Results US National VtES Championship 2010

On June 25th, 2010 the US National VtES Championship 2010 was held in Columbus, Ohio with 38 players attending the tournament (during the Origins game fair 2010). The final standings were as follows:

1. Jay Kristoff (USA) -- 2 GW 7.5 VP -- 3 VP -- Nosferatu Royalty G3/4 Vote
2. Hugh Angseesing (UK) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 1 VP -- Euro Brujah
2. Pete Oh (USA) -- 1 GW 7.5 VP -- 1 VP -- Black Hand AUS/DOM
2. James Messer (USA) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Lutz & Maris Vote
2. David Tatu (USA) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Tzimisce Bleed&Block

Congratulations to Jay for his win of the US National VtES Championship 2010. You can find the tournament winning deck in the Comicshop Plus forum.

Result Origins NAC Qualifier 2010

On June 26th, 2010 the VtES Origins NAC Qualifier was held in Columbus, Ohio with 35 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings were as follows:

1. John Eno (USA) -- 2 GW 8.5 VP -- 2 VP -- Ventrue Grinder
2. Connor Bell (USA) -- 1 GW 7 VP -- 2 VP -- DOM Powerbleed
2. Karl Schaefer (USA) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 1 VP -- BH Bleed
2. Rodd Closson (USA) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Tremere Votish Toolbox
2. Bob Joseph (USA) -- 1 GW 6.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Kindred Spirits Bleed

Congratulations to John for his win of the Origins NAC Qualifier 2010. You can find tournament reports of the VtES tournaments during the Origins game fair on the State of Play blog as well as on the VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

Results French (South) EC Qualifier 2010

On June 26th, 2010 the second VtES French EC Qualifier was held in Montpellier, France with 19 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings were as follows:

1. Rodolphe Danac (FRA) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 3 VP -- Weenie Presence Bleed
2. Nicolas Changea (FRA) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 2 VP -- Gangrel G4/5 Renegade Garou
2. Nicolas Laniel (FRA) -- 1 GW 4.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Ventrue G4/5 New Lawfirm
2. Mathias Skubich (FRA) -- 1 GW 3.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Weenie/Midcap Animalism Combat
2. Yannick Mouret (FRA) -- 1 GW 3 VP -- 0 VP -- Toreador G1/2 Grandball

Congratulations to Krid for winning the French (South) ECQ 2010. There are some tournament reports (in french) on VEKN France.

Justicar's Disease

Justicar's Disease (lat. Morbus Justicaris) -- this disease affects only vampires of lower generation (capacity 9 or more), and results in having only inferior Fortitude. These vampires should (or at least clearly have the need to) have superior Fortitude. as their clan adherence would indicate.

Sometimes the disease affects non-Justicars as well, i.e. those vampires with capacity of 9 or above whose in-clan-disciplines would indicate that these vampires should have superior Fortitude. Examples for these vampires are Angus the Unruled, Helena Casimir, Kyle Strathcona, or Enkidu.

With the often sub-optimal appearance and apparent bad health of Nosferatu, it's currently still an open question in the science community if the Nosferatu Justicars also suffer from Justicar's Disease. The indication for this issue is that all three Nosferatu Justicars have inferior Fortitude only.

Results Dutch EC Qualifier 2010

On June 26th, 2010 the VtES Dutch EC Qualifier was held in Utrecht, Netherlands with 26 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings were as follows:

1. Izaak Havelaar (HOL) -- 2 GW 8 VP -- 3 VP -- AAA w/ Ashur Tablets
2. Peter Bouwman (HOL) -- 2 GW 7,5 VP -- 2 VP -- Nephandus Mages
2. Koen Tabak (HOL) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Giovanni Powerbleed feat. Anu Diptinatpa
2. Jeroen van Oort (HOL) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Ishtarri Obf/Pre Vote
2. Dennis Devriendt (BEL) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Weenie/MidCap DEM Bleed

Congratulations to Izaak for his win of the Dutch ECQ 2010, his second ECQ win after the Belgian ECQ four weeks ago. 7 players with 1 GW 5 VPs or more qualified for the Continental Championships 2010. You can find the tournament winning deck in the dutch VtES forum, and the compete decklists of all participants in the same forum. Thanks to Paul for organizing and transcribe all of those decklists.

Results French (North) EC Qualifier 2010

On June 19th, 2010 the first VtES French EC Qualifier was held in Paris, France with 37 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings were as follows:

1. Marius Iscru (FRA) -- 2 GW 7.5 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Weenie DBR Graverobbing
2. Reyda Sedikki (FRA) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Valerius Maior Wall
2. Quentin Braban-Avenel (FRA) -- 1 GW 6.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Malk/Malk antritribu Toolboxy S&B
2. Francois Greiner (FRA) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Mistress Fanchion Vote
2. Timothée Daude (FRA) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 0 VP -- Malkavian Royalty 2nd Trad./Obedience

Congratulations to Marius for winning the French (North) ECQ 2010. 10 players with 1 GW 4 VP (plus TPs) or more qualified for the Continental Championships 2010. You can find the tournament winning deck in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup, as well as several reports on VEKN France. including the final standings.

Memorable Quotes (Part 81)

"Joscha has a shitty deck, that why he's so emotional."

-- Erol on Joscha's behaviour during the German ECQ 2010.

Did you know, that ... (Part 42)

.. in VtES the content of the out-of-game card pile is public information (i.e. accessible to all players). This is consistent with the rule that the content of each player's ash heap is also public information.

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

Memorable Quotes (Part 80)

"When in doubt, oust your prey!"

-- unknown VtES player

Results Australian Continental VtES Championship 2010

The Australian Continental VtES Championship 2010 has been played on June 13th, 2010 in Brisbane, Australia with 16 players attending the tournament. The standings of the final round were as follows:

1. Jason Ryan (AUS) -- 3 VP -- AAA Ashur Tablets
2. Nick Miller (AUS) -- 1 VP -- Gangrel Stanislava Bleed&Vote
2. Justin Evans (AUS) -- 1 VP -- Daughters Choir/Harmony
2. Tim Smith (AUS) -- 0 VP -- Lutz S&B
2. Simon Reed (NZL) -- 0 VP -- Ravnos Chimerstry/Dementation S&B

Congratulations to Jason for his win of the Australian Continental Championship 2010. You can find a tournament report and the tournament winning deck in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

VtES Storyline "Battle Lines": Current Standings

The VtES Storyline event "Battle Lines" is about to end in two weeks (on June 30th, 2010), so I have I compiled some statistics how the different bloodlines clans are ranked, and how the Loyalist vs. Bahari faction standings is right now. You can find the raw data on the Battle Lines Storyline Standings web page.

Right: The Baali are clearly leading with 10 wins over the Kiasyd with the 7 sevens wins. The 3rd place is shared by the Daughters and the Salubri with 4 wins each. Almost all of the Bloodlines clans managed to get at least one win in the storyline events with the exception of the Harbingers of Skulls and the Samedi. But the most astonishing thing is that the Nagaraja managed to claim victory 3 times, although they don't have yet a single entry (as a clan) in Lasombra's Tournament Winning Deck archive (TWDA).



Left: The Bahari faction is clearly leading with 24 to 13 wins against the Loyalists. The Baali alone account for 10 wins of the 24 Bahari victories.

For the Kiasyd (as current runner-up) matters are a little more complicated. Of their 7 victories 4 can be attributed to the Bahari faction, and 3 to the Loyalist faction.

Results Polish EC Qualifier 2010

On June 12th, 2010 the Polish VtES EC Qualifier 2010 was held in Krakow, Poland with 21 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings were as follows:

1. Jakub Serafin (POL) -- 1 GW 4 VP - 2 VP -- FOR Tremere
2. Marcin Watras (POL) -- 1 GW 4 VP - 2 VP -- FoS with dominate
2. Tomasz Izydorczyk (POL) -- 1 GW 6 VP - 1 VP -- Weenie presence
2. Bogusz Komarzynski (POL) -- 1 GW 5 VP -- 0 VP -- Tzimice toolbox
2. Aleksander Idziak (POL) -- 1 GW 4 VP -- 0 VP -- Lasombra vote

Congratulations to Jakub for his win of the Polish ECQ 2010. You can find the final standings and the tournament winner's deck in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

Nephelokokkygia

In the last weeks I was reading a bit about the two largest Magic: the Gathering tournaments in the history of that game.

• 2,227 players were playing on February 27th - 28th, 2010 in Madrid, Spain, and
• 1,931 players were playing on May 22nd - 23rd, 2010 in Washington, D.C.

And I was wondering how this number of player would affect the way VtES tournament would be run if (and that's the big if) VtES tournaments would be that large. Aside from the fact, that at VtES tournaments usually the organizers wait for any late attendants, that decklists are not mandatory, etc.

Of course, the whole tournament structure must be changed, you just cannot play 3 rounds + final, because for entering the final you would need something like 3 GW and 14 to 15 VPs, and even then the finalist's seating at the final table would be determined almost all the time by a coin flip. So making tiered, multi-day tournament would be mandatory. But with 2,000 players, you cannot cut down the field of players with just one cut-off, because going down from 2,000 players to let's say 100 (=5%) would also easily require some 3 GW. So my proposal (totally fictional of course) would be to make such a large tournament a 3-day event. First day would be a tournament with 3 to 4 rounds (no final) in order to cut down the number of players to 400 (20%). Then on the second day play another 3 to 4 rounds to reduce the number to 80 (20%). The last day of such a tournament would be the final tournament with 3 rounds + finals, almost as normal ..

On second thought, a Swiss-system tournament style (as bad as it may be for multiplayer game like VtES) over two days, followed by regular tournament with, let's say 40-60 players would also be possible, I guess.

Memorable Quotes (Part 79)

"Direct Intervention! That's too much card text."

-- Martin (German VtES player) after the card text of Concordance was read to him.

Cutting down a .. VtES deck

In the White Wolf VtES forum a player asked how one would cut down a 90 card VtES deck to smaller size more suitable for tournaments or competitive games in general.

When I start building decks I usually start with 90 card version. With this initial draft I then play a couple of league or casual games, to see which parts are working or not. Between these games I often remove cards that didn't work in this deck. Sometimes I replace them with more suitable cards, or if I have the impression, that the card doesn't fit into the concept at all, I just throw them out, e.g. when I have too many master cards in the deck, I remove those which are not essential to the deck. So this is already the first step of reducing the deck size.

Before trimming down the deck to a tournament size between 60 and 80 cards, I first ask myself, if this is necessary at all? How much cards were left in the library in a typical game and did I came close to decking myself? E.g. when playing a combat deck with a high throughput of cards or a deck with many Liquidations, it's often not advisable to reduce the card count below 80 to 90.

When I have decided to reduce the deck size, I usually aim to reduce the deck to 75 cards. Sometime ago in the french VtES forum Sabbat in France one of the forum members came up with the following classification with regards to deck size:

• 60 cards -- fast or combo decks
• 70 cards -- fast deck with extras
• 75 cards -- normal deck
• 80 cards -- combat decks
• 90 cards -- bad decks

Although it's slight exaggeration at the lower end of the list, it shows the a good guideline for which deck size to aim. The faster or the more combo-dependent the deck is, the smaller the deck should be.

Usually when trimming down a deck, I follow these principles:

1. Try to retain card ratios where possible, e.g. try to keep the same ratio of master cards to combat cards to action cards, etc. This is important to avoid handjams with certain types of cards.
2. Eliminate cards that are not essential to your deck, but nice-to-have and/or corner case.
3. Eliminate cards with higher number of copies (5 to 10) in your deck by one or two copies.

For example, if this would be my DOM bleed deck with 24 cards, ..

Master Cards (7): [29.2%]
5x Blood Doll
1x Pentex Subversion
1x Retribution

Action/Action Modifier Cards (11): [45.8%]
6x Govern the Unaligned
4x Conditioning
1x Graverobbing

Reaction Cards (6): [25%]
6x Deflection

.. I can reduce it to the following deck with 18 cards (removing 1/4 of the deck):

Master Cards (5): [27%]
4x Blood Doll
1x Pentex Subversion

Action Cards/Action Modifier (8): [44.4%]
5x Govern the Unaligned
3x Conditioning

Reaction Cards (5): [27.8%]
5x Deflection

I have removed the Graverobbing and the Retribution, because they are kind of useful in some cases and nice for casual games, but not necessary for the deck to work in general. Then I removed one copy each of Govern the Unaligned and Blood Doll, and as a consequence one copy of Conditioning to retain card ratios between the different card groups. This is of course a simplified example, but it shows the general principal.

Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2010: June 2nd

Here are the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2010 from the meeting on June 2nd (prey is from left to right, from top to bottom):

Left: Michael played a weird (nothing surprising here) wall deck based on Saulot, Nergal and Valerius Maior.
Right: The deck Thomas fielded was a Brujah New Generation deck with Anathema as its key card.

Left: More than 30 combat cards were contained in Ralf's Weenie Dominate deck. But without rush and intercept he wasn't able really able to threaten prey or predator.
Right: Kinner played his well-known Toreador antitribu Anarch Bleed deck.

Left: This is Martin's deck! You can't really see it, because of the seven Obfuscate cards in his end. He was just smashed between S&B by his pred. and rushes by his prey.
Right: Didi played an old school Euro-Brujah deck. He dominated large portions of the game.

Result: Didi won the table in the last 30 second of the game with 2.5 VP, when he just ousted Thomas (1 VP), who had tapped out when trying to oust his prey at that time, Kinner. Kinner left the table with 1.5 VP.

Pictures from the Belgian ECQ 2010 in Brussels

Here are a few pictures from the Belgian VtES European Championship Qualifier 2010, that took place on May 29th, 2010 in Brussels, Belgium with 31 players from 4 countries attending the tournament:

Left: This is the inside of the "The Outpost" store in Brussels, where tournament was played.


Right: The cards that were used for seating during the tournament.

Left: The final table with Izaak, Karim, Francois, Michael and Erol (left to right) with a curious Italian trying to get on the picture.

Right: The closeup of the final table from Izaak's point of view.

Announcement Finnish EC Qualifier 2010

The Finnish VtES EC Qualifier 2010 will take place in Espoo, Finland on July 23rd, 2010. Here are the details for this constructed tournament:

Format:

• Standard Constructed. Detailed rules can be found on the VEKN tournament rules webpage.

Time:

• Friday, July 23rd, 2010 -- Qualifier Tournament
  
• Registration until 17:30 h
• Start first round: 18:00 h
• Expected end: in the wee hours of the morning
• Saturday, July 24th, 2010 -- Draft Tournament
• exact schedule TBD
  
• Sunday, July 25th, 2010 -- Create-A-Clan Tournament
• exact schedule TBD

Location:

• Ropecon 2010
  Dipoli Convention Center
  Espoo, Finland

Round system:

• 3 rounds, plus final (time limit: 2 h each)

Entrance fee:

• Free, but Ropecon entry fee is required.

Pre-Registration:

• You can also pre-register by emailing the organizers with your name & VEKN number, that way you just have to be on site by 18:00 -- handy for people coming from outside Helsinki.

Accomodation:

• For people coming from outside Finland: the tournament organizers can provide crash space on sofas, etc for some number of people coming over here on a limited budget (Finland is expensive :/), and give tips on various travel-related stuff. Finland is nice that time of year generally, and Ropecon is a (very!) nice gaming convention. There are also some other VTES tournaments on Saturday (and maybe on Sunday, not sure), so there is plenty to do even if you're not interested in other games.

You can find the original information in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup. More information will appear at http://vtes.orava.org.

Announcement South-East Asian VtES Championship 2010

The First South-East Asian VtES Championship will take place in Singapore, Republic of Singapore from November 20th to 21st, 2010. Here are the details for this event:

Format:

• Standard Constructed. Detailed rules can be found on the VEKN tournament rules webpage.

Time:

• Saturday, November 20th, 2010 -- Last Chance Qualifier
• Registration until 09:30 AM
• Start first round: 10:00 AM


• Sunday, November 21st, 2010 -- Continental Championship
• Registration until 09:30 AM
• Start first round: 10:00 AM

Location:

• No. 3 Ruby Lane,
  Singapore 328278

Round system:

• 3 rounds plus final (time limit: 2h each + 2.5h for the final table)

Entrance fee:

• SGD$20 for each tournament
  

Qualification Requirements:

• The Qualification requirements for the Continental Championship will be the same as those for the Australian Nationals. Which means the top 50% of players (up to a maximum of 10 players) in each constructed Championship Qualifier (including the Last Chance Qualifier) events qualify for the main event.

Pre-Registration:

• You can also pre-register by emailing the organizer (zhengyyz *dash* mail *at* yahoo *dot* com *dot* sg) with your name & VEKN number.

Accomodation:

• For those seeking accommodations, here is the link to a list of hotels: Singapore Hotels Reservation Service (select Little India or Near City Central from the right-hand-side menu for nearby accommodations). Hotels along Serangoon Road are the nearest to the event location, but Singapore is small enough that you can get anywhere within an hour.

Feel free to contact the organizers at zhengyyz *dash* mail *at* yahoo *dot* com *dot* sg if you have any questions, or if you wish to register in advance. The original announcement can be found in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup.

Results Hungarian EC Qualifier 2010

On May 29th, 2010 the VtES Hungarian EC Qualifier was held in Budapest, Hungary with 55 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings after 3 rounds and a final were as follows:

1. Adam Horvath (HUN) -- 2 GW 8 VP -- 3 VP -- Nana Bruku Animalism w/ Ashur tech
2. Balazs Kaloczkai (HUN) -- 2 GW 6 VP -- 1 VP - Toreador antitribu Anarch S&B w/ Undue Influence
2. Peter Korsos (SVK) -- 2 GW 8,5 VP -- 1 VP -- Lodin based Ventrue Grinder
2. Zsolt Varga (HUN) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Aus+Obf w/ +bleed equipment & stealth & bleed bounce|
2. Ferenc Vasadi (HUN) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0 VP -- Cybele Shatter the Gate

Congratulations to Adam for his win of the Hungarian ECQ 2010. You can find a tournament report by Mephistopheles on the Hun Fragment blog.

Results Norwegian EC Qualifier 2010

On May 29th, 2010 the VtES Norwegian EC Qualifier was held in Oslo, Norway with 21 players attending the qualifier tournament. The final standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Patrick Robinsson (NOR) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 3 VP -- New Brujah Politics
2. Martin Svennryd (SWE) -- 1 GW 3 VP -- 2 VP -- Malkavian Bleed/Wall feat. Tryphosa
2. Chris Meland (NOR) -- 1 GW 8,5 VP -- 0 VP -- Old School Giovanni Power Bleed
2. Hugo Skarsten Larsen (NOR) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP -- Kiasyd toolbox
2. Eric Meland (NOR) -- 1 VP 4 GW -- 0 VP -- Ravnos Anarch Wall

Congratulations to Patrick for his win of the Norwegian ECQ 2010. You can find the winner's deck in the Norwegian VtES forum as well as another participant's report on Baaliprimogen's blog.

Memorable Quotes (Part 78)

"I don't need friends. I got an Assault Rifle!"

-- Jarkko (finnish VtES player) during the Finnish NC 2010, when asked if he'd be interested in teaming-up against his predator who already had 2 VPs.

Deck of the Month: May 2010: Il Fakiro d'Alessio

This month's deck is the tournament winning deck "Il Fakiro d'Alessio" played by Francesco D'Alessio. The deck is sort of power bleed deck, but one with a main vampires you wouldn't expect in such a role. The main vampire is Fakir al Sidi, which actually uses all of his six disciplines to oust:

1. Presence for bleed,
2. Protean to provide stealth,
3. Abombwe for block denial,
4. Fortitude for multi-actions,
5. Animalism for untapping, and
6. Thaumaturgy for getting rid of bleed bounce.

The deck may not be most efficient of its kind, but it is a feat for sure to win a 43 players tournament with it. So kudos to Francesco.

The Hunt for Tariq, The Silent
Massa Carrara, Italy
May 2, 2010
43 Players

Francesco D'Alessio's Tournament Winning Deck

Deck Name: Il Fakiro d'Alessio
Author: Francesco D'Alessio

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 11 average: 9
------------------------------------------------------------
5x Fakir al Sidi 11 ANI FOR PRE PRO THA abo Gangrel:4
4x Aksinya Daclau 9 ANI FOR PRE PRO cel tha !Gangrel:4
2x Beth Malcolm 6 FOR PRE ani Ventrue:5
1x Shasa Abu Badr 5 PRE cel for Ishtarri:4

Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [15]
6x Enchant Kindred
2x Entrancement
2x Heart of the City
5x Public Trust

Action Modifier [26]
4x Aire of Elation
4x Devil-Channel: Throat
4x Earth Control
2x Enkil Cog
8x Freak Drive
4x Perfect Clarity

Combat [16]
5x Earth Meld
7x Form of Mist
4x Rolling with the Punches

Equipment [1]
1x Aaron's Feeding Razor

Event [1]
1x Narrow Minds

Master [25]
3x Blood Doll
1x Festivo dello Estinto
3x Giant's Blood
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
3x Information Highway
2x Perfectionist
1x Secure Haven
2x Sudden Reversal
4x Villein
1x Wash
3x Wider View
1x Zoo Hunting Ground

Reaction [6]
1x Guard Dogs
5x Rat's Warning