On September 12th, in the seaside town of El Tabito, Fifth Region of Chile, the latest edition of Twilight Camp took place. This event was especially significant, as it also served as the National Championship.
Twenty-two players gathered to compete for the title through three rounds filled with tension and strategic play. The level of the decks was worthy of the occasion, resulting in tables that were often difficult to close. Fortunately, the tournament ran smoothly and without incidents, reflecting once again the spirit of the community, known for its camaraderie and sense of fun.
Since the venue was a holiday retreat, participants were able to do much more than just play. The facilities offered space for barbecues, overnight stays, and even quick trips to the nearby beach.
The welcome pack was another highlight of the event. The dedication and care shown by VTES Concepción as organizers left a lasting memory for everyone who attended. Cardplanet's sponsorship of the prize support was another major contribution. In addition to the welcome pack, there were table-win prizes between rounds, raffle giveaways, and even a parallel “anti-final” played alongside the championship final.
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The three rounds remained competitive until the very last table, producing the following finalists:
• Roberto (Cardplanet), sponsor of the tournament prizes through his store. After receiving training to learn both the game and his deck, this newcomer to VTES, though experienced in other TCGs, reached the final with a Ravnos Kholo deck (1 GW, 5 VP).
• Consuelo, one of the strongest players in the current competitive circuit, surprised many with her Lasombra Bleed with Oblivion deck (1 GW, 5 VP).
• Chelo, who maintained a low profile throughout the event but consistently applied pressure whenever possible with his Ravnos “V5” G6 bleed deck (1 GW, 6 VP).
• Daniel, the National Coordinator, finally playing in an event after many occasions spent judging or organizing tournaments, brought his Barons + Protean deck (2 GW, 7 VP).
• Walbert, who once again dominated the preliminary rounds with his classic Tupdog Nephandus deck (3 GW, 10 VP).
The tension was already palpable during seating selection. The player who took the longest to decide was Walbert. His unusually lengthy consideration only increased the anxiety around the table.
During the opening turns, both the Lasombra and Ravnos V5 players adopted similar strategies. They focused on influencing vampires in order to awaken at least two minions simultaneously. This allowed the Tupdog deck several uncontested turns during which it sent Ravnos Kholo vampires to torpor, while Vivian Vi could only watch in distress as the young Ravnos were systematically dismantled.
By the fourth or fifth turn, the first Lasombra and Ravnos V5 vampires finally entered play. Ravnos Kholo concentrated on converting vampires into Laibon and expanding its board presence through Embraces, while the Barons deck pursued a similar strategy with Childer of the Revolution.
The pace of the game changed dramatically when Ravnos V5 nearly ousted Tupdog through a series of powerful bleeds. This opened opportunities for Consuelo's Lasombra deck, which turned its attention toward bleeding the Barons. The Barons redirected and blocked whenever possible, but like the Ravnos V5 player before them, they eventually found themselves only a card away from victory.
Once all Ravnos V5 vampires had been burned, Tupdog chose to oust the Lasombra player in order to gain pool, especially because Ravnos Kholo had already established a massive swarm. The Barons seemingly had all the tools necessary to remain in the game, but despite repeated attempts to cycle through their library, the intercept cards needed to stop either the Embraces or the Consanguineous Boons never appeared.
A brief ray of hope emerged when the Barons managed to put two Ashur Tablets into play, but Tupdog completed its own set first, eliminating any realistic chance of recovering the limited intercept cards from the ash heap.
Ravnos Kholo then secured its victory point and followed it with an Uncoiling that removed the Nefandos’ Unmasking, leaving them with virtually no capacity to block. The Tupdogs were unable to stop the Ravnos player once Week of Nightmares came into play.
The Barons resisted fiercely, sending the largest Ravnos vampires to torpor and draining blood from the smaller ones in an attempt to minimize the impact of Week of Nightmares. Despite their efforts, time was called, and Chile crowned a new National Champion:
Roberto – 2.5 VP, 1 GW
Walbert – 1 VP
Daniel – 0.5 VP
We would like to thank Roberto, the National Champion, and his store Card Planet for donating the tournament prizes; the El Tabito Cooperative for allowing us to use their facilities; and VTES Concepción together with its Prince, Rolo, for providing one of the most enjoyable tournaments of the last four years.
Twilight Camp has been forever etched into the hearts of Chilean VTES players.
The tournament winning deck:
Crypt (12)
1x Andrei Puxon
1x Ghivran Dalaal, The Dead God
1x Khalil Ravana
1x Anka, Priestess of Thorns
1x Salbatore Bokkengro
1x Sennuwy, The Promoter
1x Ashlesha
1x Lázár Dobrescu
1x Vedel Esbreno
1x Sasha Miklos
1x Spleen, Georgio Gutterpunk
1x Zip
Library (75)
Master (17)
1x Bleeding the Vine
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Emergency Preparations
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
1x Jake Washington
2x Pentex™ Subversion
4x Ravnos Carnival
1x The Barrens
1x Wash
2x Week of Nightmares
Action (30)
12x Mozambique Allure
18x The Embrace
Equipment (2)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Shilmulo Tarot
Political Action (10)
10x Consanguineous Boon
Action Modifier (13)
3x Change of Target
10x The Eldest Are Kholo
Reaction (2)
2x Delaying Tactics
Event (1)
1x The Uncoiling
Thanks for this report, and thanks to all sponsors, volunteers and players!
VTES EC 2026 Day 2 finalists: Bram, Tero, Héctor, Lech and Nina.
Words by Nerijus Mikalajunas, VEKN National Coordinator of Lithuania:
Thanks to all those that took part in EC 2026 in Vilnius!
A few years ago, the idea of bringing the EC to Vilnius seemed... ambitious. After the success of our Nationals, Daniel Bogdanovič, Prince of Vilnius, and I started wondering what could come next. What followed was a lot of planning and preparation – and eventually, the European Championship arrived in Vilnius.
We are very grateful to everyone who came and made it possible.
Players travelled from across Europe and beyond, making this one of the biggest European Championships in VTES history – and the biggest EC in terms of international visitors.
The week also saw some impressive numbers:
- The biggest VTES Grand Prix ever, with almost 200 players. Diego Di Nicolantonio won the SuperGP, while Martin Weinmeyer took the overall GP Circuit victory.
- The biggest Week of Nightmares tournament ever, with more than 90 players, won by Tero Aalto.
- Nikica Novaković won EC Day 1, a 196-player tournament. Read his report at the forum!
- Héctor Javier Ordoñez became the new European Champion after the 80-player Day 2.
VTES EC 2026 Day 1 finalists: Norbert, Balázs, Nikica, Ivan and Édouard.
But the numbers are only part of the story. What made the week special was having the VTES community together in Vilnius – playing games, meeting old friends, making new ones and spending time together outside the tournaments.
We were also very happy to hear how much so many of you enjoyed Vilnius and Lithuania. We wanted the EC to be a great VTES event, but we also hoped that those visiting from abroad would get a chance to experience the city and the country. It means a lot to us that so many of you enjoyed your time here.
A great deal of work also happened behind the scenes, and we would like to thank the people who helped make the event possible.
A special thank you to our Archons, Ben Fox and Teemu Pulkkinen, and to our Head Archon, Peitsa Suominen, for their work in running the tournaments. Ben Fox deserves a special mention for going well beyond his role as an Archon. He was heavily involved in organising the streaming, helped make the live coverage happen, and provided commentary for the finals throughout the event.
All tournament streams and recordings are available on the Rat Cat Youtube channel. Thank you to Marcin Zakrzewski for hosting the recordings and helping promote the event and its coverage.
We would also like to thank Lech Ivanov for hosting the Week of Nightmares, and Marius Žeimantas together with the entire Vilnius Circle and Wargamer.lt community for their help, support and hospitality throughout the event.
A special thank you to Jesper Bøje, the host of last year's EC in Denmark, for sharing his experience and advice and for supporting us with VTES-related event materials and resources.
The community also came together to support Ukraine through the charity auctions, raising €2,560. Thank you to everyone who donated, bid, bought items or helped spread the word, and especially to Ginés Quiñonero, Anastasiia Horbunova, Krzysztof Bieniawski, Ken Meyer Jr. and Lawrence Snelly for their generous contributions.
A special thank you also goes to Hugh Angseesing, who donated a collection of historical VTES artefacts and helped bring a piece of the game's history to the event.
None of this would have been possible without our sponsors and partners. Thank you to Black Chantry, Wampirowo, 4vgames.com, Battery, DeepCut and Ultra PRO for supporting the event and helping us bring it to life.
EC Day 2 Final – by Martin Weinmeyer
One of the most accomplished and active players in the VTES community, Martin Weinmeyer, has shared his thoughts from the EC Day 2 Final.
Finalists:
1. Nina Kim Nilsson (Sweden) 3 GW 10 VP Hecata Corpse Toolbox 0.5 VP in finals
2. Lech Ivanov (Lithuania) 2 GW 8 VP Legionnaire Swarm Bleed 0.5 VP in finals
3. Héctor Javier Ordoñez (Netherlands) 2 GW 5.5 VP Ministry Childe Toolbox 1.5 VP in finals
4. Tero Aalto (Finland) 1 GW 6.5 VP The Unnamed Bleed 0.5 VP in finals
5. Bram van Stappen (Belgium) 1 GW 6.5 VP Qawiyya el-Ghaduba Combat 0 VP in finals
Surrounded by swarm decks, Bram has to make a difficult choice to trust Héctor on the deal, allowing Bram to go forward. His deck doesn’t have enough resources to go against Héctor and still have a meaningful way to oust his top seed prey. Eventually the deciding moment comes for Héctor with 7 minutes on the clock. Would he honour his deal and let Bram win, or break it and claim victory for himself? What would you do?
Watch the final on the Rat Cat Youtube channel, and check out Héctor´s decklist and winner interview in the VEKN September 2026 newsletter.
And, most importantly, thank you to everyone who travelled to Vilnius and spent the week with us.
We are humbled that so many of you chose to be here. It was a privilege to host you, and we hope you enjoyed your time in Vilnius as much as we enjoyed having you here.
For us, the best part of the whole experience was simply seeing so many familiar faces in one place, meeting people we had only known through the game, and sharing a few days together around the tables.
We will remember this week for a long time. Thank you for making it special.
The Iron Wolf has howled.
See you at the tables – and see you in Germany.
Best regards,
Nerijus
The Judge team: Teemu, Ben and Peitsa.
Artist Anastasiia Horbunova, organiser Nerijus Mikalajunas and artist Krzysztof Bieniawski.
Sunday Club Torpor finalists.
Thanks for hosting this glorious event Nerijus, and thanks to all the other organisers, sponsors and players. And thanks to Marko Saari for the nice photos!
CometCon'26 took place in Gijón, Spain, on 5-6 September and made plenty of room for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. AsturMeeple hosted a weekend dedicated to the game, bringing together regular players, veterans returning to the tables and new faces drawn by something especially interesting: the 2-player format.
The action started on Saturday with a Standard tournament, which attracted 20 players. On Sunday, it was time for the 2-player variant proposed by Black Chantry Productions and currently under development.
The response was immediate. 17 players registered for the 2-player tournament, with 14 actually taking their seats at the tables. The remaining three arrived after the tournament had already started. In just two and a half hours, the tournament was over, leaving behind plenty of conversations, plenty of enthusiasm to play again, and above all, one clear feeling: the format works!
A faster, more accessible VTES
The 2-player format offers a different way of approaching VTES. By reducing the game to two players, it removes one of the main practical barriers for many players: finding the time and the people needed to organise a traditional game. At CometCon, this became particularly obvious. Players who had stopped taking part in tournaments because of time constraints returned to the tables. Others who knew VTES but had always found it difficult to fit into their lives decided to give it a try. And there were also new players who found in the format an easier way to approach the game.
Some of the comments heard during the event perfectly captured that feeling:
“I can finally play in a tournament without it becoming a strain on my family life.”
“This format doesn’t cost Family Points.”
“I can actually fit this format around my shift work.”
The format also allows many of the core mechanics of VTES to be experienced in shorter, more manageable games: Stealth/Intercept, Combat (maneuvers, additional strikes and prevention), and Politics (votes and modifiers).
It is true that the interaction with the rest of the table is lost, but that also makes it particularly interesting as an introductory format. For someone just starting out, it offers a way to experience the main pillars of VTES without having to jump straight into a traditional game that can last several hours.
Note: It is important to remember that the 2-player format is still under development. VEKN has an open playtest to gather players’ experiences and feedback, and both the rules and the list of allowed cards continue to evolve. Our experience at CometCon shows that the format has great potential, but there is still work to be done.
But the most important thing happened outside the standings
The tournament’s greatest success was who sat down to play. The 2-player format managed to re-energise a community that had been somewhat dormant for a while, bringing back players who had left the game and attracting others who simply had never found the right time or the right group of players to return.
It is not just about finding out whether the rules work. It is also about finding out whether the format can make more people want to play VTES. And at CometCon, the answer was clearly positive. The tournament left behind good memories, conversations about the future of the format, and plenty of enthusiasm to play it again. For a variant that is still growing and evolving, there may be no better result than finishing a tournament with players asking when they will be able to play again.
The tournaments were made possible thanks to our friends
The tournaments were also made possible thanks to the support of companies and partners who backed the event. Players received gaming supplies and prizes provided by Ultra PRO, Dragon Shield, Gamepod, Cónclave Ibérico and Black Chantry Productions. This kind of support is especially important. It means that a tournament at a larger event can be more than just a competition: it can also be a showcase for the game and an opportunity to introduce VTES to new players.
We would especially like to thank Dragon Shield, whose support for AsturMeeple marks the beginning of a collaboration that is here to stay. Their backing will be important as we continue promoting VTES and card games at future events.
CometCon also marked our first collaboration with Gamepod, who provided supplies for participants as well as discounts. We are especially happy with this first experience and hope it will be the beginning of a long-lasting collaboration.
Ultra PRO, Dragon Shield, Gamepod, Cónclave Ibérico and Black Chantry Productions, thank you for supporting the tournament and for helping make this VTES celebration at CometCon’26 possible. Veterans, returning players, and new faces. But above all: a lot of people who wanted to play. See you at the tables!
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