Reported by José Fontenele, VTES Baron of Rio de Janeiro:

With the presence of 114 Methuselahs, Joab Rogério wins the biggest Brazilian VTES championship

On June 7th, the largest Brazilian VTES championship was held at the CSN Foundation Cultural Center in Volta Redonda, in the Paraíba Valley of Rio de Janeiro. The industrial city, gray due to the winter in the state, welcomed 114 excited players from all regions of Brazil to compete for the title of Brazilian VTES Champion in 2025. 


But the story of this great championship, which in the memories of the participants will become a reference for the next ones, began earlier, with the princes of Volta Redonda, Júlio Leal, and of Barra Mansa, Aylton Joe. Both had already partnered in CariocAÇO, the 2023 Rio de Janeiro Championship, the first major event in Volta Redonda, held with great success.

About this successful partnership, Aylton reflects: “Since we held CariocAÇO, it was clear to all of us that it was possible to go even further. Motivated by this feeling, Júlio signed up Volta Redonda to host the next Brazilian Championship, with a new challenge: to break the record for participants in a VTES tournament in Brazil.”

The initial goal, according to him, was bold: to gather 80 players, which would already be a record, given that the 2024 Brazilian championship had 48 people, an already impressive number. However, the community's engagement was so broad that the number of registrations and attendance in Volta Redonda was much higher than they imagined. 

Of the 125 registered, 114 players attended the national championship in Volta Redonda. For comparison, in 2005, when the first VTES championship was held in Brazil, there were only 8 players. Twenty years later, this massive participation shows us how much the game has conquered Brazil, the country that plays the most VTES in the world.

Partnerships and ready competitors

Júlio Leal, Prince of Volta Redonda, credits much of the success to the partnerships established. “I had the essential partnership of Aylton Joe — unbeatable in organization, cost calculations, spreadsheets and all practical details — and the fundamental support of the CSN Foundation. We began planning that lasted almost a year, resulting in the event that would become a landmark for VTES in Brazil. During this period, there were months of contacts, exchanges of information, search for support and building a group of sponsors who were fundamental to the extraordinary prize money we were able to offer”.

He also recalls that, on the eve of the championship, several local players helped them set up the tables and the event structure. “And the result was exciting. We had more than 100 participants — an impressive number for the reality of VTES in the country. Players from all corners of Brazil, passionate about the game, came to represent their playgroups and celebrate the community we built together”.

To accommodate so many Methuselahs in dispute, the championship had three preliminary rounds and more than twenty tables to distribute all the players. And as they say in Brazil, there is no meta, no dominant deck, but always a mystery: which deck should I take to the championship? Thus, what was noticed was a great diversity of decks, with many players having fun and meeting friends during the various tables.

In the competition between the participants, Aylton says that another objective was to observe the results of the players from the South Fluminense region. “As Archbishop of Barra Mansa, my main objective was to ensure that the players from the South Fluminense region had an outstanding performance, even when facing some of the biggest names in VTES in the country. And they exceeded expectations: they led the standings at several points in the tournament, and one of them reached the final table, losing only to our already renowned Joab”. 

Standings after round 3:
1. Vinicius Costalonga 3 GW, 10.0 VP, 180
2. Eduardo “Dudu” Victor de Souza Cibrao 2 GW, 10.0 VP, 174 TP
3. Leonardo Villela 2 GW, 9.0 VP, 138 TP
4. Giuseppe "Kela" Sciortino 2 GW, 8.5 VP, 174 TP
5. Joab Rogerio Barbosa da Silva 2 GW, 8.5 VP, 168 TP

After three rounds and many GWs in dispute, the final table was composed like this:

The winner of the tournament, Joab Rogério, will tell us about the final table: “Since I was last to go, I didn’t have the privilege of choosing the order, so I sat down first. Giuseppe wanted to hunt me, Léo wanted to be hunted by me, then Dudu wanted to be hunted by me too, and lastly, Vinícius Costalonga also wanted to be hunted by me. So, I was left hunting the Tzimisce, the Tzimisce hunting the Ravnos, the Ravnos hunting the Lasombra, who was Léo, and Léo hunting Giuseppe. I was also unlucky to be last of the five and also start the table. I couldn’t play a vampire on the first turn, only on the second. I played Lillian, one of the only vampires in my non-anarch deck.

After her, I played Thing and played Maximiliano. Since I had the bleed deck behind me, I didn’t have a passer, but I came out with 3 Villein in my first hand. So, in all the vampires I played, I played Villein 5. Guisepe was very aggressive in bleeding and I had to take it without being able to pass in the first instant. I noticed that Tzim also didn't attack at the beginning of the game on Ravnos. Ravnos was very aggressive with Leo. And Leo called the Spectral Servitor, which pays and untaps, and bleeds Giusepe too.

With that, I waited for the right moment, wasting my reactions, letting Tzim stop me, and then I untapped. He kept waking up and wasting his reactions. I realized that whenever he took an action, Vinicius didn't stop with the vampires standing. He wanted to spend his reactions to get the bleeds and kill Ravnos.

Then there came a point at the table where Giuseppe was reducing Léo's bleeds with the firstborn card, so Ravnos made a mistake, in my opinion, by using Anarch Troublemaker to cover Léo's vampires and pass the card to Léo. And he bleed Léo too hard and Léo didn't pass the bleed. So he thought the prey didn't have a passer and bleeded again. And Léo woke up and passed it to Giuseppe. And Giuseppe had to take that bleed. And when it was Leo's turn, Leo used Troublemaker and covered Giuseppe's standing vampire, and made the VP. Giuseppe was the first to leave the game.

At that point, I had about 25 points in the pool and Leo preferred not to attack me quickly because he knew he wouldn't be able to kill me, so he preferred to try to get past Ravnos' bleeds. He couldn't resist either and ended up losing to Ravnos. But before that, I had realized something: when Vinícius Costalonga risked his move, he wanted to kill both Ravnos and Leo in one turn, which would have made him win the tournament in a draw, since he had been the best placed in the previous rounds. So I played waiting for Costalonga to make a mistake. When he made a mistake trying to kill Ravnos, since I had already wasted a lot of his reaction time, he had no way of waking up and so I managed to kill my prey with just one bleed. In fact, it wasn't such a difficult VP to make because I waited for his mistake and when he made a mistake, I took him out of the game.

After that, Ravnos had killed Leo and it was up to me against Dudu. I had 23 pool, he managed to take 12 of my pool in one turn. And I kept bleeding them one by one until he had 4 pool and I had 6 minions. And then he reduced 2 of my bleeds, but still had two vampires. When he tried to block one, I had stealth. Here I think he also made a mistake because he should have tried to stop me before to make me spend stealth at the beginning. Because maybe I wouldn't have the card for the final bleed. I think he should have risked it earlier. But, in any case, I still had a Form of Mist in case he blocked me.

In the end, it was a really fun match to play. It was easy, because there were a lot of bleed decks and I only had to worry about pooling. Pooling, pooling. It wasn't the kind of table where I had to worry about rushing or walling decks. That was less of a concern. I was able to do all my actions, always passing down. Everything my vampires could do, I was able to do, so I only had to worry about bleed. In the end, I came out on top. I planned my strategy from the beginning. When I saw my position, I thought about attacking little by little without drawing too much attention. And it worked”.

The tournament winning deck: “Wolves of Winterfell 0.0”

Crypt (12 cards)
1x André the Manipulator 6 FOR PRO  Gangrel:5
1x Ángel Guerrero  7 ANI DOM PRO  baron Tzimisce:6
1x Casey Snyder  6 PRO ani cel for baron Gangrel:6
1x Hanna Nokelainen  4 ani for pro  Gangrel:6
1x Indira  3 PRO  Gangrel:6
1x Joaquín de Cádiz  3 for pro  Gangrel:6
1x Kamile Paukstys  5 PRO ani for  Gangrel:6
1x Kuyén  6 ANI PRO  baron Gangrel:6
1x Lillian  3 ani pro  Gangrel:5
1x Massimiliano  7 ANI FOR pro  baron Gangrel:6
1x Nathan Turner  4 PRO ani  Gangrel:6
1x Ruslan Fedorenko  2 pro  Gangrel:6

Library (90 cards)
Master (23; 7 trifle)
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Backways
1x Carfax Abbey
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Ecoterrorists
4x Effective Management
1x Ennoia's Theater
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Giant's Blood
1x Information Highway
2x Parthenon, The
1x Powerbase: Montreal
7x Villein

Action (14)
1x Rewilding
13x Thing

Political Action (5)
2x Consanguineous Boon
3x Revolutionary Council

Action Modifier (12)
1x Daring the Dawn
4x Earth Control
2x Monkey Wrench
5x Propaganda of the Deed

Action Modifier/Reaction (4)
4x Form of the Bat

Combat (15)
2x Claws of the Dead
9x Earth Meld
4x Form of Mist

Reaction (17)
7x Bait and Switch
2x Deep Ecology
6x Organized Resistance
2x Poison Pill

Celebrations and the 2026 Brazilian Championship

It was already night when Joab lifted the Brazilian VTES champion trophy. One of the biggest winners of the Brazilian VTES, Joab said that other players from Campina Grande had raised money so that he could leave Paraíba and come play in the championship. He thanked everyone who helped him and lifted the trophy that crowned the most competitive championship in recent times.

In parallel, it is worth mentioning that there was an important round table with the presence of the 5 best female players in the championship. The winner went to Dayane Tenório, from Rio de Janeiro, who played Lasombra Vote G4 with Bruce de Guy.


The celebration among the participants extended beyond the event. Many there knew each other from online gaming groups from different states and met for the first time in Volta Redonda. Regarding the success of the championship, Aylton tells us how proud he was to organize everything. “More than breaking records, BR 2025 showed the strength of our community and the ability to organize and unite around something we love.”

Júlio echoes this viewpoint. “We held a beautiful event, with everything a major championship deserves: a food court, an arcade with retro games, social areas, halls with dozens of gaming tables, and a beautiful auditorium with an impeccable stage for the grand final. Yes, it was hard work. It was exhausting. But I would do it all over again, without hesitation.”

The prince of Volta Redonda also emphasizes that an event held like this raises the level of future championships. “Our main goal — to present a professional-level event, raise the standard of championships in Brazil, and show that VTES can indeed have events as organized and grand as any other card game — was fully achieved.”

In closing, we would like to thank everyone who participated, supported, and contributed to making the 2025 Brazilian VTES Championship happen. As Júlio says, “this success is not mine, nor the organizing team’s — it belongs to the entire VTES community in Brazil.” Special thanks to the CSN Foundation and the event’s sponsors:
- Kléber Bertazzo, da Editora Conclave;
- Bruno Meleiro, da Dark Phoenix;
- Tiago Honorato, da Tiago VTES Store;
- Jean Corrêa, da Jean VTES Store;
- Yuri Waki, da Elísio VTES.

We would also like to thank the national coordinator, Márcio Pinheiro, for his representation with the BCP. In fact, before the final table, Márcio Pinheiro, following the policy of alternating the regions of the national championships, revealed that the city that will host the national championship in 2026 will be Campina Grande, in Paraíba, land of Joab. The 2025 champion will defend his second championship title at home. Will he be able to do so? We will find out next year. Until then, let's play VTES!

A HUGE thanks to José for this fantastic report, and thanks to all other organisers, sponsors and lovely players!