This tournament took place at Comics Plus in Annerley, Australia on October 17. Reported by Steve Harris, VEKN National Coordinator of Australia, and the champion himself, Simon Reed:

We had 38 players for the OCC, which broke the record for the Australian/Oceania continentals. The previous record was set in 2002 with 36 players, and again in 2024, also 36 players.

The range of decks was quite varied by what I could see, however some clans were more heavily represented than others:
Banu Haqim 4 decks
Lasombra 4 decks
Gangrel 4 decks
Harbingers 3 decks
Ministry 3 decks

Simon Reed's words about rounds 1-3:

Round 1

Me (Gangrel) > James (Salubri) > Ben (AAA) > Shan (Camarilla Lasombra) > Steven (Ventrue Bleed)

Good table for me as the vote decks cross table would both need my votes so I could support everything they did in exchange for chip damage on James. The path to victory looked like best option was to support Shan to oust Steven in exchange for damage on James, survive all the bleeds, and try and get it to 3 player and see where we were from there.

That's pretty much how it panned out, I managed to bounce, block or reduce a lot of bleeds, only one nasty surprise when Steven concealed out a Combat Shotgun so a few minions got shot as I saved my combat cards for James.

I chipped away at James and got support from Shan for an oust, he went on to get Steven although Ben did his best to prevent that.

Once we got to three, I was helped by Shan playing a wash on the 3rd Ashurs from Ben, with Club Illusion and Ben being locked and out of wakes I was able to bleed with everyone and just get an oust. Head-to-head Shan got a bit of bloat going and had about 15 pool, so too much for me to get in the time remaining but I already had the win so went into survival mode and just made sure I put enough pressure that Shan couldn't come fully forward.

Game ends me GW 2.5 and Shan 1.5.

Here, five players are each contesting at least one vampire! Two were playing Tzimisce and two of them
were playing Banu Haqim. One of the Tzimisce players also played a Chameleon to steal a
small-cap Ravnos from his prey, who promptly played the same vamp again to contest backwards!

Round 2 

Me (Gangrel) > Dan (Nakhthorheb) > Rathpex (Camarilla Lasombra) > Leo (Gangrel) > Martin (Protean Barons)

As expected, a table with some contesting to deal with. Everyone played nice, we all picked a Baron and it worked out OK.

I thought this would be Angel's moment to shine but Martin brought his copy out first so that plan out the window. The path to victory in this game looked... tricky. I was pretty sure Martin would work with Rathpex to oust Leo in exchange for damage on me and some grace so plan was don't get ousted, hope Dan can oust Rathpex and then see where things were at.

The game panned out as expected: Dan got going and kind of had a shot at Rathpex but ran out of stealth at a key moment. Rathpex and Martin took out Leo, I copped a bunch of damage and then 2 Camarilla Iron Fists cross table I couldn't block and a third I had a DI for, but that's too much pressure and I was ousted. Martin needed a few minutes more at most to get Dan to take out a win but just ran out of time, the game ended with no GW, 1.5 each to Martin and Rathpex, Dan survived for 0.5.

Round 3

Me (Gangrel) > Dave (Salubri) > Justin (Inner Voice) > Sam (Nephandus)

This was the best game of the weekend! The path to victory looked like either working with Justin to oust Dave if he couldn't handle the rushes and then try and just roll over everyone, or alternatively to support Justin oust Sam in exchange for chip damage on Dave and then hope Dave ousts Justin and I can win the head to head. Game ebbed and flowed, everyone going forward a bit, defending OK, building a board.

Sam was doing a little damage to me but was also handling Justin's inner voice deck, I had to rescue a couple of times after a haven appeared.

A timely Entrancement and Giant's Blood got Justin back in the game and he was able to eventually limp over the top of Sam but then Dave got him soon after. There were probably about 30 minutes left on the clock at this point. I was quite confident, but from here Dave and I battled to almost a literal standstill, neither of us able to gain the advantage for 20 minutes!

Finally, Dave fully decked himself with every single card being played usefully at the end, notably a very annoying second-to-last card being a Delaying Tactics on a Con Boon when I was on only 5 pool.

10 minutes without any cards to play was a very long time for Dave and although I myself ended with 5 cards in hand at the end, the power of Garibaldi and recursion with a Revolutionary Council won the day with just under 1 minute to go, but a truly epic head to head and a great game.

GW 2 VP to me, 1 to Dave, 1 to Justin.


Standings before the final:
1. Rathpex 2 GW 8.5 VP
2. Simon Reed 2 GW 4.5 VP
3. Ke Carlton 1 GW 6 VP
4. Florian Koller 1 GW 5 VP
5. Andrew Stott 1 GW 5 VP

There’s an unedited video on SuakuOz’s Youtube channel of the finals. He also made this funny little short.

Simon's comments on final:

Final seating I was second seed with 2 GW 4.5 vp as only two players got 2 GW. Easy choice to sit opposite Ke, as his combat deck most likely to be able to damage the Imbued. I got lucky: Rathpex, as top seed, chose to sit next to me, that always makes things easier when you're next to the top seed. The path to victory seemed obvious: I just need to oust Rathpex relatively early via consistent small bleeds, try to block or Delaying Tactics his votes, and then see where the game is at from there.

I figured unless the Khazar's Diary went off fast, the person most likely to get two VP was Ke and that would involve ousting me so 1 VP and surviving would do the job.

As expected, the combat decks beat each other up a bit, so I didn't have too much pressure and was able to build my board and start chipping away. Rathpex used a Shroud of Decay to clean out all the allies in Andy's ash heap early in the game which really put Andy in a bad spot, and he went defensive, which suited me.

Rathpex had one Parity Shift Vox Dominied and another got DIed (Andy played his before I could play the one I had in hand for that) which left Rathpex nicely low on pool as parity is his bloat.

I was just bleeding into him every turn with 3 or 4 minions, one at a time grinding him down. The key turn was when Florian did bleed me for 2 and I Bait and Switched it on, Rathpex Deflected it back so I played a DI to cancel the Deflection to make him to take 2.

That left Rathpex on 4 I think with one unlocked minion, I had 5 minions so just bled for 1 with everyone knowing I had Form of Mist in hand and 1 stealth card for Hanna, who doesn't have superior Protean. One got bounced, Rathpex correctly let all the superior Protean bleeds through, and then I stealthed through with Hanna for the oust.

That gave me the oust and from there it was just bloat in my last turn and survive knowing Ke couldn't get both Florian and me in 1 turn, I did cop about 8 bleed from Florian before he died but Ke could only just roll over Florian right at the end and so had no chance to get me. The game ends with all Kiwis alive, 1.5 vp to myself and Ke, Andy on 0.5, I take it on seeding. 

Tournament-winning deck: "Gangrel Barons" by Simon Reed
Creator comment: Classic V5 Gangrel, nothing too tricky, splash of votes for extra oust but just build a board and grind over the top with small bleeds. For the OCC, I removed an extra Massimiliano and replaced with Angel Guerrero to mitigate likely contesting and switched out the Anarch Free Press for the Anarch Railroad for the extra fixed stealth, happy with both those changes. Would probably add a second Garibaldi and a third Rewilding for a Monkey Wrench and Double Deuce, who is often stolen or beaten up.

Crypt (12 cards)
2x Casey Snyder  6 ani cel for PRO Gangrel:6
1x Ruslan Fedorenko 2 pro  Gangrel:6
1x Indira  3 PRO  Gangrel:6
1x Hanna Nokelainen 4 ani for pro Gangrel:6
1x Nathan Turner  4 ani PRO  Gangrel:6
1x Kamile Paukstys 5 ani for PRO Gangrel:6
2x Kuyen  6 ANI PRO  Gangrel:6
1x Massimiliano  7 pro ANI FOR Gangrel:6
1x Martina Srnankova 6 ani FOR PRO Gangrel:6
1x Angel Guerrero 7 ANI DOM PRO Tzimisce:6

Library: 86 cards
Master (22 cards)
1x Ennoia's Theater
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Giant's Blood
1x Papillon
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
1x Backways
2x Vessel
4x Villein
1x Wider View
1x Carfax Abbey
2x Club Illusion
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Ecoterrorists

Action (11 cards)
2x Rewilding
9x Thing

Action Modifier (6 cards)
2x Monkey Wrench
4x Earth Control

Action Modifier/Reaction (2 cards)
2x Form of the Bat

Political Action (4 cards)
1x Reckless Agitation
1x Revolutionary Council
2x Consanguineous Boon

Ally (1 card)
1x Double Deuce

Retainer (2 cards)
2x Raven Spy

Combat (16 cards)
7x Form of Mist
2x Donnybrook
7x Earth Meld

Reaction (22 cards)
6x Deep Ecology
2x Eyes of the Wild
6x Bait and Switch
6x Organized Resistance
2x Delaying Tactics

So, Simon Reed won with 1.5 VP, Ke got 1.5 VP and Andrew 0.5 VP - three kiwis, an Australian and an Austrian made the finals but only three kiwis survived :)

The event was sponsored by Black Chantry Productions, MotS Imports Pty Ltd and Australia’s Online VTES store on eBay. Many thanks to the host venue Comics Plus, Annerley.

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