Jesper Bøje is the 2025 champion of Belgium!

This tournament was played at  Spelfanaat Mechelen on July 6. Reported by Maaike Kerschot, VEKN National Coordinator of Belgium:

The day before the Belgian National holiday was the perfect time to bring together 30 Methuselahs to fight for the title of Belgian National Champion 2025. On the day before, 19 players from Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany and even Denmark and Finland had already tested their skills in the annual draft championship, with Bram Van Stappen and his zombies emerging victorious. Now, 30 players were ready to put their carefully constructed (and quite diverse) decks to the test.

Standings before final (top 5 players + their GWs and VPs from the first three rounds)
1. David Martinelli 2 GW, 5.5 VP
2. Jesper Bøje 1 GW, 7 VP
3. Héctor Javier Ordóñez García 1 GW, 5 VP, 138 TP
4. Tom Van Coillie 1 GW, 5 VP, 132 TP
5. Bram Van Stappen 1 GW, 5 VP, 120 TP

The final (available on Youtube) started with skirmishes between Matasuntha and her Banu prey, while the menace of Turbo Nergal was becoming darker and darker. After two tense hours (and an anticlimactic judge decision at the end), Jesper Bøje’s infernal deck just edged its victory over Héctor Ordoñez impressive multirush tech.

Final result: Jesper Bøje 2.5 VP, Héctor Javier Ordóñez García 1.5 VP.

The tournament winning deck: “Press 9 to Call the Great Beast” by Jesper Bøje
Description: Empowering evil, one Freak Drive at a time.

Crypt (12 cards)
9x Nergal         10 AUS DAI FOR OBF PRE THA      Baali:5
3x Nergal (ADV)   10 AUS DAI FOR OBF PRE THA      Baali:5

Library (78 cards)
Master (16; 3 trifle)
2x Antediluvian Awakening
2x Archon Investigation
4x Dementation
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Society of Leopold
3x Villein
1x Visit from the Capuchin

Event (3)
1x Bitter and Sweet Story, The
2x Narrow Minds

Action (16)
4x Call the Great Beast
1x Entrancement
5x Legal Manipulations
3x Magic of the Smith
3x Unleash Hell's Fury

Equipment (3)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
2x Soul Gem of Etrius

Action Modifier (32)
5x Aire of Elation
3x Daring the Dawn
2x Elder Impersonation
1x Enkil Cog
12x Freak Drive
2x I am Legion
5x Lost in Crowds
1x Perfect Clarity
1x Spying Mission

Action Modifier/Combat (2)
2x Hide the Mind

Action Modifier/Reaction (2)
1x Sense the Sin
1x Touch of Clarity

Combat (2)
2x Majesty

Reaction (2)
2x Visions of Zapathasura

A big shoutout to the staff of our local gamestore Spelfanaat in Mechelen who provided us with the perfect location, delicious catering and sponsoring for our tournaments. Also a great thank you to UltraPro for providing us with generous prize support. We could not have done this without you.

Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter June 2025

 
Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

Time for another card preview! This time we want to spotlight Věnceslava, The Implacable, with magnificent artwork by Raquel Cornejo. We also want to show Absolute Tyranny, a card that Věnceslava without a doubt will make good use of. Both these cards will appear in the Path of Power and the Inner Voice Sabbat preconstructed deck that will be in stores later this year. The Absolute Tyranny art is by Cos Koniotis.

 

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Martin Weinmayer is the 2025 North American champion!

After a whole week of other events, this tournament was (as normal) held in Columbus, Ohio, this year with 62 players.

Read the full report: North American championship 2025 (including extensive interview with the winner)

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Marc Álvarez is the 2025 Spanish champion! 123 players!

This impressively big event was played in Manresa on June 28.

Read the full report: Spanish National championship 2025

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Joab Rogério is the 2025 champion of Brazil – best of 114 players!

This huge event was played on June 7 in Rio de Janeiro.

Read the full report: Brazilian National championship 2025

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Roy Caamud is the 2025 Philippine National champion!

This event was played in Manila on June 7 with 25 Methuselahs.

 Read the full report:Philippines National championship 2025 

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Ke Carlton wins Grand Prix Brisbane 2025!

This part of the Oceania Grand Prix circuit was played on June 21 in the store Comics Plus, attended by 22 Methuselahs. Now only one event remains, Auckland August 30.

Read the full report: Grand Prix Brisbane 2025

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Alexandre Bustos wins Grand Prix Monreal 2025!

This event was played on April 26 in The Abyss - yes, it´s true, that´s the name of the place. 22 players attended.

Read the full report: Grand Prix Montreal 2025

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Kyle Fabre wins Grand Prix Lafayette 2025!

This tournament was attended by 16 beautiful players on May 24.

Read the full report: Grand Prix Lafayette 2025

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Reminder: Register to the EC 2025 before July 31 - get a bonus gift!

If you are going to the European Championship in Aarhus in October, PLEASE register before July 31. It helps the organisation a lot, AND you get one copy each of The Unaligned 1 and The Unaligned 2, out of print products from the Unleashed crowdfunding.

Register at vtes-ec2025.org

Again: The early bird deadline is July 31!

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Sabbat preview: Alex Romano tries Path of Caine - and wins!

On June 18 a VERY special tournament was played at the R Bar Arena in Columbus Ohio, as part of the Week of Nightmares events leading up to the North American championship. Black Chantry Productions had produced a 48 piece preview set of the four preconstructed Sabbat decks that will be in stores later this year. The new Sabbat rules are published at Blackchantry.com. Some words from winner Alex Romano:

“I was really hoping I would get the Path of Caine deck before decks were given out so was very happy when I got it at seating. In both of my preliminary games I got Crossbreaker in my opening crypt and an Unholy Sacrament in my hand which allowed me to get him out very quickly and have his aggravated hand damage used as a deterrent to block me doing anything early. Just about every single one of the new cards saw use in a positive way, but to me the biggest highlights were Augury of Doom, Hunting the Quarry, Pillars Fall, Wall of Filth and Sentry Signal.

Augury of Doom could be very powerful in a deck built around it and even in this prerelease setting I was able to do a lot of damage with it.

Hunting the Quarry was essential in the final as I had Path of Power and Inner voice and Path of Cathari as predator/prey, respectively. The continuation of the combat is such a great effect when you have Rage of Apedemak in play as you get to maintain your hand size and strength.

Pillars Fall, in my opinion, may be the best card in the entire deck, as it gives rush combat that flexibility to gain bleed while doing what they want to do. If nothing else, it being at 0 stealth will always draw a block when able to, so it can be really powerful for multiple reasons.

Wall of Filth is also going to be insane, I even played it wrong for my entire first game and still got mileage out of it. The apply-now-use-later ability of it will allow combat decks to avoid the always threatening agg poke or ivory bow risk much easier than before.

Sentry Signal is the reason I was able to win my second game as I had a Path of Cathari predator, and that matchup isn’t ideal as they bleed heavily. The bleed reduction half of the card allowed to me not waste a ton of cards dealing with my predator and still being able to go forward, something combat has always struggled to balance.

The only card I didn’t really use much was Dance With the Devil but that’s only because there weren’t very many maneuvers out there at this tournament. Also how did it take VTES until 2025 to name a card this LOL?

The final was actually pretty bad seating for me all things considered: Death and the Soul -> Power and the Inner Voice -> Caine -> Cathari -> 

I probably get vaporized if I don’t get exceptionally lucky and draw a Yawp Court in my opening hand. So, I had to make a decision to let the Cathari go wild on the Death and the Soul deck, so it couldn’t get as set up with allies. With Yawp Court I effectively made it, so the deck´s game went like this. Call a vote = lose a vampire before it resolves. In the end, I just had too many rushes and combat for the Cathari deck to keep up in the heads up as he was low on blood from working to oust his prey.

Thanks for this report Alex!

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In memoriam: Lauri Salmi

Lauri "Cerion" Salmi, a VTES tournament veteran and a dear friend to many in the VEKN community, has passed away after a long illness - far too soon, of course. He was a generous and kind person, as well as a cunning and entertaining adversary at the table. To help us remember him, the art above will appear on a VTES card awarded to participants of the Helsinki Ropecon tournament in July. Artwork by Noora Hirvonen.

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Black Chantry Summary: June 2025

• The preview season for the upcoming Sabbat cards made a real burst just before the Ohio preview tournament hosted by Ben Peal (see Alex Romanos report above), and now most cards are floating around the interwebs in one form or another. As soon as the print dates have been nailed, the official product pages will turn up on Blackchantry.com with decklists, and a release date can be decided.

• Please, join the playtest of VTES 1v1! All rules are at the dedicated playtest site, now updated with Hecata cards. Many thanks for any feedback. So far most seem positive to the format! 

• Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Gamepod, Drivethrucards.com and other stores:
Lost Kindred bundle (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Den of Fiends Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Libertine Ball Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Pact with Nephandi Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Parliament of Shadows Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Anthology I bundle
VTES Card Creator (Drivethrucards only)
25th Anniversary
First Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
VTES Legacy Card Singles (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 3 (For promotion only)
Promo Pack 4 (For promotion only)
VTES "Parity Shift" playmat
VTES card sleeves
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition (Stores only)
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition Latin (Drivethrucards only)
Fifth Edition: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Toreador (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Tremere (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Promo Pack 3 (Event promos only)
Fifth Edition: Banu Haqim (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Brujah (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Gangrel (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: The Ministry (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
The Fall of London (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Echoes of Gehenna
Shadows of Berlin (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Banu Haqim (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Brujah (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Gangrel (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: The Ministry (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Ravnos (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Salubri (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Tzimisce (Also Spanish, French)
30th Anniversary (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Lasombra (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Hecata (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Hecata (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Lasombra (Also Spanish, French)

Do you have opinions or questions for Black Chantry? Start a topic on the VEKN forum, or contact the company by e-mail, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

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Recent news in the World of Darkness

The World of Darkness News show is back on a regular basis, with new host and also new Community Developer Debbie Lane, as Martyna "Outstar" Zych has moved on to a Creative Producer role. Among the things mentioned in the first episode is Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, In Memoriam for Vampire: The Masquerade and Tattered Facade, also for VTM. That will be a sourcebook about horror. Imagine that, for a game about vampires :) It will have additional archetypes for each clan as well as new discipline powers, rituals, loresheets, terror-themed new rules and new threats to the characters, including the return of Baali!

Check out the episode on the World of Darkness Youtube channel

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Calendar

Major events coming up:
July 5: Grand Prix Warsaw
July 6: National Championship Poland
July 12: National Championship Switzerland
July 20: National Championship Belgium
August 9: National Championship Norway
August 16: Grand Prix Herne
August 23: Grand Prix Biloxi/Gulfport, Mississippi
August 30: Grand Prix Auckland
September 6: Asian Championship, Mandaluyong, Philippines
September 6: Grand Prix Sul Americano (Campina Grande, Brazil)
September 6: National Championship Czech Republic
September 13: Grand Prix Harmelen
October 4: Grand Prix New Orleans, Louisiana
October 13-16: Week of Nightmares Aarhus
October 17: European Championship Aarhus
October 25: Oceania Championship, Melbourne, Australia
December 6: Grand Prix Vidor, Texas
December 14: Grand Prix Cearense

Upcoming tournaments for the coming month (registered so far) are in:
Austria
Belgium x2
Brazil x8
Chile x2
Finland x5
Hungary
Italy
Online
Poland x4
Portugal
Russia
Spain x8
Sweden
Switzerland x2
UK
USA x2

For details about these events, see the VEKN Event Calendar. Also, check out the World of Darkness Community Map.

Remember: Online tournaments are possible - just check the box "Online tournament" when you add the event to the calendar!

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Contact VEKN

You can contact the VEKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at VEKN.net. Also follow the official VTES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, the official VEKN X (Twitter) account @VEKN_VTES and the official VTES Discord server.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.