Joscar Malacaman is the 2024 champion of The Philippines!
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.
Marcin Zakrzewski is the 2024 champion of Poland!
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!
Milos Krstić is the 2024 champion of Serbia!
14 players turned up for this event on May 4. Reported by Milan Popović, Prince of Belgrade:
We did have 2 players from Hungary, thus we saw a return of our friends.
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Standings after the three preliminary rounds:
1. Milos Krstic 2 GW, 6 VP
2. Goran Damjanic 1 GW, 4 VP
3. Igor Beslin 1 GW, 5 VP
4. Nikola Obradovic 0 GW, 4.5 VP
5. Srdjan Milojevic 0 GW, 2.5 VP
Finales started with a hard press on Nikola to be the first to fall, however, Igor managed to be the first domino in the line, as Goran did manage to send a good portion of bleeds down the line. Srdjan hit a hard in the wall but Goran did manage to take him down. In the end, Miloš did get the upper hand with more minions and Earth Melds.
Congratulations Milos Krstic, scoring 3 victory points in the final. Srdjan and Goran got 1 each.
The tournament winning deck: "It Was a Good Day"
Crypt (12)
1x Massimiliano 7 ANI FOR pro baron Gangrel:6
2x Casey Snyder 6 PRO ani cel for baron Gangrel:6
2x Kuyén 6 ANI PRO baron Gangrel:6
1x Martina Srnankova 6 FOR PRO ani Gangrel:6
1x Kamile Paukstys 5 PRO ani for Gangrel:6
1x Hanna Nokelainen 4 ani for pro Gangrel:6
1x Nathan Turner 4 PRO ani Gangrel:6
1x Indira 3 PRO Gangrel:6
1x Joaquín de Cádiz 3 for pro Gangrel:6
1x Ruslan Fedorenko 2 pro Gangrel:6
Library (90)
Master (21; 5 trifle)
1x Anarch Railroad
1x Backways
2x Carfax Abbey
2x Club Illusion
2x Direct Intervention
1x Ecoterrorists
1x Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
1x Information Highway
1x Powerbase: Los Angeles
1x Powerbase: Montreal
2x Powerbase: Savannah
1x Rack, The
3x Vessel
2x Villein
Action (17)
1x Army of Rats
2x Constant Revolution
2x Rewilding
12x Thing
Equipment (1)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
Retainer (4)
1x Mr. Winthrop
3x Raven Spy
Action Modifier (3)
3x Earth Control
Action Modifier/Reaction (4)
4x Form of the Bat
Combat (14)
10x Earth Meld
4x Form of Mist
Reaction (26)
6x Bait and Switch
6x Deep Ecology
2x Delaying Tactics
4x Eyes of the Wild
8x Organized Resistance
Thanks to the players, organisers and the sponsor Ultra Pro!
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