Reported by Ben Peal:
Hey, everyone! Many thanks to everyone who attended Origins, the North American Championship, and the Week of Nightmares this year! We had a big boost in attendance, including several players from Europe!
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Photography by Marko Saari.
Here's a quick recap of the Origins weekend:
Thursday, June 20
Day One of Origins started off with a 36-player tournament, won by Vadim Matveev. He played a very original Budapest Circle Blood Brothers deck (decklist link), using the British Museum and blood gain tech to set up big, unblockable bleeds with Walk of Caine. He won both preliminary rounds of this two-round tournament, plus the final!
37 plyers attended the second tournament of the day, which was won by Darby Keeney, no stranger to the winner's circle. This time around for Darby, it was a Brujah Anarch combat deck which centered around Illegalism and Line Brawl (decklist link) - and an awful lot of red cards. It looks like a lot of metagame tech against the Earth Melds and Forms of Mist we've been seeing a lot of, and it served Darby well.
Friday, June 21
Big jump in attendance for this one, with 47 players. Mariya Hyryk won with Brujah, going with Dmitra Ilyanova political deck instead of Anarchs (decklist link). It's the second tournament win for Mariya, raised properly by her father Mark Loughman!
Darby Keeney continued his dominance of the week with his third tournament win, using an unnamed deck. Well, the deck has a name - it's called Six Demon Bag. And it uses the vampire called The Unnamed (decklist link). 44 players in this one, and they all had names.
VTES artist Heather Kreiter.
Saturday, June 22 - the North American Championship
The steady climb in attendance at Origins tournaments continued, with the North American Championship hosting 54 players! After one of the most intense final rounds you'll ever see, Bill Troxel emerged victorious with a Tzimisce Anarch deck! It was a dominant performance by Bill, with three game wins in the preliminary rounds and the game win in the final.
The rankings going into the final round:
1. Bill Troxel (3 GW 10.5 VP)
2. James Messer (2 GW 9 VP)
3. Mark Figuerola (2 GW 8 VP)
4. Will Matson (2 GW 7 VP)
5. Darby Keeney (2 GW 7 VP)
Mark Figuerola came out like gangbusters to start the final, eventually overwhelming Will Matson's Lord Tremere deck for the first oust. James Messer was able to get enough defense going to hold off Darby, and Darby also had his hands full defending against his new predator Mark. Stuck between a hammer and an anvil, Mark was eventually ousted by Bill Troxel. With three players remaining, it was just a matter of time before Darby drew a Pentex to get past Ugadja, and James didn't have a Sudden or Wash in hand. Down to the head-to-head, Darby lunged but came up short, with Bill claiming victory. (An interview with the champion can be found in the VEKN newsletter.)
Bill´s tournament winning deck:
Crypt (12 cards)
4x Adrino Manauara 8 ANI DOM PRO pot baron Tzimisce:6
3x Ángel Guerrero 7 ANI DOM PRO baron Tzimisce:6
1x Branimira 6 ANI dom pre pro baron Tzimisce:6
1x Kuyén 6 ANI PRO baron Gangrel:6
1x Clara Hjortshøj 5 PRO ani aus dom Tzimisce:6
1x Kamile Paukstys 5 PRO ani for Gangrel:6
1x New Blood 2 san Blood Brother:ANY
Library (86 cards)
Master (16; 4 trifle)
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Carfax Abbey
1x Channel 10
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Giant's Blood
1x Papillon
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
2x Villein
2x Wider View
Action (15)
3x Deep Song
12x Govern the Unaligned
Political Action (2)
2x Eat the Rich
Action Modifier (8)
4x Conditioning
4x Earth Control
Action Modifier/Reaction (3)
3x Form of the Bat
Combat (17)
1x Donnybrook
9x Earth Meld
7x Form of Mist
Reaction (25)
4x Bait and Switch
4x Deep Ecology
4x Deflection
3x Delaying Tactics
1x On the Qui Vive
7x Organized Resistance
2x Protection Racket
Many thanks again to everyone who attended! A special thanks goes out to Jay Kristoff for running the Week of Nightmares events leading up to the Origins weekend! Thanks also go out to Comic Shop Plus in Newark, R Bar in Columbus, and of course the Origins Game Fair for graciously hosting the events! I look forward to seeing more of you next year!
Some additional photos by Marko Saari from the Week of Nightmares events:
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And there was a Jyhad draft!
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André on the left, with Baron José Fontenele and the special award playmat.
Reported by José Fontenele, Baron of Rio de Janeiro.
On the weekend of June 16, 2024, the Third Edition of the Rookie League took place at Manavai, located in Campo Grande, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The tournament was created with the aim of introducing the game to new methuselahs, and, in this third edition, it featured a healthy mix of 28 players, including experienced and beginners playing VTES.
It is important to mention that it was the first official tournament in this location and that, despite the fear of scheduling the event in a new location, players from all over the state of Rio de Janeiro appeared at the event. Showing the strength of the largest playgroup in the country, we have methuselahs from São João de Meriti, Sepetiba, Nova Iguaçú, Volta Redonda and different neighborhoods of the state capital.
I want to highlight that there was a special award that may have motivated so many players to come: a playmat with official Black Chantry art for the winner. The art was kindly provided by Ginés Quiñonero, whom I thank for his attention and generosity. In addition to the awards, what was seen was a meeting of new and experienced Methuselahs exchanging opinions about the game and discussing winning strategies.
After 2 big rounds, the final table featured the following decks and players:
In the end, André Luiz became the winner with his Salubri V5 Grinder. I asked him to write down his vision of the final table and received the following words:
“As they say… the last will be the first. I entered the table in fifth place. Since I had a !Malk B&S deck under my belt, I thought I´d raise a vampire as quickly as possible. Saulot gave me his blessing. I started with Powerbase: Montreal and Sight Beyond Sight in hand and with 4 influence to go. I started calling the Ukrainian soldier [Opikun], and placing the master Sight Beyond Sight to defend against !Malk attacks. The main vampires Abaddon and Serafina did not come to this table. I had to turn around. When a Smilling Jack hit the table, everyone agreed to try to remove it, giving 2 turns of peace when it came out. Once again the Ukrainian soldier saved the day by taking Smilling from Felipe. In these 2 turns of peace I managed to set up my setup and disturb José a little… remembering that the agreement was 2 turns without bleed. When Alan played another Smilling, everyone again agreed to remove it, and once again Salubri managed to do the dirty work by removing the Smilling. Alan tried to negotiate not to take it away, but Smilling… you know… has been winning tables since 1994.
Without Smilling at the table, everyone went back to normal play. As Alan was aggressively rushing the !Malks, Notorius began the retaliation by bleeding backwards. I started attacking my prey with a lot of bleeds and block-fails, and José started doing the same with his prey. I was impressed by the number of bleed-bouncing cards that Felipe used to survive Malk attacks. He used Heart of Nizchetus very well to filter the deck. Felipe managed to divert all of Malk bleeds to Alan, and then managed to take out his prey with his bleeds. Alan was the first placed in the tournament for the table and the first to leave the table... as it should be...
As the !Malk deck was left without a predator, Salubri got a target on its forehead. !Malk, without mercy or mercy, began to bleed heavily. I managed to pass some bleeds and block others (I took Coma x2). Even though Notorius bleeds all the time, I managed to take José´s Malk out of the game.
Now it got serious. Tremere and !Malk joined forces to weaken the Salubri as much as possible. Saulot gave his blessing once again. I managed to get through and take some !Malk bleeds without much harm and prevented the Tremere aggravations. Finally I managed to take out the Tremere and went all in on the !Malks with the gang of angry Salubri: 5 vampires. Victory!!!!! The Salubri V5 deck, with its new cards, considerably improves the grinder archetype.”
The tournament winning deck: "Salubri V5 Grinder"
Crypt (12 cards)
2x Abaddon 8 AUS DOM FOR cel pot Salubri:7
1x Seraphina 8 AUS DOM FOR cel tha Salubri:7
2x Ilonka 7 AUS DOM FOR tha Salubri:7
2x Aniel 6 AUS DOM for Salubri:7
1x Castellan 6 AUS FOR cel dom Salubri:7
1x Malachi 6 AUS DOM FOR Salubri:7
1x Sakhar 6 AUS FOR dom Salubri:7
2x Opikun 5 FOR aus dom Salubri:7
Library (90 cards)
Master (14; 3 trifle)
2x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Direct Intervention
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Meditative Grove
1x Misdirection
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Saulot´s Guiding Wisdom
1x Sight Beyond Sight
1x Sudden Reversal
3x Vessel
Action (14)
8x Feast of the Soul´s Secrets
6x Govern the Unaligned
Action/Combat (4)
4x Touch of Valeren
Equipment (2)
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Heart of Nizchetus
Action Modifier (20)
2x Conditioning
5x Forced Confessional
1x Foreshadowing Destruction
6x Freak Drive
3x Seduction
3x Unleashing the Bestial Soul
Combat (14)
6x Hidden Strength
4x Rolling with the Punches
4x Weighted Walking Stick
Reaction (22)
6x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
6x Eyes of Argus
2x My Enemy´s Enemy
2x On the Qui Vive
4x Telepathic Misdirection
I want to thank Editora Conclave and Baron Márcio who helped with the promotional cards for the event and all the participants present. It was just the first of many. Let´s play VTES!
Report by Kleber Bertazzo, VEKN National Coordinator of Brazil:
On the weekend of June 8th 2024, the Brazilian VTES Championship 2024 took place at the Garagem do Nerd store, located in the city of Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais. This championship was marked by being the 20th Brazilian VTES Championship as well as the cardgame's 30th anniversary championship.
Although there were some problems during the final table of the event, the preliminary tables took place calmly and harmoniously, with very few interventions from the judges. The players behaved in an exemplary manner and at the end of each table everyone interacted with each other, exchanging different experiences.
The championship was attended by 48 players and set the mark for the biggest Brazilian championship of all time. Several states were represented at the event, Ceará, Distrito Federal, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Pará, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and several meta games fought in the biggest national clash in history.
Check out this VERY cool video from the event by Garagem do Nerd TV:
The final table was attended by the following players:
Alan Winter (São Paulo) with 3 GWs and 10 VPs
Márcio Pinheiro (Fortaleza) with 2 GWs and 10 VPs
Guilherme Pereira (Viçosa) with 2 GWs and 9 VPs
Anderson Silva (Guarulhos) with 2 GWs and 8 VPs
Vinícius Costalonga (Vila Velha) with 2 GWs and 8 VPs
Highlight for Guilherme Pereira, who reached the final playing only his second presencial tournament!
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After Márcio and Vinícius had won 1 VP, Alan was forced to make a deal with Vinícius to remove Márcio from the table. With the objective achieved, and with 2 VPs, Vinícius did not need to honor the agreement since, as a rule, all agreements are canceled 1 vs 1 game. Therefore, it was easy for Vinícius to eliminate Alan, winning the 2024 Brazilian title, with 4 VPs in the final. Congratulations to CHAMPION Vinícius Costalonga!!!
The tournament winning deck: Old But Good
Crypt (12 cards)
4x Arika 11 DOM FOR OBF PRE aus cel inner circle Ventrue:2
2x Lucinde, Alastor 10 DOM FOR PRE obf pot tha justicar Ventrue:3
2x Marcus Vitel 10 DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE prince Ventrue:3
2x Queen Anne 10 DOM FOR PRE aus obf prince Ventrue:2
1x Greger Anderssen 7 AUS OBF dom pro prince Malkavian:2
1x Catherine du Bois 5 DOM for obf pre Ventrue:3
Library (90 cards)
Master (18; 5 trifle)
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
2x Information Highway
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Ventrue Headquarters
5x Villein
5x Zillah's Valley
Event (1)
1x Scourge of the Enochians
Action (10)
2x Entrancement
8x Govern the Unaligned
Political Action (14)
1x Ancient Influence
3x Banishment
4x Kine Resources Contested
4x Parity Shift
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power
Action Modifier (25)
3x Conditioning
3x Forgotten Labyrinth
8x Freak Drive
4x Into Thin Air
3x Perfect Paragon
4x Voter Captivation
Action Modifier/Combat (3)
3x Swallowed by the Night
Action Modifier/Reaction (2)
2x Murmur of the False Will
Combat (6)
6x Majesty
Reaction (11)
6x Deflection
3x On the Qui Vive
2x Second Tradition: Domain
I would like to record my thanks to Mozart and Felipe for both organizing the event and organizing the physical structure of the store. Finally, I would like to thank all the players present and those who were unable to attend for all the support given during my period of national organization.
Now I pass the scepter to Baron Márcio, who has once again prepared himself to direct our beloved cardgame nationally. GOD SAVE THE KING!!!
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