André on the left, with Baron José Fontenele and the special award playmat.
Reported by José Fontenele, Baron of Rio de Janeiro.
On the weekend of June 16, 2024, the Third Edition of the Rookie League took place at Manavai, located in Campo Grande, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The tournament was created with the aim of introducing the game to new methuselahs, and, in this third edition, it featured a healthy mix of 28 players, including experienced and beginners playing VTES.
It is important to mention that it was the first official tournament in this location and that, despite the fear of scheduling the event in a new location, players from all over the state of Rio de Janeiro appeared at the event. Showing the strength of the largest playgroup in the country, we have methuselahs from São João de Meriti, Sepetiba, Nova Iguaçú, Volta Redonda and different neighborhoods of the state capital.
I want to highlight that there was a special award that may have motivated so many players to come: a playmat with official Black Chantry art for the winner. The art was kindly provided by Ginés Quiñonero, whom I thank for his attention and generosity. In addition to the awards, what was seen was a meeting of new and experienced Methuselahs exchanging opinions about the game and discussing winning strategies.
After 2 big rounds, the final table featured the following decks and players:
In the end, André Luiz became the winner with his Salubri V5 Grinder. I asked him to write down his vision of the final table and received the following words:
“As they say… the last will be the first. I entered the table in fifth place. Since I had a !Malk B&S deck under my belt, I thought I´d raise a vampire as quickly as possible. Saulot gave me his blessing. I started with Powerbase: Montreal and Sight Beyond Sight in hand and with 4 influence to go. I started calling the Ukrainian soldier [Opikun], and placing the master Sight Beyond Sight to defend against !Malk attacks. The main vampires Abaddon and Serafina did not come to this table. I had to turn around. When a Smilling Jack hit the table, everyone agreed to try to remove it, giving 2 turns of peace when it came out. Once again the Ukrainian soldier saved the day by taking Smilling from Felipe. In these 2 turns of peace I managed to set up my setup and disturb José a little… remembering that the agreement was 2 turns without bleed. When Alan played another Smilling, everyone again agreed to remove it, and once again Salubri managed to do the dirty work by removing the Smilling. Alan tried to negotiate not to take it away, but Smilling… you know… has been winning tables since 1994.
Without Smilling at the table, everyone went back to normal play. As Alan was aggressively rushing the !Malks, Notorius began the retaliation by bleeding backwards. I started attacking my prey with a lot of bleeds and block-fails, and José started doing the same with his prey. I was impressed by the number of bleed-bouncing cards that Felipe used to survive Malk attacks. He used Heart of Nizchetus very well to filter the deck. Felipe managed to divert all of Malk bleeds to Alan, and then managed to take out his prey with his bleeds. Alan was the first placed in the tournament for the table and the first to leave the table... as it should be...
As the !Malk deck was left without a predator, Salubri got a target on its forehead. !Malk, without mercy or mercy, began to bleed heavily. I managed to pass some bleeds and block others (I took Coma x2). Even though Notorius bleeds all the time, I managed to take José´s Malk out of the game.
Now it got serious. Tremere and !Malk joined forces to weaken the Salubri as much as possible. Saulot gave his blessing once again. I managed to get through and take some !Malk bleeds without much harm and prevented the Tremere aggravations. Finally I managed to take out the Tremere and went all in on the !Malks with the gang of angry Salubri: 5 vampires. Victory!!!!! The Salubri V5 deck, with its new cards, considerably improves the grinder archetype.”
The tournament winning deck: "Salubri V5 Grinder"
Crypt (12 cards)
2x Abaddon 8 AUS DOM FOR cel pot Salubri:7
1x Seraphina 8 AUS DOM FOR cel tha Salubri:7
2x Ilonka 7 AUS DOM FOR tha Salubri:7
2x Aniel 6 AUS DOM for Salubri:7
1x Castellan 6 AUS FOR cel dom Salubri:7
1x Malachi 6 AUS DOM FOR Salubri:7
1x Sakhar 6 AUS FOR dom Salubri:7
2x Opikun 5 FOR aus dom Salubri:7
Library (90 cards)
Master (14; 3 trifle)
2x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Direct Intervention
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Meditative Grove
1x Misdirection
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Saulot´s Guiding Wisdom
1x Sight Beyond Sight
1x Sudden Reversal
3x Vessel
Action (14)
8x Feast of the Soul´s Secrets
6x Govern the Unaligned
Action/Combat (4)
4x Touch of Valeren
Equipment (2)
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Heart of Nizchetus
Action Modifier (20)
2x Conditioning
5x Forced Confessional
1x Foreshadowing Destruction
6x Freak Drive
3x Seduction
3x Unleashing the Bestial Soul
Combat (14)
6x Hidden Strength
4x Rolling with the Punches
4x Weighted Walking Stick
Reaction (22)
6x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
6x Eyes of Argus
2x My Enemy´s Enemy
2x On the Qui Vive
4x Telepathic Misdirection
I want to thank Editora Conclave and Baron Márcio who helped with the promotional cards for the event and all the participants present. It was just the first of many. Let´s play VTES!
Report by Kleber Bertazzo, VEKN National Coordinator of Brazil:
On the weekend of June 8th 2024, the Brazilian VTES Championship 2024 took place at the Garagem do Nerd store, located in the city of Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais. This championship was marked by being the 20th Brazilian VTES Championship as well as the cardgame's 30th anniversary championship.
Although there were some problems during the final table of the event, the preliminary tables took place calmly and harmoniously, with very few interventions from the judges. The players behaved in an exemplary manner and at the end of each table everyone interacted with each other, exchanging different experiences.
The championship was attended by 48 players and set the mark for the biggest Brazilian championship of all time. Several states were represented at the event, Ceará, Distrito Federal, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Pará, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and several meta games fought in the biggest national clash in history.
Check out this VERY cool video from the event by Garagem do Nerd TV:
The final table was attended by the following players:
Alan Winter (São Paulo) with 3 GWs and 10 VPs
Márcio Pinheiro (Fortaleza) with 2 GWs and 10 VPs
Guilherme Pereira (Viçosa) with 2 GWs and 9 VPs
Anderson Silva (Guarulhos) with 2 GWs and 8 VPs
Vinícius Costalonga (Vila Velha) with 2 GWs and 8 VPs
Highlight for Guilherme Pereira, who reached the final playing only his second presencial tournament!
 |
 |
After Márcio and Vinícius had won 1 VP, Alan was forced to make a deal with Vinícius to remove Márcio from the table. With the objective achieved, and with 2 VPs, Vinícius did not need to honor the agreement since, as a rule, all agreements are canceled 1 vs 1 game. Therefore, it was easy for Vinícius to eliminate Alan, winning the 2024 Brazilian title, with 4 VPs in the final. Congratulations to CHAMPION Vinícius Costalonga!!!
The tournament winning deck: Old But Good
Crypt (12 cards)
4x Arika 11 DOM FOR OBF PRE aus cel inner circle Ventrue:2
2x Lucinde, Alastor 10 DOM FOR PRE obf pot tha justicar Ventrue:3
2x Marcus Vitel 10 DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE prince Ventrue:3
2x Queen Anne 10 DOM FOR PRE aus obf prince Ventrue:2
1x Greger Anderssen 7 AUS OBF dom pro prince Malkavian:2
1x Catherine du Bois 5 DOM for obf pre Ventrue:3
Library (90 cards)
Master (18; 5 trifle)
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
2x Information Highway
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Ventrue Headquarters
5x Villein
5x Zillah's Valley
Event (1)
1x Scourge of the Enochians
Action (10)
2x Entrancement
8x Govern the Unaligned
Political Action (14)
1x Ancient Influence
3x Banishment
4x Kine Resources Contested
4x Parity Shift
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Reins of Power
Action Modifier (25)
3x Conditioning
3x Forgotten Labyrinth
8x Freak Drive
4x Into Thin Air
3x Perfect Paragon
4x Voter Captivation
Action Modifier/Combat (3)
3x Swallowed by the Night
Action Modifier/Reaction (2)
2x Murmur of the False Will
Combat (6)
6x Majesty
Reaction (11)
6x Deflection
3x On the Qui Vive
2x Second Tradition: Domain
I would like to record my thanks to Mozart and Felipe for both organizing the event and organizing the physical structure of the store. Finally, I would like to thank all the players present and those who were unable to attend for all the support given during my period of national organization.
Now I pass the scepter to Baron Márcio, who has once again prepared himself to direct our beloved cardgame nationally. GOD SAVE THE KING!!!
This event was played in Vienna on June 8 with 30 players. Reported by Richard Unter, with comments by the champion:
Comment by Paul Direktor:
“Returning the Austrian championship title to a Viennese player feels great and fitting for a first tournament victory. After playing competitive VTES for almost exactly a year (my first tournament on June 10,2023), this was my second national championship. Gaining some experience in Grand Prixs and some successes (one final, almost another one in my last 4 tournaments) in previous tournaments, I was looking forward to this one. It was great to see so many players (30) from nine different countries around. This community is the main reason I've stuck with the game. Everyone is welcoming and helpful to new players, which is fantastic.
I decided on the deck at the last minute, after some fine-tuning (thanks to Tero for his assistance!) the night before. I hadn't tested that deck version yet; the first version had been crushed in our weekly Thursday night games the day before. I expected a decent amount of combat from our eastern european neighbours and decided that eliminating them before they could harm my vampires was a viable strategy.
Round 1 (5 players):
I had a great start to the first game, quickly eliminating my prey (Giovanni combat). Following intense pressure from G1 Malkav powerbleed, my predator (Ventrue multi-act) was swiftly removed. After my second prey (Massassi combat/wall) proved hard to oust, I got some help from the Malkavian. Two back-deflects and one Direct Intervention from Massassi brought him down to 5 pool. One Week of Nightmares and a bleed for 4 later he was killed by the Famous Royce in torpor, allowing me to finish the Malkavians off and getting my GW and 4 VPs.
Round 2 (5 players):
Weenie Animalism's Deep Songs destroyed my vampires after a very strong Round 1. I was ultimately expelled following a few cross-table rescues and assistance from my own prey. The final player on the table was dispatched quickly by the Weenie animalism Deck, earning them 1 GW and 3 VPs.
Round 3 (5 players):
The third round proved to be really important in the end. I encountered two finalists (Martin and Lukas), and learned about their decks. I decided to try to oust Martin as soon as possible, which proved very hard. He stayed in the game longer than I had anticipated thanks to his strong pool gain and crosstable assistance with votes and rushes (at one point, he had to play an alastor on my grandpredators Banu Haqim deck in order to rush my vampires).
After ousting Martin with my Week of Nightmares, I needed to deal with Lukas Unnamed Platinum Deck. I came very close to ousting him, but with an unlocked Unnamed and Carlton he would have blocked my ousting bleed, as I had no stealth on hand and no way to cycle. After that, i lost to Igor Beslin's Stanislava, but the 1 VP from ousting Martin proved to be enough for the final. 1GW 5VPs.”
Standings before the finals:
1. Lukas Simandl 2 GW 7.5 VP
2. Florian Koller 1 GW 6.5 VP
3. Martin Weinmayer 1 GW 6 VP
4. Milan Popovic 1 GW 5 VP
5. Paul Direktor 1 GW 5 VP
“As the last seed, I didn't get to choose my position anyway. Martin was fortunate enough to be seated behind the two Unnamed decks, who started contesting right away. Since there was just one vampire in Florian's crypt, this was the only thing he did for the remainder of the game.
Fortunately for me, aside from a few Platinum Protocol bleeds, I was under minimal pressure.
My best chance was to oust my prey as soon as possible, before they could build up their Emerald Legionnaires. The free "influence" on Breaking the Bonds proved invaluable; I quickly gathered five minions and ousted my prey. Meanwhile, Martin managed to oust Flo.
Lukas crumbled under the pressure of votes and bleeds, without the pool gain of The Unnamed he got ousted and it was only me and Martin, who was on 26 pool at that point.
By then I had a Week of Nightmares and a Heart of Nizchetus, but I still saw my chances very slim since Martin could deal a lot of damage.
Bringing Martin down to 14 pool, I passed the turn and hoped for the best. He only managed to bring me down to 2 pool, having 16 himself and gave me one last turn. I got a Club Illusion on hand, so I used my second to last pool to play it. Having 4 ready minions, Sreelakah bled him for 7, three more bleeds for 3 and Martin was suddenly and to my own surprise at 0 pool, which gave me the second VP and the gamewin as last man standing.”
Final results: Martin Weinmayer 2 VP, Paul Direktor 3 VP. Congratulations Paul!
The tournament winning deck: “Breaking the protocol”
Crypt (12 cards)
2x Phaibun 5 OBF PRE ani Ravnos:7
2x Roberto Rivamonte 6 ANI OBF PRE Ravnos:7
2x Sreelekha 8 ANI FOR OBF PRE Ravnos:7
1x Doc Martina 6 ANI OBF for pre Ravnos:7
1x Gathii 5 ANI PRE obf Ravnos:7
1x Jean-François 4 ani obf pre Ravnos:7
1x Luciano Carvalho 6 ANI OBF pre Ravnos:7
1x Oleg Kaprizov 3 obf pre Ravnos:7
1x Zafira 4 PRE obf Ravnos:7
Library (80 cards)
Master (17; 6 trifle)
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Club Illusion
3x Dabbler
1x Direct Intervention
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Fortune Teller Shop
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Giant's Blood
1x Park Hunting Ground
3x Villein
2x Week of Nightmares
Event (2)
1x Bitter and Sweet Story, The
1x Narrow Mind
Action (18)
12x Break the Bonds
2x Field Training
2x Platinum Protocol, The
2x Public Trust
Equipment (2)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Treasured Samadji
Action Modifier (25)
4x Elder Impersonation
3x Faceless Night
4x Lost in Crowds
3x Power of One
2x Spying Mission
1x True Love's Face
2x Veil the Legions
6x Visions of Gehenna
Action Modifier/Combat (2)
2x Swallowed by the Night
Combat (4)
4x Majesty
Reaction (10)
3x On the Qui Vive
2x Party Out Of Bounds
5x Visions of Zapathasura
With 30 players from 9 different countries this event was a real blast. Thanks to everyone who participated and big thanks to the whole VTES community which never spares costs and efforts to support local tournaments and events.
Page 14 of 23
