This tournament was player in Moscow on November 8. Reported by Denis Nikolaev, VEKN Prince of Moscow:

For the first time in forever, the national team gathered, and although there were only 10 participants, the event was significant.

This event brought out several seasoned metoos with their favorite decks from the past, and we were also visited by Michael from Voronezh, who has been playing almost since the beginning of the game.

So the national team came out very colorful both in composition and decks:
Yaroslav – the anarchs of the Brujah
Ilya – anti-Ventrue grinder
Maxim – Lasombra stealth-bleed with Nocturns
Sergey – the mortal men (Hunters)
Konstantin – singers in choirs (!) Daughters of Cacaphony
Anatoliy – Ravnos anarchs stealth-bleed
Vadim – Ventrue vote
Denis – new Baths
Michael – Gangrel Anarchs with Smiling Jack
Armen – Malkavian Dementation bleed

Insurmountable circumstances forced Denis to leave before the final, but he honestly gnawed at his neighbor for his two rounds, for which he was honored and praised. But it made it a little easier to get to the top table.

The first round:

Anatoliy was put behind Vadik, which has become a bad tradition at tournaments. Apart from the pancake for the whole game cutlet, the Ravens don't have Vadik, and I ate it.

After that, the anti-fungi almost ate Anatoliy up, but the good Yaroslav saved Romanov with a Direct Intervention.

Anatoliy made a condition not to hit him on the next move, which my camp faithfully fulfilled.

Then the anti-Ventrue was eliminated, Anatoliy scored the second vp on the Brujahs, and Denis earned two vp and gw on Anatoliy.

Mike put Smiling Jack the Anarch on another table and bled everyone out, but Armen took advantage of this, and he sawed everyone out.

The second round:

We sat down: Anatoliy, Armen, Max, Vadik, Denis.

Armen wouldn't be Armen if he hadn't pulled a stunt by blaming his traitor, that is, Anatoliy.

The logic was that Max's redirects wouldn't let Armen eat him before I did Armen. After entering 10, I started offering a deal, not to take him out before he eats two, but after such a waste of resources on Anatoliy, it was unclear how our national coordinator planned to take out at least someone at all and the deal did not happen. Then he made an agreement with Denis and I didn't have enough pool to knock out the Malkavs. In the end, he and Denis finished Anatoliy off, but Max confidently took the rest of the table, including our heroes.

In the parallel table it was like this: Sergey - Ilya - Mike - Yaroslav - Konstantin. Kostya ate the little men, Mike ate two, then time ran out. 

Standings after three rounds:
1. Armen Khachikyan 1 GW 5.0 VP
2. Max Zrelov 1 GW 4.0 VP
3. Adam Gillings 1 GW 2.5 VP
4. Anatoly Chuhvicheff 0 GW 2.0 VP
5. Konstantin Prischepa 0 GW 1.0

Final:

We sat down to play. I was sent to the beer first and lukewarm, despite the good anti-Malkav handout with Archon and reduce-bleeds.

But it all started with the fact that Mike put the Jolly Jack on and started making a mess of the table again. This was good for Armen, who was pushing himself with Kindred Spirits, especially since Mike did not put pressure on his pool, and Armen himself did not waste blood from vampires. Kostya was playing Choirs a little bit, Max was playing Nocturns a little bit, Anatoliy was trying to finish the singers to heal, Armen was trying to finish Anatoliy so that he wouldn't heal. Nobody cared about Jack. With Jack at 4, Max went into some kind of action on Mike and, after a stealth-fight, resolved him. Anatoliy thought it was Jack's demolition, but it turned out to be a 1.

Perhaps this was the key decision on the table. It seemed that Max could still put up with a couple of moves: there was a lot of blood, and so was the pool. But then Anatoliy burst, the singers sang to Max for 6 pools, sitting in the minor pool themselves, and everything looked like a path to Armen's victory. And so it turned out: Kostya collapsed just from Jack, Max eventually went to the Smiling Jack, but it was too late, because after two rounds of violence he remained in such a state that he also did not last long.

Armen has already won with three vp, but he and Mike fought to win, and Armen ended up with five vp.

Tournament winning deck: “Malks 2010” by Armen Khachikyans
The champions comment: Has build this deck like 15 years ago, played once and put it on a shelf for a special occasion, as tournaments are rare in our climate and most players are casuals. When it was found that we will be getting anarch ravnos and gangrels on the field, piloted by experienced grognards, then I thought time has come to dig something degenerated from the past. With some luck and too greedy opponents I've managed to sweep one preliminary table, entered the finals being top seed, so it was quite an easy sweep there. 84-th card should be Touch of Clarity, moved it into other deck and forgot to return. After the event I think you need 3-4 Touches in this deck, maybe drop villeins and one Leverage for it (don't think more than 84 cards are needed). Has played Reality mirror once for just lolz (still went to torpor), played Coma once and it has moved me from 3 to 5 VP in the finals, haven't played Gemini's mirrors (obviously they are here for basic effect), but they are easy to cycle so I think are fine.

Crypt (12 cards)
1x Apache Jones 5 DEM aus for obf Malkavian antitribu:4
1x Cassandra Langely, The Waif 2 dem Malkavian:4
1x Colonel, The 5 AUS cel dem obf Malkavian antitribu:3
1x Eddie Gaines 1 dem pot Caitiff:3
1x General Perfidio Díos 5 AUS dem obf bishop Malkavian antitribu:3
1x Jackie 3 DEM Malkavian antitribu:4
1x Marta 3 aus dem Malkavian antitribu:4
1x Midget 3 DEM obf pre Malkavian antitribu:3
1x Morel 6 AUS DEM OBF Malkavian:4
1x Persia, The Beautiful Statue 5 DEM aus obf Malkavian:3
1x Tony 6 AUS DEM dom obf Malkavian:3
1x Uncle George 5 DEM aus dom obf Malkavian antitribu:3

Library (83 cards)
Master (17; 6 trifle)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Antediluvian Awakening
1x Barrens, The
3x Dementation
3x Effective Management
1x Misdirection
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Vessel
2x Villein
2x Wash

Action (20)
20x Kindred Spirits

Action Modifier (29)
3x Cloak the Gathering
13x Confusion
7x Eyes of Chaos
2x Leverage
4x Mind Tricks

Action Modifier/Combat (4)
4x Deny

Combat (4)
1x Coma
2x Gemini's Mirror
1x Reality Mirror

Reaction (8)
1x On the Qui Vive
4x Telepathic Misdirection
3x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Event (1)
1x Bitter and Sweet Story, The

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

40 players turned up at Alphaspel in Stockholm for the Swedish National Championship 2025 on November 22. Great times as always - extra thanks to guests from Finland and Lithuania!

Standings before final:
1. Randal Rudstam 2 GW 9.0 VP
2. Tommi Hakomaa 2 GW 8.0 VP 174 TP
3. Sebastian Fredenberg    2 GW 8.0 VP 162    TP
4. Mårten Cederholm 2 GW 6.0 VP
5. Jakob Ladstedt 2 GW 5.5 VP

Final result: Randal 2 vp (top seed), Tommi 2 vp and Sebastian 1 vp. Congratulations Randal!

The tournament winning deck: "Bleed/Bounce Swedish Champ" by Randal "Matsdur" Rudstam

Crypt (12 cards)
2x Gwendolyn Fleming 6 AUS PRE cel pro Toreador:5
2x Maila 6 AUS PRE cel primogen Toreador:6
1x Guggenheim 6 AUS CEL PRE Toreador antitribu:5
2x Regina Blake 5 AUS PRE Toreador:6
1x Amber 5 AUS PRE cel Toreador antitribu:5
1x Anne-Marie Bourgeois, Inconnu Recruiter 5 AUS cel pre Toreador:5
1x Bethany Ray 4 PRE aus Toreador:5
1x Bret Stryker 4 CEL PRE Toreador:6
1x Tyler McGill 4 AUS pre Toreador:5

Library (84 cards)
Master (16; 6 trifle)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Coven, The
2x Direct Intervention
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Jake Washington
3x Life in the City
3x Misdirection
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Wash

Action (22)
6x Enchant Kindred
2x Entrancement
8x Intimidation
4x Mind Numb
2x Revelations

Equipment (2)
2x Heart of Nizchetus

Action Modifier (13)
7x Aire of Elation
3x Change of Target
3x Loup

Combat (10)
2x Aura Reading
2x Charismatic Aura
6x Majesty

Reaction (19)
1x Delaying Tactics
5x Eyes of Argus
3x My Enemy's Enemy
3x On the Qui Vive
7x Telepathic Misdirection

Event (2)
1x Blood Trade
1x Nightmares upon Nightmares

Thanks to organiser Nina Nilsson, other that helped, venue and players!