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.
Report by Joscar Gamaliel Malacaman, VEKN Prince of Taguig:
On May 25, 2024, 25 players gathered to culminate the revival of the Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Competitive Scene in the Philippines with Kagatanfest '24, our first Philippine National Championships in more than a decade and the first premiere competitive event in the country since ACC 2018. The tournament was held at The Office by Rollplay in Estancia Mall, Pasig City. We played 3 rounds and a final from 10am until 9pm. There was a really good mix of old and new players with representatives sired by each of the 4 active princes in the country and even players who predate the prince system. In attendance was also our National Coordinator, Johann Ong who flew in from Iloilo City, and Christopher Choy who joined us from the Lion City, Singapore.
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The meta was diverse with 13 unique clans represented while 5 players played a mixed crypt. Tremere was the most represented clan with 4 players, followed by Ventrue, Ministry. and Brujah with 2, while the other clans had a single representative. Here are the clan distribution as well as the decks the players used during the tournament.
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For our prizes, we gave out the usual promo cards available to us from the Black Chantry Productions but to add a bit of uniqueness, we also had a custom playmat and player seating cards commissioned from Jeremiah Faustino who also happens to be a member of the Philippine VTES community. The player seating cards depicted the top 5 highest ranking players leading into the National Championships. Our National Coordinator also added some prizes to literally sweeten the pot with the Finalists also receiving some Butterscotch snacks from his region as well as a pack of Twilight Rebellion.
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After 3 grueling rounds, our finalists emerged from the chaos and we were:
1. Joscar Gamaliel Malacaman - 3 GW - 8.5 VP - 180 TP
2. Christopher Choy 2 GW - 7 VP - 144 TP
3. Micon Garcia - 1 GW - 8 VP - 156 TP
4. Jeremiah Faustino (yes, our artist) - 1 GW - 6 VP - 120 TP
5. Justine Peralta - 1 GW - 5 VP - 114 TP
In the end, Joscar Malacaman pulled ahead of the pack with 3 VP in the final to become the Philippine National Champion and celebrate his 7th consecutive win in 7 months. Micon Garcia and Christopher Choy both scored 1 VP as well in the final. Another story of note here is that it is only Justine Peralta's second tournament after learning the game recently.
The tournament winning decklist: ”Matasuntha Makes It Look Easy”
Comment: ”This third iteration of the Matasuntha deck was geared towards having the ability to rush and torpor multiple vampires in the same turn while keeping the same defensive energy that has won me a couple of tournaments this competitive season. I was expecting a lot of weenie or stealth bleed decks together with the usual combat heavy meta in the Philippines and so I wanted to take a more proactive approach in taking control of the table. The decision to add more rush cards and diversify them was made specifically to handle both. It's not easy but Matasuntha makes it look easy. Check the individual pictures for round by round reports.”
Crypt (13)
5x Matasuntha 10 ANI AUS CEL FOR PRO Gangrel:5
4x Anarch Convert 1 -none- Caitiff:ANY
2x Casey Snyder 6 ani cel for PRO Gangrel:6
1x Massimiliano 7 pro ANI FOR Gangrel:6
1x Mickey Wheeler 5 ani cel for pro Gangrel:6
Library: 90 cards
Master (16 cards)
3x Vessel
2x Villein
1x Anarch Free Press, The
1x Carfax Abbey
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Gangrel Revel
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Los Angeles
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1x Wider View
Action (9 cards)
4x Deep Song
2x Harass
2x Nose of the Hound
1x Taunt the Caged Beast
Retainer (4 cards)
2x Dog Pack
2x Raven Spy
Equipment (1 cards)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
Action Modifier (7 cards)
3x Forced March
3x Instantaneous Transformation
1x Enkil Cog
Combat (31 cards)
9x Diversion
6x Hell-for-Leather
5x Drawing Out the Beast
5x Taste of Vitae
4x Trap
2x Voracious Vermin
Reaction (22 cards)
6x Guardian Vigil
4x Bait and Switch
4x Deep Ecology
4x Organized Resistance
2x On the Qui Vive
2x Eyes of the Wild
We'd like to extend our thanks to the Office by Rollplay for allowing us to host our nationals at their venue as well as our supportive havens in Metro Manila: 89 Panay and Hobbies & Sheets. We would also like to recognize the efforts of our princes: Joscar, Micon, Paul, and Johann in continuously growing the community and expanding the reach of the game.
A report by Maciej Kozłowski, VEKN Prince of Lublin:
18 of May turned out to be a beautiful day, especially since as many as 38 players from most distant corners of Poland, as well as Lithuania and Belarus, came to compete for the title of the Polish VTES Champion of 2024.
Owing to a great local School of English, Linguaton, we had a great venue at our disposal - I don't think I could have dreamed of a better place to hold such an event, with separate rooms for 1-2 tables, a secluded room for the final table (where believe me, you could hear EVERY rustle and whisper ?), kitchen facilities, as well as a garden?.
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First of all, we had amazing prize support from Black Chantry Productions - Mythic Form & Mythic Form full-bleed promos, most recent promo pack no. 4 (awesome content, by the way! :) ) as well as the Kickstarter decks. Also, BCP shared with us the Anita Wainwright and Eyes of the Wild illustrations, which we used to create custom event card sleeves, playmats and bookholders. Thanks again to Hugh Angseesing and everyone else at BCP who made it happen!
The main championship trophy, a glass statue with an engraved 3D model of a hand with the trisnake logo, created by mongrel (available at Printables.com), was sponsored by Alis Games, our Polish VTES distributor and publisher of Polish translations of WoD sourcebooks and tabletop games, ran by one of our fellow Methuselahs, known to most under his nickname Szewski :) We also received a very generous package of their great products, such as the Music for the Polish Vampires CDs, and the tarot cards set for the Kult RPG.
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We also had some great individual contributions, from our NC Maciej Broniarz and Stanisław Szczepaniak, ranging from game accessories through precons, to WoD sourcebooks. Many thanks to all the sponsors!
Standings before final (top 5 players + their GWs and VPs from the first rounds)
1. Marcin Zakrzewski 3 GWs, 12 VPs
2. Alexander Roman 2 GWs, 10.5 VPs
3. Maciej Bernart 2 GWs, 8 VPs
4. Lech Ivanov 1 GW, 6 VPs
5. Michał Sokołowski 1 GW, 6VPs
After 3 rounds, the final turned out to be a clash of three nations - Lech from Vilnius playing Lutz, Alex from Minsk playing Nizzam, Marcin (playing The Unnamed) & Michał (playing Ravnos V5 bleed) from Warsaw and Maciek (playing a Relentlessly Reaping Mambo Jeanne). The final game was at the highest level, it did not end with a time limit, and yet its result was long weighed between Lech, Maciek, and Marcin – you could really feel the tension in the room.
If you didn't get a chance to see it streamed live, can watch the video:
Final result: Marcin Zakrzewski 3 VPs, Maciej Bernart 2 VPs.
The winning deck list: ”Do you deny the evil?”
Crypt (12)
5x unnamed, The 10 CEL DAI OBF PRE PRO Baali:6
1x Gathii 5 ANI PRE obf Ravnos:7
1x Phaibun 5 OBF PRE ani Ravnos:7
1x Jean-François 4 ani obf pre Ravnos:7
1x Zafira 4 PRE obf Ravnos:7
1x Oleg Kaprizov 3 obf pre Ravnos:7
2x Anarch Convert 1 Caitiff:ANY
Library (90)
Master (14; 4 trifle)
1x Anarch Railroad
2x Dabbler
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Golconda: Inner Peace
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Rötschreck
1x Secure Haven
1x Villein
1x Week of Nightmares
1x Wider View
Event (1)
1x Narrow Minds
Action (14)
1x Contagion
1x Illegalism
9x Platinum Protocol, The
3x Unleash Hell's Fury
Ally (4)
3x Infernal Servitor
1x Veneficti
Retainer (2)
2x Homunculus
Action Modifier (39)
2x Aire of Elation
1x Cloak the Gathering
2x Elder Impersonation
1x Enchanting Gaze
4x Enkil Cog
4x Faceless Night
4x I am Legion
9x Instantaneous Transformation
4x Lost in Crowds
5x Memory Rift
2x Spying Mission
1x True Love's Face
Action Modifier/Combat (1)
1x Swallowed by the Night
Action Modifier/Reaction (3)
3x Sense the Sin
Combat (5)
3x Form of Mist
2x Majesty
Reaction (7)
6x Party Out Of Bounds
1x Visions of Zapathasura
The released decklists for all the decks in the finals and many others can be found here.
Thank you to everyone who graced the event with their presence, in many cases traveling adventurously several hundred kilometers - without you, nothing would have come out of it, and it was the tournament with the highest turnout in Lublin so far, also you set the bar high for future ones. It's awesome that we have such an amazing community, and I hope that it will grow, bringing so much fun to play and meet more players ? See you at the next one!
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