A report by Jesper Bøje, VEKN National Coordinator of Denmark, with the help of four of the players. (Winner Sebastian to the right on the pic above. Black and white photos by Marko Saari.)

The 19th of May I had the pleasure to welcome 25 players to the Grand Prix: Aarhus. Something I had looked forward to for some months. After traveling around for 20 years it was nice to welcome people I met at my first EC in 2004 and people I met last year on the Grand Prix circuit. There were players that started just last year and players from when the game was first released.

What I am saying is, the field was diverse and I would think proberly the only premiere event that would have neither a Breaking the Bonds nor a Platinum Protocol deck and only 2 Gangrel wall decks. I asked various players to help form the report so here it is :)

Rookie - Allan Kirkeby:
“This was my first VTES tournament. It was a bit daunting to return to the game after almost 20 years, and then to do it at a tournament. I was unsure what to expect. I was both nervous and excited when I arrived.

My first game was a table of 5 danes. I was super confused about all the cards being played that I’d never seen before, but all my opponents were very helpful to explain their plays and the rules. This really made the experience a lot better, and it helped me feel really welcome. I had a great start, getting two big vampires out very fast (Zillah´s Valley FTW), and from there dominating the voting game on that table.

My second game was more tense. Everyone was able to defend their own position so we ended in a standoff. My last game was a disaster. My heavy vamps were too slow to hit the table, and my predator rush-bled me to death in 3-4 rounds.

In between games I had time to chat with many of the participants – people from all over Europe telling stories about their local VTES communities, and encouraging me to some day come to visit their tournaments.

I really enjoyed the tournament. I made some new friends and I hope to be playing more VTES games in the near future with some of them in Århus.”

Top 5 before the final:
1. Rodinei Teixeira de Camargo 2 GW, 6 VP
2. Sebastian Fredenberg 1 GW, 7 VP
3. Marcia Mota 1 GW, 7 GW
4. Marko Saari 1 GW, 6.5 VP
5. Martin Johansson 1 GW, 4.5 VP

Top Seed - Rodinei Camargo:
“I chose to prey on the weenie bleed deck because it was preying on the Chameleon deck, and I knew I would be a target for it, as I was the only player using Barons.

I expected to raise many minions with thing, since it was between two decks with little intercept against undirected actions. I imagined that the weenie deck would do 1 or 2 vps and then lose strength against Sebastian's Tremeres. I would then try to use bounce on his bleed, to help me take it out and get to 1 vs 1 against him.

But when I lost my only baron to a Chameleon in the third round and I suffered a bleed of 6 in the same turn, my chances were over.

Maybe preying on the Tremere and staying in front of the Malkavian big cap would be the best choice. But I didn't choose to prey on the Tremere because I knew he could do 3 vps quickly and take away my chance of winning. I thought I could control him, and did not expect to receive one cross-table Chameleon so fast, and without any baron it was impossible to stop Sebastian.”

Marcia, Martin, Sebastian, Marko and Rodinei.

Winner - Sebastian Fredenberg:
“Going into the finals things was not looking great, as I had played heads up against my prey, Rodinei, before and I came out the looser out of that battle. He was playing Gangrel barons and I had fairly low stealth and no block denial, so I had low hopes and decided to go for a slow build and see what happens.

Early on I got continuous pool gain via Ayse Dhanial and a Vessel, she also got a Heart of Nizchetus so I could cycle my cards early. I was pretty happy about that, but my prey had Kuyen and another vampire out.

My grand predator Marcia ran a weenie Computer Hacking deck and came out aggressively against Marko, who decided that Kuyen should switch sides via Chameleon. That opened the opportunity to me, and I tried Rodinei’s defences and started getting through, doing serious damage to his pool. I switched to an aggressive style and a few rounds later he was only on 4 pool but had a new baron out, however I had drawn a Misdirection and that locked down the baron and I could secure my first VP.

My next prey Marcia was in a bad shape having gotten hit by several Petra Resonances, but she had a few unlocked Dominate weenies. That was solved, again, by them joining Marko via Chameleon. Marcia only had 3 pool and Marko 1 at that point, so I was able to oust them both in the same turn.

The final boss was Martin. He had plenty of pool and did serious damage to me with a couple of Petra Resonance and votes, but in the end I had the numbers on my side; five dominate vampires. So I took Martin out using the very last bleed card left in my deck.

I really did not expect that win or even go to the finals, as it had been a long day and I had only slept for a couple of hours the night before. I was super tired, but that also put off a lot of pressure during the games and I did not do many mistakes.

I have not done a table sweep for many years, but this day I managed to do this twice, taking the right opportunities when they arose. Tremere is a good clan and getting an early Heart of Nizchetus is awesome. That combined with the timely Chameleons and some Petra Resonances really paved the way for my win.”

Sebastian Fredenberg´s tournament winning deck: “Unchain my Heart”

Crypt (12 cards)
1x Anu Diptinatpa 7 DOM NEC aus vic      Nagaraja:6
1x Ayelech    7 AUS DOM THA    prince   Tremere:6
1x Rutor    7 AUS DOM THA pro vic      Tremere:5
1x Lloyd Brooks   6 DOM THA aus pot   primogen Tremere:6
1x Trevon Parker 6 AUS DOM THA         Tremere:6
1x Chrysanthemum 5 AUS THA dom    primogen Tremere:6
1x Claus Wegener 5 DOM aus for tha       Tremere:5
1x Sri Sansa   5 DOM aus tha         Tremere:6
1x Ayse Dhanial   4 aus dom tha         Tremere:6
1x Lauren    4 aus dom tha         Tremere:6
1x Tarrence Moore 4 aus dom tha         Tremere:5
1x Monica Chang   3 dom tha          Tremere:5

Library (85 cards)
Master (21; 8 trifle)
1x Academic Hunting Ground
2x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Arcane Library
1x Chantry
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Metro Underground
1x Misdirection
3x Perfectionist
3x Vessel
3x Villein
2x Wash
1x Wasserschloss Anif, Austria

Action (17)
9x Govern the Unaligned
4x Magic of the Smith
4x Scouting Mission

Ally (2)
2x Ponticulus

Equipment (6)
1x Ankara Citadel, Turkey, The
1x Bowl of Convergence
2x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Ritual Goblet

Action Modifier (19)
5x Bonding
3x Conditioning
3x Foreshadowing Destruction
8x Mirror Walk

Combat (2)
2x Burst of Sunlight

Reaction (18)
6x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
3x Eyes of Argus
2x My Enemy's Enemy
3x On the Qui Vive
2x Telepathic Misdirection

Afterthoughts - Martin Weinmayer:
“Travelling to Denmark has been an enjoyable adventure. The Danish people are very welcoming and helpful; they even speak some German with us :)

The tournament venue had good tables and lighting. Everything was perfectly set up, and Jesper got the tournament started on time. (which is a rare sight in VTES tournaments in general). [Jesper: and might I add all other rounds ;-) ]

Because 4 player tables can be extremely unbalanced, I was delighted to play a 25-player tournament with equal chances in that regard.

So far. No excuses for my sweet and bitter triple zero result, also known as the infamous tricycle :)

I was playing a British Museum Living Manse Toolbox deck with an old group of 2-3 Tzimisce crypts. Meta reasoning led me to believe that there would be few vote decks, but unfortunately, those few decks appeared as my predator in two rounds. There was not a single bleed deck on any of my tables, rendering my bleed-bounce package of 24 cards basically useless. My deck had no crosstable capabilities, and thus I was not able to do much in my games. especially round 3 with Antti and Tero, I felt like I brought a butterknive to a gunfight :) I was in good company though, I cheered for Rodinei in the finals, and enjoyed some good talks with Hugh, Jesper and Antti. Without a doubt, i would return to Denmark.”

Thank you, Allan, Martin, Sebastian, Rodinei for your inputs. Thank you Marko for the black and white photos. Thank you Hugh for taking the time to come over and judge and a big thank to Lucas for taking a day out to help his dad with all the practical stuff running this tournement.

On a personal note and telling what a Grand Prix also can do. The VTES in Aarhus have been non-existing for 10-ish years. But this tournament got old Methuselahs out from the shadows, got players activated that I did not know about in the city and spawned general interest from the Cafe we plays in. Right now it seems that we will have the first meeting in many years this coming July with more than 10 players showing interest.

Thanks to Jesper for this VERY nice report, as well as to all players, organisers and sponsors!