| Tournament: | Finnish 2010 ECQ |
| Date: | Friday July 23rd, 2010 |
| Place: | Ropecon 2010 gaming convention, Dipoli, Espoo, Finland |
| Players: | 93 |
| Winner: | Otso Saariluoma (see below for deck list) |
As traditional, I ran a big VTES tournament at Ropecon this year. This year it was also the Finnish Qualifier for the European Championships in Paris (to be played in October).
Attendance was fantastic, we got a grand total of 93 players; I think that's the second-largest Ropecon VTES tournament ever. As usual most of the players were local – well, Finnish at least – but we had a nice mini-delegation of foreign players also attending: five Swedes, one Dane, and one guy from the States (via Hungary). Despite a brave attempt, this year's win didn't go to the Swedes, though it was close to going to that insidious “Ben” guy. Justice and the Finnish Way prevailed in the end, though. :)
We also had five totally new tournament players, which is always nice. Welcome, guys.
Besides attendance, I was very happy with how things went in general, too. We got started more or less on time, everyone who had pre-registered actually turned up, and many people helped out. Special thanks to Janne Lönnqvist, who helped with organizing prize support and also helped in setting up the tables before I got there.
Gamewise, it's hard to say much specific about this year; there were just so many games that forming a coherent picture was hard. I saw decks from all over the spectrum, from old-school G1/2 Malk bleed machines and Ventrue lawfirms to new-tech Laibon and Bloodlines decks. Quite a few decks went for a master-heavy style, often utilizing Cybele (and Otso's winning deck is also in this category). Villein was all over, and it was fun to see people start to use Sudden Reversal (instead of Wash) mainly to combat the endless cycles of Villein + something else. Ashur Tablets was quite popular, and as always, Dominate was a popular discipline… but that comes as no surprise.
This year's finalist decks were all bleedy/voty affairs, with lots of high-cap vampires (and Villeins :) in use. The final round was very interesting to watch; while some final rounds can stagnate into long bloat-filled affairs, here things kept happening all the time and for a while it was quite impossible to see who would win out. In the end, Otso's master card horror of a deck (which employs some very fun tech) won out – as Ben said after the tournament, his deck simply didn't have anything to reliably take it down (besides bleed like hell). It was fun to see Ben using a Kiasyd deck; he was staying over at our place and just the previous night we had sat on our patio and talked some VTES, and he noted that he wasn't sure if Kiasyds are quite tier1 due to lack of cross-table actions. We also talked about how silly-good Gremlins is. Well, tier1 or not, his Kiasyd affair (with lots of Gremlins) ended up being the next-to-last man standing in the final round.
Grats to all the finalists, and also to the other high-scorers. You did good.
I'd like to (again) thank all the players for keeping this a relaxed and sportsmanlike tournament, despite the size, and for having patience when things don't quite start up on time or there's some sort of mess somewhere. There is no way I could run a tournament of this size with argumentative or difficult players. So… thanks, guys. I'd also like to thank White Wolf and the Fantasiapelit game store for generous prize support; we had a full Anarchs factory set, a Sabbat War rare set, many boxes of boosters, and other stuff to give to the finalists… and of course, all the EC qualified players got a spiffy t-shirt. Everyone who attended also got a big pile of promos.
Was fun, see you next year (and/or in Paris).
-Petri “Orava” Wessman
The bolded players received EC qualification for 2010.
| Rank | Name | Prelim GWs | Prelim VPs | Final VPs | Deck/comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Otso Saariluoma | 2 | 8 | 3 | AD&D (Advanced Derange & Dementia) |
| 2 | Are Vaskela | 3 | 10 | Stolishnaja | |
| 2 | Tuomas Vuokko | 2 | 9 | 1 | Rape the Honor |
| 2 | Pasi Karjalainen | 2 | 7 | Unnamed | |
| 2 | Ben Peal | 3 | 11 | 1 | Kiasyd |
| 6 | Marko Saari | 2 | 7 | Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill! | |
| 7 | Kirmo Lassheikki | 2 | 6.5 | ||
| 8 | Heikki Parviainen | 2 | 6.5 | ||
| 9 | Erik Torstensson | 2 | 5.5 | ||
| 10 | Aleksi Kivilahti | 1 | 7 | ||
| 11 | Seppo Lipponen | 1 | 7 | ||
| 12 | Juri Juskevits | 1 | 6 | ||
| 13 | Tommi Ketonen | 1 | 6 | Twilight | |
| 14 | Jyri Puhakka | 1 | 5.5 | ||
| 15 | Juho Vuorikoski | 1 | 5 | Maria Stone Werewolf | |
| 16 | Michael Holmström | 1 | 5 | ||
| 16 | Elias Maliniemi | 1 | 5 | ||
| 16 | Ville Kaijasaari | 1 | 5 | ||
| 19 | Kari Mäkinen | 1 | 5 | ||
| 20 | Adam Esbjörnsson | 1 | 4.5 | Protean toolbox | |
| 21 | Jarkko Suvela | 1 | 4.5 | ||
| 22 | Mika Nurmikolu | 1 | 4 | Boston Tea Party | |
| 23 | Heikki Palomäki | 1 | 4 | Monarchy | |
| 24 | Mika Uusi-Kilponen | 1 | 4 | ||
| 25 | Tommi Hakomaa | 1 | 4 | (.)(.) | |
| 26 | Kari Vieno | 1 | 4 | ||
| 27 | Marko Lindroos | 1 | 3.5 | ||
| 28 | Taija Kanerva | 1 | 3 | ||
| 28 | Mikko Hyvärinen | 1 | 3 | ||
| 28 | Eemil Lagerspetz | 1 | 3 | ||
| 31 | Isak Bjämark Esbjörnsson | 1 | 3 | Kiasyd toolbox | |
| 32 | Peter Kaario | 1 | 3 | EVVK | |
| 33 | Tuukka Kallas | 1 | 2.5 | ||
| 34 | Hannu Kokkonen | 1 | 2.5 | ||
| 35 | Juha Järvensivu | 0 | 5 | ||
| 36 | Janne Lönnqvist | 0 | 4.5 | ||
| 37 | Akseli Jalava | 0 | 4.5 | Fuck My Life | |
| 38 | Tomi Parkkonen | 0 | 3.5 | ||
| 39 | Jussi Hattara | 0 | 3.5 | Onks tikui? | |
| 40 | Tom Lindberg | 0 | 3 | ||
| 41 | Kenneth Peltokangas | 0 | 3 | ||
| 42 | Samuel Mäenpää | 0 | 3 | ||
| 42 | Kimmo Pekkola | 0 | 3 | ||
| 44 | Antti Horelli | 0 | 3 | ||
| 45 | Antti Iivari | 0 | 2.5 | ||
| 46 | Matti Palomäki | 0 | 2.5 | ||
| 46 | Mikko Laine | 0 | 2.5 | ||
| 48 | Jussi Koskimäki | 0 | 2.5 | ||
| 49 | Teemu Sainomaa | 0 | 2 | ||
| 50 | Ville Saaristo | 0 | 2 | ||
| 51 | Matias Frosterus | 0 | 2 | ||
| 52 | Arto Heinonen | 0 | 2 | ||
| 53 | Aleksi Nuora | 0 | 2 | ||
| 54 | V-H Kilpiä | 0 | 1.5 | EuroBrujah | |
| 55 | Esa-Matti Smolander | 0 | 1.5 | ||
| 56 | Anders Löf | 0 | 1.5 | ||
| 57 | Ari Lensu | 0 | 1 | Sixpounder | |
| 57 | Kalle Cederström | 0 | 1 | ||
| 57 | Antero Hakala | 0 | 1 | ||
| 60 | Johannes Leppä | 0 | 1 | ||
| 61 | Santtu Oja | 0 | 1 | ||
| 61 | Timo Rekola | 0 | 1 | Minäpä vihaan Animalismia… | |
| 61 | Antti Tirilä | 0 | 1 | ||
| 61 | Raymond Mäkeläinen | 0 | 1 | Lasombra 2000 | |
| 65 | Petrus Makkonen | 0 | 1 | White Halls of Heidelberg (Serenna & Malks) | |
| 65 | Jukka Lindström | 0 | 1 | Votie | |
| 67 | Jokke Mustonen | 0 | 1 | ||
| 68 | Jani Nokkanen | 0 | 0.5 | ||
| 69 | Tuomas Nyberg | 0 | 0.5 | ||
| 69 | Lasse Pöyry | 0 | 0.5 | ||
| 69 | Otso Turunen | 0 | 0.5 | ||
| 69 | Lauri Salmi | 0 | 0.5 | ||
| 69 | Sami Dadu | 0 | 0.5 | Mad Hand! | |
| 74 | Jussi Ranta | 0 | 0.5 | ||
| 74 | Teemu Pulkkinen | 0 | 0.5 | Malkavian S+B | |
| 76 | Markku Puska | 0 | 0.5 | ||
| 77 | Mikko Moisander | 0 | 0 | Teurastus rajalla | |
| 77 | Johan Wahlström | 0 | 0 | Tzimisce / Toreador-AT | |
| 77 | Ari-Pekka Alestalo | 0 | 0 | Vaeltajien seura Mk.II | |
| 80 | Joonas Oja | 0 | 0 | ||
| 81 | Niko Heinonen | 0 | 0 | ||
| 81 | Juhani Puska | 0 | 0 | ||
| 81 | Tuukka Tervonen | 0 | 0 | ||
| 81 | Jesper Wøldiche | 0 | 0 | Chock full of Volker | |
| 81 | Taija Sainomaa | 0 | 0 | ||
| 81 | Sami Nyyssölä | 0 | 0 | Kikka | |
| 87 | Timo Snellman | 0 | 0 | ||
| 87 | Rami Hänninen | 0 | 0 | Nimby | |
| 87 | Jari Mäkikyrö | 0 | 0 | Pariisiin! | |
| 87 | Otto Kukkasniemi | 0 | 0 | ||
| 91 | Teuvo Lähteenmäki | 0 | 0 | ||
| 91 | Jere Suvanto | 0 | 0 | Who needs Dominate? | |
| 93 | Miika Karmitsa | 0 | 0 |
Deck Name: AD&D (Advanced Derange & Dementia)
Author: Otso Saariluoma
Description: The same deck I played before, this time with slight alterations, as I found Unmada too important to miss in the opening crypt. Temptation of Greater Power was actually an excellent addition. If you want to use the combo in every single game (which I didn't), I'd suggest playing more copies of the key cards: Derange, Dementia and Enkil Cog.
Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=10 max=11 avg=10.25) ================================================== 4x Cybele 10 ANI DAI OBF PRE SER THA Baali:4 3x Lutz von Hohenzollern 11 pot AUS DEM OBF PRE Malkavian:4 5x Unmada 10 cel for AUS DEM OBF VIC Malkavian:5 Library (76 cards) ================== Master (40) 1x Archon Investigation 6x Ashur Tablets 1x Direct Intervention 3x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x Giant's Blood 2x Golconda: Inner Peace 2x Heidelberg Castle, Germany 2x Information Highway 3x Malkavian Dementia 1x Metro Underground 1x Monastery of Shadows 3x Parthenon, The 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion 1x Temptation of Greater Power 6x Villein 1x Wash 2x Wider View 3x Zillah's Valley Event (3) 2x Anthelios, The Red Star 1x Scourge of the Enochians Action (6) 5x Derange 1x Entrancement Political Action (5) 1x Banishment 2x Parity Shift 1x Political Stranglehold 1x Reins of Power Action Modifier (12) 1x Cloak the Gathering 1x Elder Impersonation 2x Enkil Cog 2x Faceless Night 2x Forgotten Labyrinth 1x Into Thin Air 2x Lost in Crowds 1x Spying Mission Reaction (5) 2x Eyes of Argus 3x Telepathic Misdirection Combat (3) 3x No Trace Combo (2) 2x Swallowed by the Night
Deck Name : Stolishnaja
Author : Are Vaskela
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 11 average: 9.33333 ------------------------------------------------------------ 4x Ingrid Rossler 9 ANI FOR PRO dom prince Gangrel:2 3x Stanislava 11 ANI CEL DOM FOR PRO inner circle Gangrel:2 2x Lazverinus, Thrall 10 AUS DOM FOR POT pro archbishop !Ventrue:2 1x Genevieve 10 ANI FOR PRO aus dom priscus !Gangrel:2 1x Hartmut Stover 10 CEL OBF PRO dom for archbishop !Gangrel:3 1x Chandler Hungerfor 3 PRO Gangrel:2 Library [88 cards] ------------------------------------------------------------ Action [6] 6x Govern the Unaligned Action Modifier [12] 2x Conditioning 5x Earth Control 5x Freak Drive Action Modifier/Reaction [5] 5x Murmur of the False Will Combat [13] 1x Bone Spur 1x Canine Horde 3x Earth Meld 8x Form of Mist Equipment [1] 1x Heart of Nizchetus Master [24] 2x Direct Intervention 1x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x Giant's Blood 3x Golconda: Inner Peace 3x Information Network 1x Monastery of Shadows 1x Papillon 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion 9x Villein 2x Wash Political Action [14] 2x Anarchist Uprising 1x Ancient Influence 1x Ancilla Empowerment 1x Banishment 6x Kine Resources Contested 1x Neonate Breach 1x Parity Shift 1x Reins of Power Reaction [13] 5x Deflection 5x On the Qui Vive 2x Second Tradition: Domain 1x Wake with Evening's Freshness
Deck Name : Ben Peal's Ropecon 2010 deck
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 8 average: 6.83333 ------------------------------------------------------------ 2x Arcadian, The 8 DOM MYT OBT chi for Kiasyd:5 2x Pherydima 8 DOM MYT NEC obt pot bishop Kiasyd:4 2x Omme Enberbenight 7 MYT OBT cel dom priscus Kiasyd:4 2x Roderick Phillips 7 DOM MYT cel obt tha Kiasyd:4 2x Isanwayen 6 DOM MYT OBT Kiasyd:4 2x Dame Hollerton 5 DOM OBT myt Kiasyd:4 Library [90 cards] ------------------------------------------------------------ Action [17] 5x Govern the Unaligned 9x Gremlins 3x Song of Pan Action Modifier [22] 9x Bonding 1x Foreshadowing Destruction 4x Shadow Play 4x Shroud of Absence 4x Stone Travel Action Modifier/Combat [4] 4x Fae Contortion Ally [10] 10x Nocturn Master [15] 1x Barrens, The 4x Blood Doll 2x Dreams of the Sphinx 1x Great Symposium 1x Pentex(TM) Subversion 5x Sudden Reversal 1x Wider View Reaction [18] 8x Deflection 2x Delaying Tactics 2x On the Qui Vive 6x Wake with Evening's Freshness Reaction/Action Modifier [4] 4x Aura Absorption
Deck Name : Unnamed
Author : Pasi Karjalainen
Description : Originally developed by my brother Toni Karjalainen. I simply thinned the deck down to 77 cards to make it more effective.
The deck generates massive amounts of pool and bleeds. Specialties of Xeper and Annazir can single handily stop certain strategies e.g. allies. To improve the deck I would now add a second Narrow Minds.
Crypt (12 vampires) Capacity min: 3 max: 10 average: 7 ------------------------------------------------------------ 4x unnamed, The 10 CEL DAI OBF PRE PRO Baali:6 4x Horde, The 3 dai obf pre Baali:6 1x Nergal 10 AUS DAI FOR OBF PRE THA Baali:5 1x Annazir 9 DAI OBF POT PRE 2 votes Baali:5 1x Xeper, Sultan of L 7 OBF PRE ani dai pro Baali:6 1x Arishat 6 DAI OBF PRE 1 vote Baali:6 Library (77 cards) ------------------------------------------------------------ Action (15) 1x Aranthebes, The Immortal 2x Entrancement 7x Legal Manipulations 4x Social Charm 1x Unleash Hell's Fury Action Modifier (23) 3x Cloak the Gathering 4x Elder Impersonation 1x Enkil Cog 3x Faceless Night 2x I am Legion 4x Lost in Crowds 2x Psychomachia 4x Spying Mission Ally (1) 1x Veneficti (Mage) Combat (7) 7x Majesty Event (2) 1x Narrow Minds 1x Scourge of the Enochians Master (17) 1x Dreams of the Sphinx 2x Golconda: Inner Peace 1x Jake Washington (Hunter) 1x Ruins of Charizel 1x Sudden Reversal 6x Tend the Flock 5x Villein Reaction (5) 2x Delaying Tactics 3x On the Qui Vive Reaction/Action Modifier (7) 7x Sense the Sin
Deck Name: Rape the honor
Created By: Tuomas Vuokko
Description: Deck that powers the mind rapes with honor the elders, has excellent bleedpower once it gets going.
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 36, Max: 44, Avg: 10,2) ---------------------------------------------- 1 Lucinde Alastor DOM FOR obf pot PRE tha10 Ventrue 3 Lutz Von Hohenzollern pot AUS DEM OBF PRE11 Malkavian 1 Marcus Vitel DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE10 Ventrue 1 Mistress Fanchion AUS CEL DOM OBF THA VIC11 Tremere 2 Orlando Oriundus obf AUS DOM THA9 Tremere Antitribu 1 Paul Cordwood obf pre AUS DOM THA8 Tremere Antitribu 3 Rafael de Corazon AUS CEL DOM OBF PRE11 Toreador Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (19 cards) 3 Dreams of the Sphinx 2 Heidelberg Castle, Germany 3 Information Highway 2 Monastery of Shadows 7 Villein 2 Golconda: Inner Peace Action (15 cards) 2 Entrancement 5 Govern the Unaligned 8 Mind Rape Action Modifier (23 cards) 4 Faceless Night 2 Forgotten Labyrinth 4 Lost in Crowds 4 Veil the Legions 4 Voter Captivation 2 Conditioning 3 Elder Impersonation Political Action (15 cards) 1 Ancient Influence 3 Banishment 9 Honor the Elders 1 Political Stranglehold 1 Reins of Power Reaction (11 cards) 5 Deflection 2 Telepathic Misdirection 4 On the Qui Vive Combat (7 cards) 7 Majesty
This is based on my personal notes, scribbled down during the game. Some detail and (of course) all of the table talk is missing, and there may be mistakes here and there. Play started at 1:32 am.
The players were (in seating order):
Tuomas: Dreams of the Sphinx
Pasi: (just transfer)
Ben: Wider View
Are: (just transfer)
Otso: Wider View, Ashur Tablets
Tuomas: (just use Dreams, transfer)
Pasi: (just transfer)
Ben: bring out Isanwayen
Are: (just transfer)
Otso: Heidelberg Castle
Tuomas:
Pauli:
Ben:
Are:
Otso:
Tuomas:
Pasi:
Ben:
Are:
Otso:
Tuomas:
Pasi:
to torpor in combat
Ben:
Are:
Nergal blocks and plays Majesty
Otso:
Tuomas:
Pasi:
Ben:
Are:
Otso:
Tuomas uses his Monastery to add stealth, block fails
Tuomas:
Raped) Nergal Veils the Legion paying 8 blood, block fails
Ben:
DI'ed by Are but bleed is not blocked
Otso:
Tuomas:
Ben:
bounced back to Otso, bounced back to Tuomas, no block
Otso:
Tuomas:
Ben:
Otso:
Tuomas:
Archon Investigation, Rafael burns
Ben:
Otso:
Ben:
stealth
Otso:
Final round ends at 2:47 am.