Sebastian Fredenberg wins Grand Prix Aarhus 2024!

A report by Jesper Bøje, VEKN National Coordinator of Denmark, with the help of four of the players. (Winner Sebastian to the right on the pic above. Black and white photos by Marko Saari.)

The 19th of May I had the pleasure to welcome 25 players to the Grand Prix: Aarhus. Something I had looked forward to for some months. After traveling around for 20 years it was nice to welcome people I met at my first EC in 2004 and people I met last year on the Grand Prix circuit. There were players that started just last year and players from when the game was first released.

What I am saying is, the field was diverse and I would think proberly the only premiere event that would have neither a Breaking the Bonds nor a Platinum Protocol deck and only 2 Gangrel wall decks. I asked various players to help form the report so here it is :)

 

Rookie - Allan Kirkeby:
“This was my first VTES tournament. It was a bit daunting to return to the game after almost 20 years, and then to do it at a tournament. I was unsure what to expect. I was both nervous and excited when I arrived.

My first game was a table of 5 danes. I was super confused about all the cards being played that I’d never seen before, but all my opponents were very helpful to explain their plays and the rules. This really made the experience a lot better, and it helped me feel really welcome. I had a great start, getting two big vampires out very fast (Zillah´s Valley FTW), and from there dominating the voting game on that table.

My second game was more tense. Everyone was able to defend their own position so we ended in a standoff. My last game was a disaster. My heavy vamps were too slow to hit the table, and my predator rush-bled me to death in 3-4 rounds.

In between games I had time to chat with many of the participants – people from all over Europe telling stories about their local VTES communities, and encouraging me to some day come to visit their tournaments.

I really enjoyed the tournament. I made some new friends and I hope to be playing more VTES games in the near future with some of them in Århus.”

 

Top 5 before the final:
1. Rodinei Teixeira de Camargo 2 GW, 6 VP
2. Sebastian Fredenberg 1 GW, 7 VP
3. Marcia Mota 1 GW, 7 GW
4. Marko Saari 1 GW, 6.5 VP
5. Martin Johansson 1 GW, 4.5 VP

Top Seed - Rodinei Camargo:
“I chose to prey on the weenie bleed deck because it was preying on the Chameleon deck, and I knew I would be a target for it, as I was the only player using Barons.

I expected to raise many minions with thing, since it was between two decks with little intercept against undirected actions. I imagined that the weenie deck would do 1 or 2 vps and then lose strength against Sebastian's Tremeres. I would then try to use bounce on his bleed, to help me take it out and get to 1 vs 1 against him.

But when I lost my only baron to a Chameleon in the third round and I suffered a bleed of 6 in the same turn, my chances were over.

Maybe preying on the Tremere and staying in front of the Malkavian big cap would be the best choice. But I didn't choose to prey on the Tremere because I knew he could do 3 vps quickly and take away my chance of winning. I thought I could control him, and did not expect to receive one cross-table Chameleon so fast, and without any baron it was impossible to stop Sebastian.”

Marcia, Martin, Sebastian, Marko and Rodinei.

Winner - Sebastian Fredenberg:
“Going into the finals things was not looking great, as I had played heads up against my prey, Rodinei, before and I came out the looser out of that battle. He was playing Gangrel barons and I had fairly low stealth and no block denial, so I had low hopes and decided to go for a slow build and see what happens.

Early on I got continuous pool gain via Ayse Dhanial and a Vessel, she also got a Heart of Nizchetus so I could cycle my cards early. I was pretty happy about that, but my prey had Kuyen and another vampire out.

My grand predator Marcia ran a weenie Computer Hacking deck and came out aggressively against Marko, who decided that Kuyen should switch sides via Chameleon. That opened the opportunity to me, and I tried Rodinei’s defences and started getting through, doing serious damage to his pool. I switched to an aggressive style and a few rounds later he was only on 4 pool but had a new baron out, however I had drawn a Misdirection and that locked down the baron and I could secure my first VP.

My next prey Marcia was in a bad shape having gotten hit by several Petra Resonances, but she had a few unlocked Dominate weenies. That was solved, again, by them joining Marko via Chameleon. Marcia only had 3 pool and Marko 1 at that point, so I was able to oust them both in the same turn.

The final boss was Martin. He had plenty of pool and did serious damage to me with a couple of Petra Resonance and votes, but in the end I had the numbers on my side; five dominate vampires. So I took Martin out using the very last bleed card left in my deck.

I really did not expect that win or even go to the finals, as it had been a long day and I had only slept for a couple of hours the night before. I was super tired, but that also put off a lot of pressure during the games and I did not do many mistakes.

I have not done a table sweep for many years, but this day I managed to do this twice, taking the right opportunities when they arose. Tremere is a good clan and getting an early Heart of Nizchetus is awesome. That combined with the timely Chameleons and some Petra Resonances really paved the way for my win.”

Sebastian Fredenberg´s tournament winning deck: “Unchain my Heart”

Crypt (12 cards)
1x Anu Diptinatpa 7 DOM NEC aus vic      Nagaraja:6
1x Ayelech    7 AUS DOM THA    prince   Tremere:6
1x Rutor    7 AUS DOM THA pro vic      Tremere:5
1x Lloyd Brooks   6 DOM THA aus pot   primogen Tremere:6
1x Trevon Parker 6 AUS DOM THA         Tremere:6
1x Chrysanthemum 5 AUS THA dom    primogen Tremere:6
1x Claus Wegener 5 DOM aus for tha       Tremere:5
1x Sri Sansa   5 DOM aus tha         Tremere:6
1x Ayse Dhanial   4 aus dom tha         Tremere:6
1x Lauren    4 aus dom tha         Tremere:6
1x Tarrence Moore 4 aus dom tha         Tremere:5
1x Monica Chang   3 dom tha          Tremere:5

Library (85 cards)
Master (21; 8 trifle)
1x Academic Hunting Ground
2x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Arcane Library
1x Chantry
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Metro Underground
1x Misdirection
3x Perfectionist
3x Vessel
3x Villein
2x Wash
1x Wasserschloss Anif, Austria

Action (17)
9x Govern the Unaligned
4x Magic of the Smith
4x Scouting Mission

Ally (2)
2x Ponticulus

Equipment (6)
1x Ankara Citadel, Turkey, The
1x Bowl of Convergence
2x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Ritual Goblet

Action Modifier (19)
5x Bonding
3x Conditioning
3x Foreshadowing Destruction
8x Mirror Walk

Combat (2)
2x Burst of Sunlight

Reaction (18)
6x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
3x Eyes of Argus
2x My Enemy's Enemy
3x On the Qui Vive
2x Telepathic Misdirection

Afterthoughts - Martin Weinmayer:
“Travelling to Denmark has been an enjoyable adventure. The Danish people are very welcoming and helpful; they even speak some German with us :)

The tournament venue had good tables and lighting. Everything was perfectly set up, and Jesper got the tournament started on time. (which is a rare sight in VTES tournaments in general). [Jesper: and might I add all other rounds ;-) ]

Because 4 player tables can be extremely unbalanced, I was delighted to play a 25-player tournament with equal chances in that regard.

So far. No excuses for my sweet and bitter triple zero result, also known as the infamous tricycle :)

I was playing a British Museum Living Manse Toolbox deck with an old group of 2-3 Tzimisce crypts. Meta reasoning led me to believe that there would be few vote decks, but unfortunately, those few decks appeared as my predator in two rounds. There was not a single bleed deck on any of my tables, rendering my bleed-bounce package of 24 cards basically useless. My deck had no crosstable capabilities, and thus I was not able to do much in my games. especially round 3 with Antti and Tero, I felt like I brought a butterknive to a gunfight :) I was in good company though, I cheered for Rodinei in the finals, and enjoyed some good talks with Hugh, Jesper and Antti. Without a doubt, i would return to Denmark.”

Thank you, Allan, Martin, Sebastian, Rodinei for your inputs. Thank you Marko for the black and white photos. Thank you Hugh for taking the time to come over and judge and a big thank to Lucas for taking a day out to help his dad with all the practical stuff running this tournement.

On a personal note and telling what a Grand Prix also can do. The VTES in Aarhus have been non-existing for 10-ish years. But this tournament got old Methuselahs out from the shadows, got players activated that I did not know about in the city and spawned general interest from the Cafe we plays in. Right now it seems that we will have the first meeting in many years this coming July with more than 10 players showing interest.

Thanks to Jesper for this VERY nice report, as well as to all players, organisers and sponsors!

Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter April 2024

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF VAMPIRE: THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE CONTINUES!

It has been 30 long, fun years of VTES, and that, of course, needs to be celebrated with a 30th Anniversary product. Above is the new art for one of the original set cards that will be reprinted in it, Business Pressure. The actual card is depicted below together with two other previews.

• Business Pressure is illustrated by Randy Gallegos, veteran VTES artist credited with about twenty cards since 1994, including favorites such as Decapitate, Slaughtering the Herd and Body Flare. We are, of course, delighted that Randy has returned to our game with this marvelous art for an original set card. Hopefully we get an interview with him for the newsletter soon!

• The deck in the 30th Anniversary box with be a Toreador vote deck including five new titled vampires. One of them is Marcos Belegrad, Prince of Bogota, Colombia. The art is by Black Chantry´s own Ginés Quiñonero - maybe some of you recognize who is depicted?

• Among the extra non-deck cards in the box will be group 7 Justicars for five clans. What do you think of the Ventrue one? Art by Mark Kelly.

 

The release date for this 120-card product is September 2024. More previews coming soon - follow Black Chantry Productions in social media.

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DATE SET FOR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2024: 27-29 SEPTEMBER

Finally a date has been set for this year´s EC. The event will take place on September 27-29 in Warsaw, Poland. Presale of tickets will begin in early/mid May - please, buy early, to help the organisers. This time we WILL make this something really special - it´s not every year VTES turns 30! More detailed information will follow.

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ISMAEL DÍAZ VALVERDE IS THE 2024 CHAMPION OF SPAIN!

121 players (!) joined for this year´s Spanish championship, held in Avilés, Asturias on April 20.

Read the full report: Spanish National Championship 2024

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ARTURO PARISE IS THE 2024 CHAMPION OF ITALY!

49 players wanted to win this event in Caldonazzo on April 27.

Read the full report: Italian National Championship 2024

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MARTIN WEINMAYER WINS GRAND PRIX PARIS 2024!

57 players gathered for this event in Paris, France on April 20.

Read the full report: Grand Prix Paris 2024

The European VTES Grand Prix circuit moves on with May 19 in Aarhus and July 20 in Helsinki. The final with the top 5 players will be played in Warsaw during the EC weekend. More information about that when we have it!

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DARBY KEENEY WINS GRAND PRIX DALLAS 2024!

24 Methuselahs played this event in Dallas, Texas on April 27.

Read the full report: Grand Prix Dallas 2024 (Gulf Coast Roast 2)

The US "Gulf Coast Roast" Grand Prix circuit continues with Gulfport August 24, New Orleans October 12, Vidor December 7, with the final also in Vidor on December 8. Please join the fun!

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PRAXIS SEIZURES

We have many new volunteer organisers, the ones we call Princes. The individuals listed below have joined in the last months. Thanks guys - you make tournament play possible!

• Brazil - Prince of Arapongas: Geraldo Antonio Nakajima

• Brazil - Prince fo Barra do Piraí: Daniel Iunes

• Brazil - Prince of Barra Mansa: Aylton "Joe" Cianni

• Brazil - Prince of Caucaia: Lucas Raphael

• Brazil - Prince of Londrina: Fernando Giannetti Fiorin

• Brazil - Prince of Mogi das Cruzes: Guilherme Araujo

• Brazil - Prince of Rio de Janiero: José Wilson O. Fontenele

• Brazil - Prince of Santos: Bruno Paramo Meleiro

• Chile - Prince of Providencia: Pablo Cabrera

• Finland - Prince of Akaa: Otto Kukkasniemi

• Finland - Prince of Helsinki: Jyri Puhakka

• Finland - Prince of Helsinki: Tero Aalto

• Finland - Prince of Mankkaa: Marko Saari

• Finland - Prince of Tampere: Joel Tikkala

• Hungary - Prince of Kecskemét: Ferenc Kósa

• Italy - Prince of Rome: Alessandro Spataro

• Netherlands - Prince of Tilburg: Guido Pollé

• Poland - Prince of Szczecin: Łukasz Ho Thanh

• Slovenia - Prince of Brežice: Dominik Trupčević

• South Africa - Prince of Cape Town: Skye Segal

• Spain - Prince of Córdoba: Ferdinand Portal

• Spain - Prince of Coya: Jaddou Nasra

• Spain - Prince of Madrid: Diego Farras

• Spain - Prince of Oviedo: Miguel Vega

• Sweden - Prince of Eslöv: Andreas Stjernfelt

• Sweden - Prince of Gothenburg: Simon Johansson

• United Kingdom - Prince of Bedford: Antonio Cobo Cuenca

• United States - Prince of Denver: Marshall Hogue

• United States - Prince of Fullerton: Jason K. Orman

• United States - Prince of Louisville, Kentucky: Sean Payne

• United States - Prince of Madison: Josh Whelan

• United States - Prince of New Orleans: Devin Villegas

• United States - Prince of Phoenix: Benjamin Billings

• United States - Prince of Richmond: Andrew Taylor

If you need to talk to your local prince, check out the VEKN Prince list. If you want to become a Prince and start organising tournaments, contact your VEKN National Coordinator.

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DO YOU WANT TO HOST EC 2025?

The application period is now open for the 2025 Vampire: The Eternal Struggle European Championship.

Interested organisers are encouraged to submit their proposals for consideration between today and August 31st to 

The proposals should include the following information (fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.), in addition to any other information that the organisers deem relevant:
• Country:
• City:
• Approximate dates:
• Scheduled off season (Y/N):
• Organizer(s):
• Head judge:

VENUE
• All inclusive location (room, hotel, food, refreshments) (Y/N):
• Accommodations close to venue (Y/N):
• Snacks and meals on-site (or within 5 minutes) (Y/N):
• Distance to major hubs:
• Distance to major city:
• Non-smoking venue (Y/N):
• Air-conditioned venue (Y/N):
• Enough area suited for mass registration (Y/N):
• Free WiFi available (Y/N):
• Microphone/loudspeaker announcements (sound system) (Y/N):
• Video projection system (remaining time) (Y/N):
• Opening hours:

ROOM(S)
• Enough room for 200 players (Y/N):
• Separate rooms for side events (Y/N):
• Comfortable chairs (Y/N):
• Table cloths (Y/N):
• Round tables for 5 players (Y/N):
• Are toilets close to reduce game delays? (Y/N):

ORGANIZATION
• On-site registration on multiple computers (number of players/30) (Y/N):
• On time registration, breaks and events (Y/N):
• Using armbands to indicate registration type (Y/N):
• FAQ (handout at registration) (Y/N):
• Lunch breaks (Y/N):
• Two head organisers (side events/main tournament) (Y/N):
• Organizers and judges properly identified (Y/N):
• Assistants (non VTES players) (Y/N):
• Documentation/archiving person (traceability) (Y/N):
• Spouse info/events (Y/N):
• Seating print-outs on multiple spots (Y/N):

SCHEDULE
• Last Chance Qualifier:
• EC Day 1:
• EC Day 2:
• Side events:

COVERAGE
• Live webcam as weekend documentation (Y/N):
• Detailed final round(s) report (Y/N):
• Final round video recording/streaming (Y/N):
 

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: APRIL 2024

• Promo Pack 4 is now available! Intended as promotional material for retailers and support for organizers of tournaments and other events, this is a 54 card mix of older promo cards and cards that really needed a reprint, but haven´t found its way into a normal product yet.

 
• The 30th Anniversary box has been sent to print. Also described above in this newsletter (with three previews), this will be a 120-card product composed of a Toreador political deck and 20 other cards. It will hit stores in September, but look forward to deck list and cards spoiled soon.

• The (probably) last round of playtesting of the next products was concluded: the 30th Anniversary box, preconstructed decks for Hecata and Lasombra, New Blood packs for Hecata, Lasombra, Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce. Playtest coordinators Norman Brown, Serge Cirri, Dayvisson Alves and Dario Canto Fornell compiled a 211 pages long report for the design team to sink their teeth into – thanks to all of you that wrote long and detailed about your test games and opinions, you ROCK!

• Design of four Sabbat preconstructed decks is in progress. The two-player VTES variant is put on hold for now.

 

Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Gamepod, Drivethrucards.com and other stores:

• Lost Kindred bundle
  Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 1
  Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 2
  Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 1
  Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 2
  Den of Fiends Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
  Libertine Ball Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
  Pact with Nephandi Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
  Parliament of Shadows Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
  Anthology I bundle
  VTES Card Creator (Drivethrucards only)
  25th Anniversary
  First Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French)
  First Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French)
  First Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French)
  First Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French)
  First Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French)
  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)

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

Some highlights from the World of Darkness team over at Paradox:

• “Werewolf: The Apocalypse - The Book of Hungry Names” is a enormous interactive novel/computer game created by Kyle Marquis (who also made the acclaimed “Vampire: The Masquerade - Night Road”), now available on Steam, iOS and Android. To find out more, check out this developer deep-dive!

• There were two more clan-focused developer diary entries about “Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2”: clans Tremere and Banu Haqim.

• For the tabletop RPG Vampire: The Masquerade, the “Crimson Gutter” chronicle book is now available in PDF for everyone. There´s a bunch of thorough reviews of this book out there – try for example this video one over at Summoned Stories.

Subscribe to the World of Darkness News show for more news!

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CALENDAR

Upcoming tournaments for the coming month (registered so far) are in:
Brazil x12
Chile x2
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
Germany
Italy x2
Mexico
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Serbia
Spain x5
Sweden

For details about these events, see the VEKN Event Calendar.

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 true man is revealed in difficult times."