TWD and Report - Ropecon 2025, Finland (July 26)

Ropecon 2025 (In Memoriam Lauri Salmi)
Ropecon 2024 gaming convention, Messukeskus, Helsinki, Finland
Saturday July 26th, 2025
3R+F
47 players
Tommi Hakomaa
www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/12418

Tommi's winning deck:

(see end of this post for the deck lists of the other finalists)



This year's Ropecon tournament was dedicated to the memory of Lauri Salmi, a well-known & beloved local player, who passed away in May. In addition to local tournaments and endless pub game nights, he attended plenty of international tournaments and also played lots of games online. We'll all miss him, and it was bittersweet to be able to gather together to play the game he loved, this time without him attending. As a really nice plus, Black Chantry issued us a bunch of brand-new alt-art versions of Childe of the Revolution, featuring a picture of Lauri by the great Noora Hirvonen -- all players got copies, including a copy signed by the artist herself. I'm told Lauri got to see the art before he died, and gave his full blessings about the card it would grace (being an avid Anarch player).

The tournament was once again a success, with 47 players in total and lots of different deck types and play styles in attendance. This is very much due to the fantastic players, and I would also like to thank Black Chantry, UltraPro and the Ropecon org for prize support.

Before I get to describing the tournament, a small digression. At the tournament, a player asked me "how long have you been running these things for?" and I had to honestly answer "Hell if I know, pretty much forever". After the tournament I got curious and started digging up the history, which proved more difficult than expected since Ropecon started in 1994 and in those days the Internet wasn't as pervasive and a lot of records now only exist on paper. In the end, some friends managed to dig up ancient paper schedule sheets, and also ransacked their own memories of the olden days. The final result was a bit of a surprise to me; it seems that I ran the first Ropecon VTES/Jyhad tournament in 1995, and have been running them every year since (with the exception of the Covid years, 2020 & 2021). Year 2022 it was the Finnish EC and it was a group effort, the others I've run solo. So that makes this the 29th year of VTES at Ropecon, giving me an excuse for a party next year!

Yes, I know that the first Ropecon was in 1994 and Jyhad was also published in 1994, so one might think we missed a year. But it turns out that Ropecon 1994 was held a week before the announcement of Jyhad (at GenCon 1994), and since Ropecon management declined our request for a time machine citing lack of funds and "dubious available technology" (boo! hiss!), we sadly had to skip that year. But we have managed to run VTES/Jyhad at Ropecon every year since (barring legal barriers due to Covid), so yay us! Much of that is due to the awesome local players, who have helped at every turn and who make running tournaments fun.



On to the tournament itself. As usual, there was a huge variance of deck types, but of course current "meta" trends were visible. We didn't enforce deck lists, because I want to keep the tournament barrier of entry as low as possible due to it being run in a bigger gaming con. However, deck lists provide nice statistics about current meta and I like seeing them, so this year (too) I tried bribery: all players submitting deck lists get an extra promo card or two from the newest sets. And hey, bribery works, we got 41 decklists in total.

I was curious about how much V5 stuff was in attendance, so I went through the decklists and got this results. The rest of the decks were either a mix of V5 clans or older stuff. As you can see, BH and new Lasombra were the most popular, with Hecata and V5 Gangrel (unsurprisingly) also seeing multiple copies. The only small surprise (to me) was the total lack of V5 Ravnos -- the current one-trick-pony nature of the clan is probably one big cause, here's hoping that improves in the future.

• 4 x Banu Haqim
• 4 x V5 Lasombra
• 3 x Hecata
• 3 x V5 Gangrel
• 2 x V5 Toreador
• 2 x Ministry
• V5 Salubri
• V5 Malkavian
• V5 Brujah
• V5 Tzimisce

The finalists were as follows (Jonas and Petrus had identical scores including TPs,
order was determined by coin flip):

1. Tommi Hakomaa (2 GW, 9 VP) - V5 Gangrel
2. Jani Malmi (2 GW, 7 VP) - Juliet Parr vote
3. Teemu Sainomaa (2 GW, 6.5 VP) - Anson + Anneke guns
4. Petrus "Peetu" Makkonen (2 GW, 6.5 VP) - V5 barons
5. Jonas Ståhle (2 GW, 6.5 VP) - V5 Toreador bleed

Final table order was: Teemu → Tommi → Jani → Jonas → Peetu.



The following is a (very) condensed summary based on my quick notes (which may or may not be accurate). I've only included main events and left out most blood gain stuff (Villeins etc), combat details, vote details, most block attempt/stealth stuff, etc.

A short summary is: Jonas and Peetu were a bit screwed by their seating choices, and Jani had a hard time with his vote machine after the beginning, due to the votes from the rest of the table and blocks from Tommi. Jani managed to oust Jonas, got ousted himself by Tommi, and the table timed out leaving Tommi the winner.

Peetu also wrote a very nice report of the final round (and the tournament in general) at Garou Rim Gazette .

-Petri "Orava" Wessman

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Round 1:
Teemu plays Montreal. Jani plays Info HW and brings out Warmaksan. Jonas plays Insurance Scam.

Round 2:

Teemu plays Bleeding the Vine and Nightmares Upon Nightmares. Tommi brings out Casey Snyder. Jani plays Dreams, bleeds for 1, and brings out Belinde. Jonas plays a second Insurance Scam and brings out Victoria Ash. Peetu brings out Adrino Manauara.

Round 3:

Teemu brings out Zoe and Anson. Casey plays Thing, Tommi brings out Kuyen. Warmaksan plays KRC, passes 3:1. Victoria calls sup Enchant Kindred. Peetu plays Papillon, Adrino gets Mr. Winthrop.

Round 4:

Kuyen steals Montreal, Casey bleeds for 1. Tommi brings out Joaquin de Cadiz and plays Scourge of the Enochians. Warmaksan calls KRC, passes 2:2. Belinde calls Camarilla's Iron Fist, passes 4:1. Jani brings out Juliet Parr. Victoria tries to Mind Numb Juliet, blocked. Jonas brings out Annabelle Triabell and Regina Blake. Peetu brings out Andre the Manipulator.

Round 5:

Teemu brings out Anneke. Joaquin bleeds for 1. Kuyen bleeds for 1. Juliet Parr calls KRC, gets Delayed. Warmaksan calls Disputed Territory, blocked. Jonas plays Dreams, Annabelle Mind Numbs Juliet, Regina tries to steal Montreal, blocked. Peetu brings out Branimira.

Round 6:

Zoe tries to steal Montreal, blocked. Anson tries the same, also blocked. Kuyen bleeds for 1, Tommi brings out Massimiliano. Warmaksan calls KRC, blocked. Belinde calls KRC, passes 3:1 forward (1 to Peetu). Jonas contest Montreal, Annabelle hunts, Victoria bleeds for 1, blocked. Regina bleeds for 1, blocked. Branimira bleeds for 1. Adrina bleeds for 1, bounced to Tommi by Zoe, blocked.

Round 7:

Teemu plays Ashur Tablets, Fame on Joaquin. Anneke tries to get Heart of Nizchetus, DI from Tommi. Anson bleeds for 1, reduced to 0. Zoe bleeds, blocked. Kuyen plays Thing. Massimiliano bleeds for 1. Juliet Parr calls KRC, passes 3:1 forward (1 to Peetu). Warmaksan calls KRC, and lots of table table issues. In the end, it passes 1 to Jonas and 3 to Peetu. Jonas is ousted, with 1:08 left on clock. Belinde bleeds for 1, blocked, Belinde ends up in torpor. Peetu plays Garibaldi, Adrino gets a Sport Bike, Andre gets Ritual Goblet, Branimira diablerizes Belinde.

Round 8:

Anson bleeds for 1. Anneke bleeds for 2, bounced to Jani. Tommi plays Dreams, Massimiliano bleeds for 1. Jani plays Camarilla Conclave, Juliet recruits Muddled Vampire Hunter. Warmaksan calls CIF, blocked, ends up in torpor. Jani brings out Alexander Silverson. Andre diablerizes Warmaksan. Branimira bleeds for 1, blocked.

Round 9:

Teemu plays a second Ashur. Anson gets a .44 (after lots of table talk). Massimiliano bleeds for 1, blocked. Kuyen bleeds for 1. Casey bleeds for 1, blocked by Anneke who gets a .44, combat ends in S:CE. Jani plays Protected Resources, Juliet calls Parity Shift, passes (3 from Peetu), adds Cryptic Rider. Alexander tries to call CIF, blocked. Andre bleeds for 1. 33 minutes left on clock at this point, lots of table talk. Peetu plays Uncoiling, which removes Nightmares.

Round 10:

Teemu plays 3rd Ashur, and Society of Leopold on Casey. Tommi plays Ecoterrorists. Casey hunts, Anson blocks. Massimiliano calls Revolutionary Council with Daring the Dawn. Jani ousted, 25 minutes left on clock. Tommi brings out Ruslan Fedorenko. Andre diablerizes Massimiliano. Branimira plays Childe of the Revolution. CotR hunts, blocked by Anneke.

Round 11:

Teemu plays Giant's Blood on Anneke. Anson bleeds for 1. Anneke bleeds for 2, bounced to Peetu, blocked. Society of Leopold burns Casey. Peetu plays Anarch Free Press. CotR hunts, blocked and into torpor. Branimira bleeds for 1, Anneke blocks, Branimira into torpor. Andre rescues Branimira, blocked. Adrino bleeds for 1.

Round 12:

Teemu plays Parthenon, Ashur. Zoe bleeds for 1, blocked, gets .44 during combat. Branimira hunts, blocked, Anneke sent to torpor (Donnybrook). Andre tries to rescue CotR, blocked, Andre to torpor. Adrino tries to diablerize Anneke, blocked. Peetu brings out Sergio Bueno.

Round 13:

Teemu plays second Ashur, Art Museum. Zoe rescues Anneke. Anneke bleeds for 2, reduced to 0. Tommi plays Club Illusion. Peetu plays Fear of Mekhet on Anneke.

Round 14:

Anneke burns (due to FoM). Teemu plays 3rd Ashur, Society of Leopold on Kuyen. Zoe bleeds for 1, bounced to Peetu, blocked. Tommi plays Carfax Abbey. Sergio rescues Andre. Andre hunts, blocked and back to torpor. Adriano plays Childe of the Revolution, CotR hunts.

Round 15:

Teemu plays Dreams. Zoe bleeds for 1. Anson bleeds for 1, bounced to Peetu, blocked, Sergio ends up in torpor. Teemu brings out Anneke. Adriano rescues Andre. Andre hunts, blocked, back to torpor. CotR hunts, same result.

Round 16:

Teemu plays Ashur. Anson hunts. Zoe bleed for 1. Game times out, with 1.5VP to Tommi, 1VP to Jani, and 0.5 to Teemu and Peetu)

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Finalist Decklists

(Tommi's deck is at start of this post)

Jani Malmi

Teemu Sainomaa

Petrus Makkonen

Jonas Ståhle

Archon approved.

Congratulations for the winner and thanks for the Prince for organising such a popular tournament. We had great attendance from Finland to down under.

I think we did what Lauri would have wanted us to do. Enjoyed playing our beloved game!

Oh yes, forgot to mention that: we had a player from Australia, that's the record for "furthest away" so far, and pretty hard to beat. Looking at you, New Zealand!