This is the video from the live stream of the final round of the 2017 VTES tournament in Helsinki, Finland on July 29th, 2017. The actual video starts at 14:30 with interviews of the finalists before the game. Seating starts at 23:00, the actual game starts at around 32:00, and ends two hours later at 2:32:00.
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Last week (on July 27th, 2017), the VEKN has published its latest newsletter (for July 2017). The newsletter covers a number of topics, the host city for the EC 2018 is Warsaw, Poland, design team news on the upcoming Bloodline expansion and a rules Q&A with the VEKN rules director.
Read the newsletter here: VEKN Newsletter for July 2017 on VEKN.net.
This year’s main tournament of the North American VTES Championship was won by Martin Weinmayer (from Austria), making him the second European winning the NAC, as well as the first European to win both the NAC and the EC. (Brian Moritz (USA) was the first VTES player to win both NAC and EC). He was so kind to write a report of the final round of the NAC Day 2 tournament, where won with his Stanislava Dominiate Bleed & Vote deck.
I. Table Seating
- Mariya (AAA Aching Beauty) –> Brad (Anneke Block/Gun) –> Alex (Tor! Block/Bleed) –> Bill (unknown deck at this point) –>
Since I played against Brad and Alex in the third round, where they destroyed me with heavy blocking, I choose to take the risk with an unknown predator and prey on Mariya.
- Mariya (AAA Aching Beauty) –> Brad (Anneke Block/Gun) –> Alex (Tor! Block/Bleed) –> Bill (Dem Bleed/Ani tech) –> Me (Stanislava Vote/bleed) –>
I sat myself right in front of Weenie Dem Bleed. On the bright side though, I wasn’t the number one table threat, and my starting hand consisted of 2x Villein 1x Giants Blood 1x Dreams, which let me survive well enough to bring out Stanislava and Mark Decker.
II. Gameplan A
Given the positioning and the deck he played, Brad was clearly the most threat to my gamewin. I would want Mariya to oust Brad, and let her weaken Alex for the heads-up. I knew that I would most likely need to backoust Bill at some point, giving Alex a strong position.
III. First VP At The Table
Mariya Parity Shifted Brad to 2 pool, but got the possible oust denied from her grandprey by tapping her other Vampire with a Scalpel Tongue. Seeing himself getting ousted by Aching Beauty, Brad wanted Mariya to go, and I was free of a crosstable block from Anneke. Eventually the constant pressure of the Dementation bleed also forced me to change plans and oust Mariya before she got Brad. A Parity Shift and a bleed for 6 took care of her 11 pool.
IV. Gameplan B
Getting rid of Brad with Mariya didnt quiet work out, although she weakened him a lot, and I had an opportunity to oust him before he would recover. Oust your Prey as soon as possible, odd enough, seemed like a reasonable winning play for once.
V. Getting into the Heads-Up
I had Reigns of Power in my hand, which would oust Brad and get Bill to 5 pool, ultimately leading to the heads-up with Alex. After some considerations and giving him 3 turns to oust his prey, Alex agreed and let the vote pass.
V. One Card To Change It All
What card could possibly make Stanislava and Xaviar regret having their precious Inner Circle and Justicar titles? Fear of Mekhet hit Xaviar at 10 blood, while Stanislava was at 6.
I needed a big hit on Alex to oust him soon, so playing a Villein on Stanislava and let her burn would be too slow. The next view turns became a struggle to maneuver around the right blood amount on my vampires, while the Fear of Mekhet lay waste to my ready region.
This one card cost me 15 blood (dodging 5 of them with Villein) before finally burning alongside with my Justicar. In case you don’t like Inner Circle members hanging around on your table, you might wanna give it a try.
Letting me into the headsup and then finish me off with the Fear was a great plan from Alex.
VI. Turning the Tides
After Fear of Mekhet, Alex had the stronger position in the heads up. He had +2 poolgain on me and +1 minion advantage. When he was at 13 pool however, I had the right cards ready.
Pentex on the vampire with Eternal Vigilance, Parity Shift for 2 with Mark, bleed for 8 with Stanislava, untap her, vote Anarchist Uprising 3.
Once again a final that came down to 1 pool or 1 card at the very end…
This is the event report from the „Ascension of Caine“ as it was played in Bochum, Germany on July 9th, 2017. This report was written and compiled by the organizer of the tournament, the Prince of Bochum .. many thanks to Hardy for writing this stuff. (Also published earlier on vekn.de)
Final Standings
1 Gerhard R. — 1 GW 4 VP — 148 TP — Nosferatu Multi-act Toolboxy Bleed prominently feat. Cock Robin & Baron Dieudonne
2 Michael H. — 1 GW 4 VP — 90 TP — Ravnos Bleed & Equipment Illusions prominently feat. Ankla Hotep
3 Jan S. — 0 GW 1 VP 112 TP — Toreador AAA prominently feat. Anneke, Alexandra, Anson, & Masika
4 Ralf L. — 0 GW 0,5 VP — 82 TP — Ventrue Old School Law Firm prominently feat. Arika, Democritus, the three G1 Princes, & Wilhelm Waldburg
The Management Summary
One after another, they trickled into the city…. smuggling easily hidden weapons into town… and some of their clan’s most prized artifacts… all preparing for the arrival of their leader Ankla Hotep. The Ravnos planned to end what they considered just an illusion held by the Camarilla: Berlin was to be free.
But they did not go unnoticed: The Nosferatu caught on to what was happening, and rallied the Ventrue and Toreador to the cause. For a brief, but bloody time, Berlin was the center of attention for various Justicars, Princes, and even Inner Circle members, trying to thwart the incursion.
As so often with these nightly wars, after the first successes against the common enemy, there was a large amount of inter-Camarilla backstabbing: Trying to go unnoticed in the chaos, not only did the Nosferatu secretly settle some old grudges with the mighty Ventrue, but also the Toreador managed to have Wilhelm Waldburg, the Prince of Berlin, “accidentally” be killed by one of the Archons present in the city.
In the end, after a desperate struggle, the invading forces managed to scatter the defenses of the Camarilla, beginning with the death of Cock Robin, Justicar of the Nosferatu: The Ravnos might also have lost their leader, Ankla Hotep… but they had broken a hold the Camarilla had had over the German capital for long decades. The Ravnos had ousted the Camarilla from the city of Berlin!
… or had they?
Underground, in a well-hidden bunker, an obese, ugly creature sat, its pale mottled hands typing data into a state-of-the-art laptop. A large spreadsheet showed on the screen. One last number, one return key…. then the result was displayed on the screen. The creature bared a set of crooked, very sharp teeth… and smiled an ugly smile.
Players, Results, Decks, & Prominent Vampires
- 1. Gerhard R., VEKN ID 3820003, 1 GW, 4 VP, 148 TP:
Nosferatu Multi-act Toolboxy Bleed prominently feat. Cock Robin & Baron Dieudonne - 2. Michael H., VEKN ID 3840064, 1 GW, 4 VP, 90 TP:
Ravnos Bleed & Equipment Illusions prominently feat. Ankla Hotep - 3. Jan S., VEKN ID 3620007, 0 GW, 1 VP, 112 TP:
Toreador AAA prominently feat. Anneke, Alexandra, Anson, & Masika - 4. Ralf L., VEKN ID 1003376, 0 GW, 0,5 VP, 82 TP:
Ventrue Old School Law Firm prominently feat. Arika, Democritus, the three G1 Princes, & Wilhelm Waldburg
Rounds
The event was played in a format of 3 rounds, without final.
- Round 1: Nosferatu (1,5 VP) -> Ravnos -> Toreador (0,5 VP) -> Ventrue (0.5 VP)
- Round 2: Toreador (0,5 VP)-> Nosferatu (2,5 VP, GW) -> Ventrue -> Ravnos
- Round 3: Ventrue -> Toreador -> Ravnos (4 VP, GW) -> Nosferatu (table sweep with 1,5 minutes left on the clock)
Most important locations, equipment and allies
- The Ravnos brought a large and colorful supply of equipment to their attack on Berlin – some real, some only there in the minds of their opponents: Wooden Stakes, Garrottes, Pier 13, Deer Rifle, Blade of Enoch, Karavalanisha Vrana, Treasured Samadji.
- The Ventrue managed to control, and use to good effect (to threaten with, or to actually do damage), the Island of Yiaros in all three rounds.
Most unusual or unexpected actions
- Anneke called a Judgment: Camarilla Segregation, due to which a by then bloodless Ankla Hotep was burned.
- Anneke was selected as target for a Toreador Justicar vote (to allow the player to cycle cards and use a Voter Captivation) – which then just confirmed the title she already had.
- Cock Robin, who in his efforts to block the Ravnos was torporized with a Mayaparisatya, was diablerized by Salbatore Bokkengro.
- Wilhelm Waldburg attempted to aggressively bleed the Toreador, who used an Archon Investigation to burn him.
- Democritus, using the Island of Yiaros, torporized Masika.
On July 16th, 2017 the VTES Belgian National Championship 2017 was held in Bruxelles, Belgium with 19 players attending the tournament. The final standings after 3 rounds and the finals were as follows:
1. Martin Schumacher (GER) — 2 GW 8.0 VP — 2 VP — Cybele & Friends Ashur Bleed
2. Gérald Desmedt (BEL) — 1 GW 5.0 VP — 2 VP —
2. Tom Vandenberghe (BEL) — 1 GW 4.5 VP — 1 VP —
2. Alain Greiner (FRA) — 1 GW 5.0 VP — 0 VP —
2. Marius Iscru (FRA) — 1 GW 3.5 VP — 0 VP —
Congratulations to Martin for his win of the Belgian Nationals 2017. Players from seven different countries, namely from Belgium, France, Germany, Slovakia, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands participated in the tournament.
About two weeks ago (on July 6th, 2017), the VEKN has published its latest newsletter (for June 2017). The newsletter covers a number of topics, a brief notice on the late Stewart Wieck (co-founder of White Wolf), a report on North American Continental Championship 2017 including the decklists of the tournament winners, some background on the Ascension of Caine storyline and, finally, news from the design,
You can read the full VEKN Newsletter for June 2017 on VEKN.net.
