How was your EC experience?

This was the first time I had the opportunity to enjoy a properly international VTES crowd. And I enjoyed it tremendously. The moment I heard that the next EC was going to be held in Stockholm I decided that this was an event I could not miss. Then when the date started to approach, it became increasingly unlikely if I could even get there. In the meantime I was responsible for building and administrating the EC website and had extensive contact with Randal and Isak. I told Randal about my situation and he said that I could stay at his home, if it would increase my odds of attending. Finally on Friday, September 13 I booked my ferry tickets.

Then came the Friday of the EC and in the morning I was on the ferry heading to Stockholm. As I had not qualified in advance it was clear that I could not participate in the main event itself. And in the evening I stood for the first time on Swedish soil south of the arctic circle.

As I had taken Viking Line I was somewhat further away from the venue and had to find my own way to Scandic Ariadne. Initially I thought about taking a bus, but could not find a way to buy a ticket. Thus I had to walk a bit longer to find the subway. Trying to see where exactly I was supposed to go I missed two trains and was at the venue an hour later than planned, just in time to see the beginning of the Friday finals. I was greeted warmly by Randal and co and promptly started looking for familiar faces and introducing myself to people I did not know.

Everybody was friendly and I managed to connect several names I already knew through the online community to a face. And do of course what we all came to do, play some VTES. In the evening I had time to sit down and play a friendly game with my Jacko anarch deck, although Jacko himself was absent. Then it was time to go to Randal's yellow coupe and crash at his family house.

Saturday started with Randal's wonderfully friendly mother giving the guys a ride to Ariadne. After some socializing it was time to play in the Silence of Death side event. I chose to take Beast and Theo and love the tables to death.

Silence of Death

Round 1 (Robert Ryner bleeding Jonas Eriksson bleeding ME bleeding Niina Lindroos)
The game started looking bleak the moment I saw what my prey and predator were playing. Both were apparently voters, and I have preciously little against votes, other than rushing them to pieces. Then again, that is my response to pretty much every archetype. I managed to hang on in the game by a thread for a very long time, constantly harassing Niina's Alicia Barrows and Adana de Sforza. In the end I finally managed to oust her, but Robert's Black Hand deck across the table took the 3 remaining VPs. (1 VP, 48 TP)

Round 2 (David Storm bleeding Stefan Salzer bleeding Timo Rekola bleeding ME)
This game looked extremely bad in the beginning. I was bleeding Euro Brujah bleeding a Dominate weenie bleeding Eze bleeding me. David got out Donal O'Connor, dominate weenie tried to dominate the table by bleeding, Eze tried to build up and defend in desperation, and all the while I waited, looked what way the table would start to fall and slowly but steadily ploughed through David's reources. First the Laibon fell to the dominate deck's relentless onslaught, after which I destroyed all of Stefan's remaining vampires. Second the Euro Brujah ousted the dominate deck, but at this point it was too late. I eventually torporised Donal, Constanza and Volker, one after the other, again and again. (2 VP+GW, 60 TP)

Round 3 (Robert Doktorow bleeding ME bleeding Stefan Salzer bleeding Christian Nislev bleeding Rober Ryner)
This was probably the game I felt most comfortable with throughout the day. I was bleeding the Dominate weenie from previous table bleeding Osebo Brainwash 419 bleeding Black Hand from round 1 bleeding Auspex Fortitude wall. First the Osebo shut down the Black Hand by playing no less than 6 Brainwashes on his uncontrolled region. They had only Piotr Andreikov to defend their honor. But all this was in vain as the Dominate bleed deck steamrolled over regardless of me rushing most of his vampires to torpor as soon as they hit the table. Well, this was part of my grand plan. On my turn immediately after the Osebo was ousted I torporised the last of the weenies and they never recovered. With the Brainwashes gone the Black Hand deck quickly recovered and started to throw constant bleeds for 2 against the wall deck behind me. In the end Robert D overextended himself and was ousted on the same turn as I finally ousted Stefan, after taking probably 5 or 6 rounds going through his pool, mostly with Fame escalator and bleeds of 1. In the 1-on-1 the Black Hand stood no chance as he had been denied the crucial build up phase and Beast/Theo tag team swiftly finished the job. (3 VP+GW, 60 TP)

After three rounds I was in fourth place with 2 GW, 6 VP, 168 TP.

The feeling when you sit at a table, wait until you see what the others are playing, decide how the game should end, and everything happens exactly as you predicted. And when that happens not once, but twice in a row.

Then I got myself busy helping Ginés, Ben and Pascal getting Danse Macabre ready for publication. I almost missed the start of the final as I had somehow forgotten when the final would've started. No harm done, there was just a 15 minute delay, as I quickly grabbed fresh air and something to eat.

Final (Patrick Benoit bleeding Mike Wilson bleeding ME bleeding Nicolas Lourmiere bleeding Robert Ryner)
From the beginning this was just a disaster waiting to happen. I was bleeding Antonio d'Erlette Nephandi bleeding the familiar Black Hand bleeding Ravnos breed'n'boon bleeding Dominate/Obfuscate bleed deck. Antonio recruited Nephandi and with the help of Unmasking kept the Black Hand very very quiet. Black Lotus bled me for lots and I showed Sebastian Goulet where exactly vampires like him should go. All the while the Ravnos quickly got out a huge horde of influenced and embraced weenies building towards an unstoppable avalanche that finally swept across the table. (0 VP, 30 TP)

In the evening I was kind of tired but still managed to get a pickup game with Lazverinus. Too bad my host had to get sleep before the Sunday and I had to abandon the game 1 hour in. This time we walked, rode a bus and walked some more.

And then it was Sunday. I started the day with my first cup of sugar free coffee in probably 10 years, which was surprisingly pleasant. Then it was time for Randal's father to take me and his other guests to the venue, him following with his mother. On the venue both Randal's mother and father helped the hosting committee in setting up the big room for the last two tournaments. All the morning I pondered and pondered what should I play in the First Chance Qualifier . Finally I gave the choice to Ben, asking him which hand should I take, holding the Beast/Theo deck I had played yesterday in my left hand. He picked my right hand, for which I could've thanked him after the round three. Today I would play my Malkavian stealth/bleed deck.

First Chance Qualifier

Round 1 (Riccardo Fabiani bleeding Niina Lindroos bleeding Danny Buset bleeding ME)
In this game I went probably a bit too fast out of the gate. I bled Riccardo for about 15 pool pretty early, which just caused him to wall up and take the bleeds of 1 or 2 in and deny me from cycling stealth. His Lasombra bleeder did no actions forward throughout the game, which gave Niina's neo-Brujah deck have an easy 1-on-1 against Danny's Stanislava deck. (0 VP, 28 TP)

Round 2 (ME bleeding Remek Flasinski bleeding Elisabet Öberg bleeding Jonas Ståhle bleeding Tomas Wallmur)
Not many recollections about this game, except that it went horribly wrong from the beginning. All I managed to do was prevent Remek from doing anything productive while Elisabet and Tomas had a free reign over the table. (0 VP, 24 TP)

Round 3 (Emiliano Imeroni bleeding Henrik Klippström bleeding Danilo Torrisi bleeding ME bleeding Jonas Ståhle)
Emiliano started slow, bringing out just Maris early on. Henrik started brutally by influencing out soon a horde of small and mid-caps with Dementation and Obfuscate to plough through Danilo's pool. Danilo's big cap Ventrue just stood there and did nothing, preferring to play Protected Resources over bleeding me. I just threw everything I got against Jonas playing a deck very similar to Riccardo's in round 1. He mostly used his Lasombra to defend, but bled a little too. At some point the whole table in unison tried to ask how many Suddens I had in the deck. At that point I had played 4 or 5 and discarded 1 or 2 more while Henrik Washed almost every annoying master that I didn't manage to Sudden. In the end Henrik managed to wear down Danilo's pool, while I slowly rolled over Jonas. At that point the game was still a bit open with Emiliano low on pool but having Maris and Lutz ready, Henrik on the brink of being ousted but not quite as low as Emiliano would've liked, and me ready to throw the finishing blow against Emiliano. Then Emiliano played his last prayer card and tried take over Bloody Mary with Malkavian Dementia, but that was not to happen, as I played my Sudden Reversal #8. Henrik then bled to me full force with me blocking some and throwing some forward. On my turn I ousted Emiliano and was around 20 pool despite the fact that I have 0 master cards that give me pool. Henrik threw his final effort against my pool, managed to dent it a bit and gave up. At that moment my hand was probably enough to oust him three or four times over. (4 VP+GW, 60 TP)

After the game: Woohoo! The first time I am qualified to continental championship tournament ever! That was kind of exhilarating.

18th, 1 GW, 4 VP, 112 TP

After the third round was over I noticed that I was in a little hurry, proceeded quickly to say goodbye to every familiar person I managed to find, called Randal who was busy with organizational stuff, collected my belongings, took the subway to Slussen, walked from there to Viking Line terminal and started writing my report.

Now, few days after my first European Championships of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is behind, I can't wait to see all of you guys again, be it in North American Championships, Ropecon, next European Championships or for another reason. I enjoyed myself vastly and can honestly say that there are not many (if any) groups of people that can make a person feel more welcome.

Ginés, Johannes, Dennis, Tiago, Ralf and all the others I have only met online before: it was a great pleasure to finally connect a name and a face with each other. To all of you who thanked me and told me how you use the Secret Library : just wait and see what I do with it next, hopefully before the end of this year. Big thanks to everyone in the organizing team, Marcus, Randal, Hanna, everyone I didn't mention, and last but not least, Isak: everything just worked. Perfectly. I know that there are always some glitches, others minor, others major, but you made it seem like there were none left during the weekend.

Goodbye! Thank you! Hope to see you guys in Mannheim 2014!

I got 1 GW of 9 tries. Otherwise it was nice.

Ashur Tablets was very popular. I still wonder who the hell playtested that card. Or I mean, why someone ignored the playtesters

The G4-5 Kiasyd or Kiasyd/Lasombra crypt was at just about every table.