $30 from the cost of the badge. Coupon Code: LwXcDYSx


DESIGN TEAM NEWS
Round Two of the Bloodlines set playtest is underway! Round Two will conclude at the end of June. We're aiming for a late summer release for the set. If you'd like to join the playtest, please contact our Playtest Coordinator, Hugh Angseesing.


CALENDAR
Upcoming events:
June 3 - Cape Town Pre-Nationals Tournament - Cape Town, South Africa
June 4 - LIGA_NOVA_ERA_BRASIL- PB - Storm Hammer - Campina Grande, Brazil
June 11 - After Anthologies - Badía del Vallés, Catalunya, Spain
June 11 - Week of Nightmares event 1 - Columbus, USA
June 12 - Week of Nightmares event 2 - Columbus, USA
June 12 - Week of Nightmares event 3 - Columbus, USA
June 13 - Week of Nightmares event 4 - Columbus, USA
June 13 - Week of Nightmares event 5 - Columbus, USA
June 14 - Week of Nightmares event 6 - Columbus, USA
June 14 - Week of Nightmares event 7 - Columbus, USA
June 15 - LIGA_NOVA_ERA_BRASIL-AM - Fortitude Master - Manaus, Brazil
June 15 - V:TES Constructed Tournament - Columbus, USA
June 16 - V:TES North American Championships Day 1 - Columbus, USA
June 17 - V:TES North American Championships Day 2 - Columbus, USA
June 17 - Campeonato Brasileiro de VTES 2017- Manaus, Brazil
June 17 - ICON SA 2017 - Midrand, South Africa
June 17 - German ECQ: Grapple in the Art Museum, Vol. 4 - Bad Nauheim, Germany
June 17 - Brno Nights I. - Brno, Jihomoravský kraj, Czech Republic
June 17 - Bewitching Oration - Paris, France
June 18 - V:TES First Chance Qualifier - Columbus, USA
June 25 - Liga_"NOVA ERA"_Brasil_AP - Restricted Vitae - Macapá, Brazil
June 25 - ALOHA - São Paulo, Brazil

For more information on upcoming events see the V:EKN Event Calendar.


CONTACT V:EKN
You can contact the V:EKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at V:EKN.net. Also follow the official V:TES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and the official V:EKN Twitter account @VEKN_VTES

Blood and souls!