Christian Chénard is the 2025 champion of Canada!

This tournament was played on November 22. Report by Alexandre Bustros, VEKN National Coordinator of Canada:

On a cold November day, the Canadian VTES National Championship took place in Montreal. 18 players gathered at the Abyss to compete for the title of Canadian Champion of 2025! The winner this year was Christian Chénard, who skillfully played his deck named "Ozempic Clown", a slimmed-down version of a Ravnos Carnival deck.

Standings after three rounds:
1. Christopher Malec 2 GW 8.0 VP
2. Karl Schaefer 2 GW 7.0 VP
3. François Dion 2 GW 6.0 VP
4. Alexandre Bustros 1 GW 6.0 VP
5. Christian Chénard 1 GW 5.5 VP

The final table featured the following players in this order:

Christian started the game very quickly, but after a few turns, he struggled to pass his Consanguineous Boon. By playing The Eldest Are Kholo, he would obtain 21 votes in favour, but the table generated 21 votes against!

Karl managed to bring Christian down to 1 pool, which was enough for him to bounce back. Alexandre was able to bring out two War Ghoul to defend, but it was too little, too late. Christian played Week of Nightmare and scored his first VP.

Without Alexandre's baron votes, Christian could more easily play his own. Karl put a lot of pressure on Christian, but a well-placed Pentex allowed Christian to score his second VP.

After that, for the second time, Karl managed to bring Christian down to 1 pool. But as they say, where there's life, there's hope! François lacked Second Trad and the clown tide overwhelmed him. With 3 VPs securing his victory, Christian conceded the remaining two points in favour of Karl. Congratulations to Christian on his win!

Christian won the deck box from our sponsor, the medieval store Dracolite. The other finalists received promotional coins from the same store. Thanks Dracolite!

The tournament winning deck: "Ozempic Clown"

Crypt (12)
2x Sasha Miklos
2x Spleen, Georgio Gutterpunk
2x Zip
1x Ashlesha
1x Lazar Dobrescu
1x Vedel Esbreno
1x Anka, Priestess of Thorns
1x Salbatore Bokkengro
1x Sennuwy, the Promoter

Library (60)
Master (15)
8x Ravnos Carnival
2x Week of Nightmare
1x The Coven
1x Gird Minion
1x Sunset Strip, Hollywood
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Pentex Subversion

Action (30)
15x Mozambique Allure
15x The Embrace

Political Action (7)
7x Consanguinous Boon

Action Modifier/Reaction (7)
7x The Eldest Are Kholo

Equipment (1)
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Thanks for the report, and thanks to sponsors, helpers and players!

Walbert Ibarra is the 2025 champion of Chile!

Reported by Daniel Bravo, VEKN National Coordinator of Chile (to the left above), with comment from the champion (to the right above):

On November 31st, at the Piedra Bruja store, the Chilean National Tournament was held, bringing together 20 players. The event ran smoothly and showcased a high level of competition. Points started being distributed from the very first round, but in the second round some tables ended in a tie. All of this made the third round crucial in determining who would advance to the final table.

In first place, Consuelo Anguita qualified with 2 GW and 8 VP using her Malkyarishat deck. Agustín von Schnake secured second place with 2 GW and 7 VP, playing his Toreador V5 deck. Third place went to Jackson Iribarren with 1 GW and 7 VP and his Gangrel V5 deck. Also qualifying were Sebastián Aguayo with his Barons deck with Protean V5, and lastly, almost missing the cut, Walbert Ibarra with his Shalmat deck.

The final table was very exciting. With time running out, Agustín managed to take Consuelo out of the table, and Walbert went for the whole table. Walbert Ibarra is the new national champion, taking home two commemorative trophies and a bottle of wine.

This are the words from Walbert:
"Something I greatly appreciate in a tournament is having a comfortable, centrally located venue that’s easy to reach—and in my opinion, this was fulfilled exceptionally well. Speaking more about the organization, I can say the event was very well run. Round launches were quick and orderly, and having a huge, clearly visible timer was fantastic. It was a competitive and pleasant event, with an attentive judge and an organizing team that showed a lot of care in every detail.

As for the final table, it was challenging. In my favor was the fact that I already knew three of the decks, since I had faced them in the preliminary rounds. One of the advantages of being the only combat deck at the table is that you can control the tempo of the game, since you decide the exact moment a minion leaves play, which heavily influences that player. There’s also the constant threat of being able to cross-rush political decks if they start directing the tails of their political actions at you; this pushes them to hurt the table instead and leave you alone. I feel I had a bit of luck with the seating, as being between two intercept decks—and their fear of the temporis combo that sends a minion to torpor when blocked—allowed me to play all my actions calmly and without major issues.

It was a tight table, and once one of the political decks was eliminated, I was able to execute the plan I had from the beginning: quickly remove my prey and grand-prey, knowing that my predator could deal very little damage to me while I took out two players in consecutive turns. With the round close to ending, my opponent conceded, giving up the chance to earn half a point. This was a great display of sportsmanship and strong competitive spirit."

Walbert Ibarra´s tournament winning deck: “Shalmath”
By Nerijus Mikalajūnas and Bram Van Stappen, also won the EC 2025.
https://vdb.im/decks/384c375ca

Crypt (12)
5x Shalmath   10 POT PRE TEM  True Brujah:6
1x Andre LeRoux  3 aus    Toreador:5
1x Alu    2 obf    Banu Haqim:5
1x New Blood   2 san    Blood Brother:ANY
1x Alex Wilkins  1 cel    Caitiff:5
1x Anarch Convert 1     Caitiff:ANY
1x Donald Cargill 1 aus    Caitiff:5
1x Walker Grimes  1 ani    Caitiff:5

Library (70)
Master (13; 2 trifle)
1x Archon Investigation
6x Ashur Tablets
1x Perfectionist
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Secure Haven
1x Tabriz Assembly
1x Vessel
1x Wider View

Action (7)
7x Summon History

Ally (3)
1x Gregory Winter
1x Nephandus
1x Tye Cooper

Equipment (2)
1x Eye of Hazimel
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Retainer (3)
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x Omael Kuman
1x Twisted Bloodhound

Action Modifier (8)
6x Domain of Evernight
2x Enkil Cog

Combat (34)
5x Decapitate
7x Disarm
8x Majesty
10x Outside the Hourglass
4x Taste of Vitae

This was the first national tournament in which a woman reached the final table. Consuelo is a milestone in the history of Chilean VTES.

Many thanks to the players for making the tournament so enjoyable, and to Piedra Bruja and Casio for hosting the event.

Thanks for this report, and thanks to all the players, sponsors and anyone else that helped out!