Reported by Radovan Vitek, VEKN Prince of Bratislava and the champion:

Recently we held our 2nd National Championship in recent history and as expected, international pool of players arrived including competitors from Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Serbia. As it is custom to this event atmosphere was friendly, yet fairly competitive and players did their maximum to help maintain tournament schedule.

Hello there, this is Milos Krstic with a brief tournament report on Slovak National Championship.

So, I started my journey by traveling for 7 hours from Belgrade to Vienna on Thursday and after some casual VTES games and drinks followed by a bit of rest I met with Martin Weinmayer and the gang, and we were off to Bratislava.

Venue was nice with a separate room just for VTES tournament in the Vivo! shopping mall and after some coffee and sandwiches we started the first round.

I was piloting my trusty deck know locally as "Gangrel Stena" (Gangrel Wall), a fairly standard block and bleed deck with a few twists of my own.

My first round was a table of 4 with Malk DEM stealth/bleed, DEM weenie swarm and Kiasyd stealth/bleed all trying to kill each other while I managed to set-up some defenses and after my Kiasyd predator getting ousted was able to oust other two players with the help of Club Illusion and Revolutionary Council by having most votes on the table. 1 GW, 3 VPS

Second round was even tougher for me with Baron Death Star, DOM Malk stealth/bleed and Ravnos V5 stealth/bleed comprising another table of 4. While being hand-jammed in the beginning and taking some 12 pool damage from predator, my prey was building a roster of barons/children of revolution and going forward while Malk was doing small bleed forward of which most were reduced, but a lucky deflection of a bleed for 6 by me on my prey followed by a Direct Intervention on their redirection and few bleeds of my own got me an oust. Alas, after Malk managed to oust the Ravnos and with clock ticking away they had just enough stealth to push two big bleeds through and secure a win. 1 VP

Third round saw me playing finally at a full table with V5 Banu/Victoria Ash stealth/bleed, Dianna Toreador Politics, Shalmath rush and Assamites stealth/bleed. Shalmath fell first to bleeds and politics, followed by Banu and Diana courtesy of my Club Illusion swarm bleeding every turn as the clock was running down. In last turn I was lucky enough to top-deck an Organized Resistance and stop the last Assamites lethal bleed. Time was called and I ended up a winner with 1 GW, 2.5 VPS.

Top 5 before the final:
1. Martin Weinmayer 2 GW 8.0 VP
2. Rostislav Husa 2 GW 7.0 VP
3. Milos Krstic 2 GW 6.5 VP
4. Christoph Bongartz 2 GW 6.0 VP
5. Peter Zittnan 1 GW 7.0 VP

So, coming into Finals with a total of 2 GWs and 6.5 VPs I hoped for a better position then number 3, but was left with a choice of sitting on either side of 2 similar DOM Malk V5 deck so I opted having what I thought was a weaker player as predator (it was their first tournament and finals, congratz). Other two decks were Diana Toreador Politics and Martin with Path of Power Aaradhya bleed/politics deck.

Martin chose to sit opposite of me to avoid getting blocked and being vote locked-out so the final order was: Gangrel->Toreador->Ventrue->Malk->Malk with me going first chosen by a roll of a die.

Immediately disaster struck as my 2-cap with Heart of Nizchetus was burned by Scourge of the Enochians and my Zoo Hunting Ground being burned by Martin's cross-table Cold War, after which I was forced to retaliate with 8 pool damage on him by deflecting bleed and giving votes to my prey for Camarilla's Iron Fist leading to a truce being called between us. By being able to defend successfully against bleeds soon my predators fell one by one until I was in a heads-up with Diana, but time being the issue I knew I had to go all-in and after two turns of bleeds and defending the best I could against politics and bleeds last pool of my prey was gone and with 2 VPs I was crowned the Champion of Slovakia.

Tournament organization was professional with a precise timetable, many promos during each round and fine prize support for the finalists, so I would like to thank Radovan Vitek for his effort in organizing a really nice event with great atmosphere, pleasant but very competitive players and lots of fun. Was a blast to play there and I will come again for sure.

Special shout-out to Martin who was kind enough to take us there and back with his car, and for not burning any more of my locations. Thanks man, you're the best!

Peace, Milos

The tournament winning deck: “Mama Said Knock You Out” by Milos Krstic

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

Library (90 cards)
Master (27; 5 trifle)
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Backways
1x Barrens, The
1x Carfax Abbey
2x Club Illusion
2x Direct Intervention
1x Ecoterrorists
1x Ennoia's Theater
2x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Information Highway
1x Life Boon
1x Papillon
1x Parthenon, The
1x Powerbase: Los Angeles
1x Powerbase: Montreal
2x Powerbase: Savannah
1x Rack, The
3x Vessel
2x Villein
1x Zoo Hunting Ground

Action (9)
9x Thing

Political Action (1)
1x Revolutionary Council

Equipment (2)
2x Heart of Nizchetus

Retainer (6)
1x Mr. Winthrop
5x Raven Spy

Action Modifier (3)
3x Earth Control

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

Combat (14)
10x Earth Meld
4x Form of Mist

Reaction (24)
7x Bait and Switch
5x Deep Ecology
3x Delaying Tactics
9x Organized Resistance

This tournament would not be possible with support from various parties and namely I would like to shout out:
- Black Chantry for their ongoing tournament support
- Our "home" store iHRYsko for helping us with tournament site
- Head judge Martin Dudik for upholding game and tournament rules
- Players Maco, Dany, Marko, Petrik and Alex from my domain for helping with organization and various to dos
- 3D printing wizard Peter Kopac for designing and delivering new Sabbat Path tokens

It was an honour to host all of you in Bratislava and hopefully we will see each other soon at the table, eternally struggling! :)

Thanks for this report, and thanks to all organisers, sponsors and players!