Results EC 2011: Silence Of Death

Here are the results from the Silence of Death tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2011 on November 12th, 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. The format is somewhat different from the regular constructed VtES tournament insofar that table talk is not allowed at all. The only talking allowed is with regards to announcing actions, blocks, combat, etc. 30 players participated in this EC side-event tournament, the standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Jesus Herruzo Luque (ESP) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 2 VP --
2. Maciej Frankowiak (POL) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 2 VP -- Tzimisce Piper Warghoul
2. Djordje Sutic (SER) -- 1 GW 5.5 VP -- 1 VP --
2. Tomasz Kloczko (POL) -- 2 GW 8.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Nephandus Swarm
2. Niina Stenberg (FIN) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 0 VP --

Congratulations to Jesus Herruzo for winning the Silence of Death tournament this year. You can find the full standings on VEKN.net.

Quotes from the EC (Part 4)

"It's not so easy. You know it's the (EC) final, people breaks deals." -- Marcin (Polish VtES player) when asked about making deals.

"I have to play, not to talk." -- Marcin (Polish VtES player) when asked about talking more ..

"They kill you, they kill me, and then the guy with the most poolgain wins!" -- Izaak (from the Netherlands) to Milan (from Hungary) in EC final predicting the outcome of the game. He was wrong, only he was ousted.

"I didn't break deals today. OK, I did yesterday." -- Izaak (from the Netherlands) when asked by Enrico about his attitude towards a deal.

"Beast is getting bored" -- Stone (from France) announcing his crosstable rush of Lambach, which resulted in torporized Beast minutes before the end of the FCQ final (and the outcome already being decided).

Things to See

• A capacity 9 Gargoyle (formely know as Alicia Barrows). As a personal note I managed to do the exact feat also about a half year ago.
• Playing a Pentex Subversion contested for the better game of a game. This may have happened actually more than once. ;)
• Playing a Pentex Subversion played on your prey's vampires which is Wash'ed. And then during your predators master phase the same happens in the reverse order (Quote: "You know the drill")
  
• A table with approx. 20+ Ravnos vampires ...
• Three Delaying Tactics in a single turn, when I was trying to call Kine Resouces Contested, Consanguineous Boon and Neonate Breach.
• A Dodge combat card played by Carlton van Wyk.
• A wall deck who's motto it was to say "No" to most of his prey's action, but always with smile.
• .. and seventeen different nations participating in the EC:
  
  • Belorussia
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Hungary
    
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Russia
  • Serbia
  • Slovakia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • UK
  • USA

VtES EC Nations Cup 2011 (Final Standings)

For each participant in the finals of the 5 big tournaments (LCQ; FCQ; Legendary Vampire; Day 1, Day 2) of the EC 2011 each nation will gain points. The winner's nation will get 3 points, every one else in the finals gets 1 points.

After 5 of the 5 tournaments of the EC 2011 the Nations Cup standings are the following:

1. Hungary -- 10 points
2. Poland -- 9 points
2. Finland -- 4 points
2. Serbia -- 3 points
2. Italy -- 2 points
3. France, Germany, Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, USA -- 1 point each

Congratulations to Team Hungary for the most successful nation (in terms of winning and final attendance), although Poland was really close behind.

EC Metagame Observations

Unfortunately I don't have any decent (i.e. statisitical distribution) information on what decks have played in the overall EC environment. So the following just was I observed during the EC during my own games and from talks with fellow players. Some quick remarks:

• Combat-wise the metagame is clearly in the Animalism corner with sticks/Fortitude combat being second. Very little Potence/Immortal Grapple Combat or Cel Gun combat what I have seen. As consequence I would expect the anti-combat metagame shift into the Presence (Majesty) and/or Dominate (Obdience) direction. The later would (of course) imply that you play higher capacity vampires than the usual suspects (i.e. Nanglia Were, Nana Buruki, Howler, ..).
• Bloating is crazy. Villeins is a staple card in a lot of decks. Which also often means that the average capacity of the decks has been gone up as well. The bloating is often supplemented with either Lilith's Blessing (another card-de-jour). This has two (rather) fortunate consequences:
• You have to remove significantly more pool than about 1 or 2 years ago.
  
• Games tend to last longer and tend to time out more because of 1.)
  
• There were actually quite few ally decks, with one significant exceptions, and that is the whole Tup Dog & Rockcat (often with Nephandus) ally deck. Although the number was in truth not that high, but they had some success where they went, the most notable was the EC Day 2 finals deck by Enrico di Stefano.
  
• There was slight Renaissance of the breed decks, again with Enrico di Stefano as the main proponent with his EC Day 1 finals deck (Ravnos Eldest are Kholo (with 29(!!!) Embraces). Beside Ravnos there were a few Giovanni Khazaar's Diary deck who also used Embraces quite extensively.
• Beside the whole Animalism combat decks (either Rush or Wall), the other two main deck types from my point of view were the Ventrue Lawfirm decks (mostly G1/2/3 or G4/5) (and to a lesser degree) the whole Stickmen-like deck archetype (either Ventrue or Ventrue antitribu).
• There were less "Girls will find.." type deck than I would have expected, but there were many, many decks who packed the whole Liquidation/Ashur Tablets. You spot them in Nephandi decks, Khazar's Diary decks, Animalism Rush decks (see Otso's EC winning deck), etc., etc., etc. Which also led to quite an inflation
• Most contested cards (personal experience only) during the EC (in about that order):
• Pentex Subversion
• Dreams of the Sphinx
• Parthenon
• Information Highway
• Fame
  

Post Scriptum: Lilith's Blessing & Villein is not borderline broken. It is broken. Getting vampires for free isn't right. Yes, I know there are some ways to counter it, but most of the time, the combo is unchecked, and then it gets out of hand.

Results EC 2011: European Championship (Day 2)

Here are the results from the European Championship (Day 2) tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2011 on November 11th, 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. 40 players participated in this EC tournament, the standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Otso Saariluoma (FIN) -- 1 GW 6 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Nana/Nanglia Were Animalism Rush Combat
2. Enrico Di Stefano (ITA) -- 2 GW 5.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Tremere Antitribu Rockcats/Embraces
2. Milan Horvath (HUN) -- 1 GW 5.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Malkavian antritribu(?) Obf/Pre Vote
2. Marcin Watras (POL) -- 1 GW 5.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Anson Cel Gun w/ Ashur Tablets
2. Izaak Havelaar (NED) -- 2 GW 5 VP -- 0 VP -- Malkavian feat. Tryphosa Bleed/Vote.

Congratulations to Otso for winning the European VtES Championship 2011. More information to follow. The seating order of the finalists was: Otso --> Izaak --> Enrico --> Milan --> Marcin. A complete transcript from the Day 1 final round is available on VEKN.net. Thanks to Malex from Sweden for this task.

Results EC 2011: First Chance Qualifier

Here are the results from the First Chance Qualifier tournament that was played during the VtES European Championship 2011 on November 13th, 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. The tournament gives players the first opportunity to qualify for the European Championship tournaments for the next year. 118 players participated in this EC tournament, the standings after 3 rounds and the final were as follows:

1. Djordje Bjelajac (SER) -- 2 GW 8.5 VP -- 1.5 VP -- Unmada/Scout Youngwod Shattering Crescendo Parity Shift
2. Pierre Tran-Vanh (FRA) -- 2 GW 8 VP -- 0.5 VP -- EuroBrujah feat. Theo Bell & Beast
2. Guyla Erdos (HUN) -- 2 GW 7.5 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Tzimisce G2 Wall
2. Tomasz Kloczko (POL) -- 2 GW 7 VP -- 0.5 VP -- Antonio D'Erlette Nephandus
2. Maciej Trenda (POL) -- 3 GW 9.5 VP -- 0 VP -- Giovanni Khazaar's Diary

Congratulations to Djordje for winning the FCQ of the EC 2011. For qualifying for next year's Continental Championships 1 GW 3 VP were necessary.

Quotes from the EC (Part 3)

"Sorry, Ralf. I am not playing for the VP. I am playing for the Game Win". -- Martin (Hungarian VtES player) during the Legendary Vampire tournament.

Quotes from the EC (Part 2)

"Like a stone .." -- Balasz (Hungarian VtES player) when asked if he thinks that his Smiling Jack can be removed during the EC 2011 Day 1 tournament finals.

VtES EC Nations Cup 2011

For each participant in the finals of the 5 big tournaments (LCQ; FCQ; Legendary Vampire; Day 1, Day 2) of the EC 2011 each nation will gain points. The winner's nation will get 3 points, every one else in the finals gets 1 points.

After 3 of the 5 tournaments of the EC 2010 the Nations Cup standings are the following:

1. Hungary -- 8 points
2. Poland -- 6 points
3. Finland, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, USA -- 1 point each

The eastern European VtES players are currently clearly dominating this EC with both Hungary and Poland firmly in the lead.