Tourney Report: Origins '99

Columbus Ohio--in a mad and violent struggle, fraught with revolting Anarchs, decapitations, charming socialites, and a Garou biker gang, two clans emerged from the fray victorious: the Settites and the Tremere. This year at Origins '99, WOTC sponsored three VTES tournaments, two constructed and a sealed, indicating increased support from WOTC, as for the last few years WOTC only ran one or two VTES events per year. Scott Larabee of WOTC was very enthusiastic about continuing VTES support, discussing both the upcoming World's Championship at Gencon and the mini expansion to be released this fall. While there were not actually any judges available to run the VTES events, Peter Bakija (that's me) stepped in to run both constructed events. The Thursday constructed tournament had a strong turn out of 16 players competeing in three rounds of preliminaries and a 5 player final. Going into the finals were: Jay Kristoff (11 vps) playing a speedy little Ventrue based weenie Presence vote/bleed deck. Howard Sanders (6 vps and last years Origins champion) playing his tradmarked Protean/Dominate/Obfuscate stealth and bleed deck. Joshua Duffin (5 vps) playing a tight, industry standard, Brujah Immortal Grapple Rush deck. David Raynor (4 vps) playing a Tremere Muaziz based Stealth and Bleed deck. David McCarty (4 vps) playing a rude and efficient Settite corruption deck. Also with 4 vps going in to the finals were Peter Bakija's Nosferatu IG Rush deck and Steve Marbit's Toreador Anson based vote deck, but they lost out on the tie breaker points. The seating of the final, in order, was Howard, Josh, McCarty, Kristoff, Raynor. Early in the game, Josh suffered from horrible hand jam, being completely unable to draw a Rush action. As a result, he gets bled to one by Howard very quickly. On his last turn, Josh managed to finally draw a Bum's Rush, and in a flurry of ultraviolence, Josh managed to torporize Howard's Caitlin. Josh is then ousted before his 6th turn, giving Howard 1 vp. Meanwhile, McCarty had stolen 2 or 3 of Kristoff's little vampires and was keeping quite a bit of pressure on him. Raynor soon loses half of his 10 pool to win the Hostile Takeover bid for his Muaziz, but breaks even as he managed to Grave Rob Howard's Caitlin soon after. Kristoff is the next to fall, at the hands of his own Anarch Revolts (leaving Howard at 2 vps). The three way game quickly becomes critically unstable when McCarty steals the highly fickle Caitlin from Raynor with a Form of Corruption, using her to oust Raynor (McCarty gains 1 vp). In the very end, with Howard at 2 pool and McCarty at 3 pool, Howard goes to Govern McCarty for 3 bleed while McCarty still had a blocker, in a desperate a hopeful attempt to top deck a stealth card. When Howard draws a master card instead of a Lost in Crowds, Howard resigned. First Place with 3 vps: Dave McCarty Second Place with 2 vps: Howard Sanders The Saturday constructed event had a smaller turnout, with only 10 players, but still was a great time. After the three rounds of preliminaries, the top 5 scores were: Peter Bakija (8 vps) playing an all Protean Form of Mist weenie bleed and Garou biker gang deck. Howard Sanders (6 vps) playing his Protean/Dominate/Obfuscate deck. Dave Preston (5 vps) playing a wennie Presence bleed Anarch Revolt deck. Jonathan who's last name I lost (sorry!) (4 vps) playing a weenie Anarch Revolt vote deck. Josh Duffin (3 vps) playing a Tremere Cryptic Mission/Society of Leopold deck. The seating of the final, in order, was Josh, Peter, Howard, Dave, Jonathan. Dave is quickly ousted by the combination Howards Stealth and Bleed deck and Anarch Revolts, giving Howard 1 vp. Jonathan, who had been pretty much kept down to this point, managed to pull off a Dramatic Upheaval, switching himself with Peter (making Peter Howards prey and Jonathan Josh's prey). Then, just to add spice, Jonathan throws a Millicent Smith in to the fray. Josh soon ousts Jonathan (giving Josh 1 vp). The three way game stabilizes with Peter keeping Howard at bay with constant pool gain (Blood Dolls and Eco Terrorists) and attacking with his Garou, while Josh slowly bled Howard down. Howard's DiDi Myers then got burned by Millicent Smith after Chandler Hungerford intercepts her hunting on his Sport Bike. In a last attempt to oust Josh, Peter sends Chandler to Computer Hack him out of the game, but is played like a puppet when Jing Wei Deflects him to Howard, who has Greggor Andersen Redirect him back to Josh, who then Wakes Jing Wei and has her Deflect Chandler back to Howard. Howard is then ousted, and Chandler feels like a stooge, giving Josh 2 vps. Josh then quickly destroys most of Peter's vampires with the combination of Cryptic Mission and Society of Leopold, and ousts him, giving Josh 4 vps. First Place with 4 vps: Josh Duffin Second Place with 1 vp: Howard Sanders All players involved were great fun and had an excellent time. Thanks to WOTC for prizes and support and Scott Larabee for not canceling the events due to a lack of judges. Peter D Bakija PD...@aol.com "Can't find the spoon that we once had, the sugar cubes will melt no more" -Cibo Matto

> This year at Origins '99, WOTC sponsored three VTES tournaments, two > constructed and a sealed, indicating increased support from WOTC, as for the > last few years WOTC only ran one or two VTES events per year. Scott Larabee of > WOTC was very enthusiastic about continuing VTES support, discussing both the > upcoming World's Championship at Gencon and the mini expansion to be released > this fall. This leads to two questions: 1. Are there any concrete details yet for the mini-expansion? Is it still in development process???? 2. World Championship for VTES? WTF??????? I mean, it's nice that WotC has renewed support, but this is a bit ludicrous (sp?). I assume that there will be few (if any) players not from the US attending at this year's Gencon, so calling it a World Championships is crap. Moreso as it was never announced in any medium (apart perhaps from private mails). I don't like the idea of having a World Championship played on 3 to 4 tables (max), almost no-one noticing what's going on, no publicity, etc. IMO, there will be no more than 30 players in this "World Championship". Did anyone inform all the VTES players in the world? Was it in the Fragment of the Book of Nod announced? No? Hm. > While there were not actually any judges available to run the VTES > events, Peter Bakija (that's me) stepped in to run both constructed > events. No judges???? What's going on there in the US? > > The Thursday constructed tournament had a strong turn out of 16 players > competeing in three rounds of preliminaries and a 5 player final. Huh, a strong turnout you say. A medium turnout would be over 20 players in a constructed, like last weekend in Antediluvian Awakening, Kosice. I think we have been 25 players. For Draft, I turnout of 27 players is strong, as has been in March in PS:Vienna II. :) > David McCarty (4 vps) playing a rude and efficient Settite corruption deck. What about all the others, saying that Setites are not good in tournaments? > The Saturday constructed event had a smaller turnout, with only 10 > players, 10 players only???????? [shaking head] What's going on there? I suppose it's power gamers with degenerate decks making tournaments uninteresting for the majority. Perhaps 4CL makes for more diversitive deck concepts... (don't get me wrong, this is not a move for 4CL) > All players involved were great fun and had an excellent time. Thanks to WOTC > for prizes and support and Scott Larabee for not canceling the events due to a > lack of judges. IMO, a tournament who doesn't have a judge is *very* badly organized. Anybody similar experiences? Would you care to give more details on this WC thing? Carl (VEKN Prince of Vienna) Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

Peter D Bakija wrote: >Columbus Ohio--in a mad and violent struggle, fraught with revolting >Anarchs, decapitations, charming socialites, and a Garou biker gang, >two clans emerged from the fray victorious: the Settites and the >Tremere. <plug> Go Tremere! </plug> [snip] >Josh Duffin (3 vps) playing a Tremere Cryptic Mission/Society of >Leopold deck. Excellent. And featured in the recent Tremere newsletter. Most intriguing. Hehe. [snip] >Josh then quickly destroys most of Peter's vampires with the >combination of Cryptic Mission and Society of Leopold, and ousts him, >giving Josh 4 vps. >First Place with 4 vps: Josh Duffin >Second Place with 1 vp: Howard Sanders All I have to say, is: Josh, you rock my world for winning with a funky Tremere deck! Go Tremere! Woo-hoo! Xian (see...the Tremere *can* win!) [done with pointless posts for the day]

carlos_...@my-deja.com wrote in message <7lt108$e8j$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>... >> While there were not actually any judges available to run the VTES >> events, Peter Bakija (that's me) stepped in to run both constructed >> events. > >No judges???? What's going on there in the US? > I believe he means that WotC didn't bring any staff V:TES judges. PDB himself is a judge, I'm sure. Not that that means anything more than a few bits of paperwork... >> >> The Saturday constructed event had a smaller turnout, with only 10 >> players, > >10 players only???????? [shaking head] What's going on there? I suppose >it's power gamers with degenerate decks making tournaments >uninteresting for the majority. Perhaps 4CL makes for more diversitive >deck concepts... (don't get me wrong, this is not a move for 4CL) > Actually, I'd say it's the 400 to 2000 mile trip from most of the larger centers for Jyhad play in the US that keeps these numbers lower than European tourneys. We've got a bit more mileage to cover to get to these things. Check an atlas to see what I'm saying. Measure from Los Angeles to Columbus, Ohio with a string, and see how far it gets you from Vienna to Bombay ;-) (Gratuitous Viennese plug for silly 4CL ignored... mostly <grin>) In addition, another 2 tournaments (sealed Sabbat and DCI constructed) were scheduled on the same weekend in Atlanta, GA at Dragon Con, with attendences in the 20's on both, I believe. Several travellers who would have gone to Origins instead made the shorter trip to Atlanta, myself included. So for total numbers on the past weekend, consider 40 to 50 to be a more accurate number. As an aside, I too find the labeling of a "World Championship" without any preliminary notice here in the US, and without European representation to be laughable, but I'm glad for the attention from WotC. Bleary eyed still from 20+ side games of V:tES, I am respectfully, R. David Zopf Atom Weaver (& V:EKN Prince of Charlotte, NC)

I cleverly wrote: >>Jonathan who's last name I lost (sorry!) (4 vps) playing a weenie Anarch Revolt vote deck.>> The Jonathan is question is Jonathan Wisner. Sorry Jonathan! [ quoted text not captured ]

Carl wrote: >>1. Are there any concrete details yet for the mini-expansion? Is it still in development process????>> Not that I am aware of. They just were very defenite about producing it. The distribution method is up in the air, and the cards involved are not yet concrete, but they are making it by the end of the year. >>2. World Championship for VTES? WTF??????? I mean, it's nice that WotC has renewed support, but this is a bit ludicrous (sp?). I assume that there will be few (if any) players not from the US attending at this year's Gencon, so calling it a World Championships is crap.>> Dude. Take a deep breath. Relax. It may very well be the National Championships, and not the World Championships, but either way, it isn't like it is a tournament on the Magic level. There are no "Qualifiers" or entrance requirements, nor is there a substantial (if any) cash prize. It is being called the X Championships just cause it is fun to do so. I suspect that if there are more than 30 players, it will be a miracle. >>No judges???? What's going on there in the US?>> What is going on is that WOTC is supporting a game that hasn't beeb printed in, like, 4 years. They commited to running three tournaments at Origins (which is a huge annual convention with multiple thousands of attendees--second in size only to Gencon), which was great, but never managed to find judges, as not all that many people in WOTC are capable of running such an event. Thus, rather than canceling the events, they hoped that someone would show up who was willing to judge and play at the same time (with a 3 player triumverate of judges in case of having to judge the judge). Luckily, I was there and willing to do it. I fail to see the problem. They gave us tons of prizes, and as I was running the show, I knew that we were playing with all the appropriate rules and errata. >>Huh, a strong turnout you say. A medium turnout would be over 20 players in a constructed, like last weekend in Antediluvian Awakening, Kosice. I think we have been 25 players. For Draft, I turnout of 27 players is strong, as has been in March in PS:Vienna II. :)>> Boy, do you lead a special life. What do you gain here by critisizing the turn out? I felt 16 players was great. >>What about all the others, saying that Setites are not good in tournaments?>> I don't know what to make of this statement. >>10 players only???????? [shaking head] What's going on there? I suppose it's power gamers with degenerate decks making tournaments uninteresting for the majority. Perhaps 4CL makes for more diversitive deck concepts... (don't get me wrong, this is not a move for 4CL)>> No, it is that Jyhad isn't all that widespread, as it is essentially a dead game. The fact that we had about 30 players show up and have a great time in the three different events works for me. The smallish turnout has nothing to do with the rules, I assure you. It has to do with the fact that Jyhad has not printed a card for 4 years and that there was a second large convention (DragonCon) in Atlanta the same weekend with large Jyhad events (I believe that LSJ was running them). The fact that we were there, having a good time, and running a tournament, on the other hand, convinces WOTC that people still like their game, regardless of the size. >>IMO, a tournament who doesn't have a judge is *very* badly organized. Anybody similar experiences?>> Again, they were committed to running the events, but didn't have any qualified judges. Would you rather they not run the events? [ quoted text not captured ]

>> >Actually, I'd say it's the 400 to 2000 mile trip from most of the larger >centers for Jyhad play in the US that keeps these numbers lower than >European tourneys. We've got a bit more mileage to cover to get to these >things. Check an atlas to see what I'm saying. Measure from Los Angeles to >Columbus, Ohio with a string, and see how far it gets you from Vienna to >Bombay ;-) >(Gratuitous Viennese plug for silly 4CL ignored... mostly <grin>) Actually I had to drive 360 miles to get there! Raille Evil Settite, Lord of Darkness

Peter D Bakija wrote in message <19990705122030...@ng-cd1.aol.com>... >Columbus Ohio--in a mad and violent struggle, fraught with revolting Anarchs, >decapitations, charming socialites, and a Garou biker gang, two clans emerged >from the fray victorious: the Settites and the Tremere. > > Yea! My review of the events. and all of the comments may be wrong or incorrect as time and fatigue have blurred the memory. Thursday, I arrived at Origins about 10 minutes late, but Peter was kind enough to let me jump in. Round one had me working hard to get my VPs. and Only took 1, the next game I was quickly reduced to a road block with an effective vote deck. Round 3 My deck took off ousting 3 people and was the last at the table. The final round was yet another massive sweep for the settites taking 4VPs and not 3 as peter claimed. On that point I am quite sure, since I recall thinking that I had managed to average the magical 2VP average for the 4 games. Friday. Sealed deck, no Judge and 3 people who had no Idea that errata was ever published. Ended up taking several backward bleeds, but managed to seize 3 VP anyway. The other players simple split the prizes and called it a day after 1 game. :( And to think I spend 15$ for that. Friday, well I lost, but not by too much. I had 3 VPs going into the final round, which tied me with another player. I missed out by 12 Tournament points and ended sitting out. Had the misfortune of not contesting a vampire in game 1, which lead to that vampire massively bleeding my Predator, who in desperation did a Kindred restructured and switch seats with me, Then I got to play speed bump. Ouch! Over all I will say that the gamesmanship was very good, the players seemed aware of the changes and everyone had a good time. Raille I could have been a contender.

Raille wrote: >>The final round was yet another massive sweep for the settites taking 4VPs and not 3 as peter claimed. On that point I am quite sure, since I recall thinking that I had managed to average the magical 2VP average for the 4 games.>> Yeah, your right. Howard got 1 and you got 4. Sorry. Teach me to write the tourney report after driving for 10 hours :-) Anyway, a brief recount of my game experiences: In the first tourney, I played my favorite--The Nosferatu Hate You, and did very well, until my strategic error in game three. Game 1, I got 3 VPs. I don't remeber who I killed, but I pretty much controlled the table, but couldn't oust my prey fast enough to keep him from getting a second VP. I did get some good use out of the Fame I put in my deck--I ousted my prey by Faming his vamp, whacking her, and the 3 pool loss killed him. Game 2, I got 1 VP. The game had me and James Hamblin's "The Brujah Kill, Kill, Kill you" Rush deck as my grand prey. I ousted my prey for a VP, he ousted his prey for a VP, and then the three way game (with James as my prey...) rapidly degenerated into the two of us mangling each other (I think I got 5 vampires burned/diablerized...), while the woman in seat three managed to pick up the pieces of what was left and scored 3 VPs. I did manage to get even more use out of my Fame, as I made James's Dre into a celebrity, sent him to torpor, and then the next turn pulled him out and sent him in again. James then diablerized his own Dre on his next turn, just to avoid further humiliation. Game 3 saw me killed by my own madness. I was Howards S+B prey, and was keeping him down pretty well, and again, James's predator, and as such, keeping the heat off of him (I didn't want this game to fall into the same position as the last one with me and James...). I was in a very good position and doing well in the long term, slowly bleeding James while keeping Howard down, until I noticed that the guy across the table's Toreador Anson Pool Gain deck was getting out of control. While cleaning KoKo, he accidentally went off, and I cross table Rushed Anson and decapitated him. The Toreador guy was none too pleased, and on his next turn, Paritiy shifted 5 pool away from me, which allowed Howard to just barely oust me. Doh. Before that, I was in a strong position with a lot of pool and a tacit peace with James. After, I was dead. Going into the finals, there was a 4 way tie for the last 2 seats (probably due to me not doing the Tourney Points correctly, which I fixed on the second tourney), so after a great deal of debate on what to do, we ended up simply rolling dice for the seats. Me and the Toreador guy lost. In the second tourney, I played my weenie Pro Form of Mist/Computer Hacking/Garou deck (which I posted fairly recently), which did really well, getting 8 VPs in the first 3 games. My Form of Mist bleeds were surprisingly effective, and my Garou on Hawgs were wreaking havok (I never got the RPG on my Garou with Hawg, sadly...) and then I got whacked in the final due to my good seating getting moved by a Dramatic Upheaval, getting put in a bad spot, and having to make a deal with Josh (to keep his Cryptic Missions from killing my Garou and keeping down my weenies). In the end, when he had 2 pool which I could have easily bled him out of, I neglected to due to A) Not really paying attention and B) being too much a man of my word. As such, Josh eventually killed me. [ quoted text not captured ]

Raille wrote: >>The final round was yet another massive sweep for the settites taking 4VPs and not 3 as peter claimed.>> That, and as pointed out by LSJ, I wrote that Jing Wei deflected Chandler twice on the same bleed. As Jing can't do that, it seems likely that it was actually Merril Mollitor who Woke and played the second deflection. Josh? [ quoted text not captured ]

In article <7lt85v$27s$1...@nntp8.atl.mindspring.net>, "Richard Zopf" <guenh...@mindspring.com> wrote: > > carlos_...@my-deja.com wrote in message > <7lt108$e8j$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>... > >> While there were not actually any judges available to run the VTES > >> events, Peter Bakija (that's me) stepped in to run both constructed > >> events. > > > >No judges???? What's going on there in the US? > > > I believe he means that WotC didn't bring any staff V:TES judges. PDB > himself is a judge, I'm sure. Not that that means anything more than a few > bits of paperwork... Well, of course, maybe I misunderstood. It's the same here, WotC doesn't send judges, we have to do it ourselves, and it works fine. The tourneys are sanctioned, nonetheless. :) > >> The Saturday constructed event had a smaller turnout, with only 10 > >> players, > > > >10 players only???????? [shaking head] What's going on there? I suppose > >it's power gamers with degenerate decks making tournaments > >uninteresting for the majority. Perhaps 4CL makes for more diversitive > >deck concepts... (don't get me wrong, this is not a move for 4CL) > > > Actually, I'd say it's the 400 to 2000 mile trip from most of the larger > centers for Jyhad play in the US that keeps these numbers lower than > European tourneys. We've got a bit more mileage to cover to get to these > things. Check an atlas to see what I'm saying. Measure from Los Angeles to > Columbus, Ohio with a string, and see how far it gets you from Vienna to > Bombay ;-) > (Gratuitous Viennese plug for silly 4CL ignored... mostly <grin>) Well, of course the US is LARGE! But I always thought that there is also a larger number of players compared to Europe, due to one consistent language... So, if the country is larger, the number of players is larger, and the average number of participants on any given tourney would be the same then in the larger and the smaller country (here: Europe). > > In addition, another 2 tournaments (sealed Sabbat and DCI constructed) were > scheduled on the same weekend in Atlanta, GA at Dragon Con, with attendences > in the 20's on both, I believe. Several travellers who would have gone to > Origins instead made the shorter trip to Atlanta, myself included. So for > total numbers on the past weekend, consider 40 to 50 to be a more accurate > number. OK, granted. But it's still not overwhelming for a tournament at a convention! Antediluvian Awakening was not at a convention, and it drew more players than a single of the given tourneys in the US. :) I myself had to drive over 500km to get to Kosice, but it was worth it: there were players from Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republik, Austria and Spain! And what you have to take into account is the different languages; where in the US there are no difficulties, we in Europe have great difficultier understanding foreign players. Some of them even don't speak English! But we still managed to have great games and made some good friendships. :) (Hi Josef and Maros, are you listening? Great games, weren't they?) > > As an aside, I too find the labeling of a "World Championship" without any > preliminary notice here in the US, and without European representation to be > laughable, but I'm glad for the attention from WotC. Yes, it's laughable IMO, too. And yes, the support from WotC is cool. But is the name "World Championship" official? I mean, did WotC give it's consent to use it officially? That's the big question. Carl (VEKN Prince of Vienna) PS: Sorry, I may have been somewhat harsh. I didn't mean to insult anybody in this and my previous post. [ quoted text not captured ]

In article <19990706171934...@ng68.aol.com>, pd...@aol.comANTISPAM (Peter D Bakija) wrote: > Carl wrote: > >>1. Are there any concrete details yet for the mini-expansion? Is it still in > development process????>> > > Not that I am aware of. They just were very defenite about producing it. The > distribution method is up in the air, and the cards involved are not yet > concrete, but they are making it by the end of the year. You know that to assure the quality of the product, there has to be extensive playtesting AND proofreading (there shouldn't be any powercards, and no wallpaper-cards; no printing-errors either). For my taste, they are very sluggish about it. :( > > >>2. World Championship for VTES? WTF??????? I mean, it's nice that WotC has > renewed support, but this is a bit ludicrous (sp?). I assume that there will be > few (if any) players not from the US attending at this year's Gencon, so > calling it a World Championships is crap.>> > > Dude. Take a deep breath. Relax. It may very well be the National > Championships, and not the World Championships, but either way, it isn't like > it is a tournament on the Magic level. There are no "Qualifiers" or entrance > requirements, nor is there a substantial (if any) cash prize. It is being > called the X Championships just cause it is fun to do so. I suspect that if > there are more than 30 players, it will be a miracle. OK, relaxation initiated. :) Huh, the red haze is gone now. :) I know that there are no qualifiers or something else. But just calling it X Championships doesn't make any sense, if it's not official. I wouldn't mind you calling it "Crusade US" or something like that, but national or even world CS? Better not. > > >>No judges???? What's going on there in the US?>> > > What is going on is that WOTC is supporting a game that hasn't beeb printed in, > like, 4 years. They commited to running three tournaments at Origins (which is > a huge annual convention with multiple thousands of attendees--second in size > only to Gencon), which was great, but never managed to find judges, as not all > that many people in WOTC are capable of running such an event. Thus, rather > than canceling the events, they hoped that someone would show up who was > willing to judge and play at the same time (with a 3 player triumverate of > judges in case of having to judge the judge). Luckily, I was there and willing > to do it. I fail to see the problem. They gave us tons of prizes, and as I was > running the show, I knew that we were playing with all the appropriate rules > and errata. You are right, it was a good decision not to cancel the events. > > >>Huh, a strong turnout you say. A medium turnout would be over 20 players in a > constructed, like last weekend in Antediluvian Awakening, Kosice. I think we > have been 25 players. > For Draft, I turnout of 27 players is strong, as has been in March in PS:Vienna > II. :)>> > > Boy, do you lead a special life. What do you gain here by critisizing the turn > out? I felt 16 players was great. Hey, sorry I didn't mean to critize you... I just did it in connection with the WC thing. No offense meant. I'm sure you had a great time. :) > > >>What about all the others, saying that Setites are not good in > tournaments?>> > > I don't know what to make of this statement. I meant that many players tend to say that Setites are not tournament- capable. I guess that tourney proved them wrong. :) I'm a great fan of the Setites. > > >>10 players only???????? [shaking head] What's going on there? I suppose it's > power gamers with degenerate decks making tournaments uninteresting for the > majority. Perhaps 4CL makes for more diversitive deck concepts... (don't get me > wrong, this is not a move for 4CL)>> > > No, it is that Jyhad isn't all that widespread, as it is essentially a dead > game. The fact that we had about 30 players show up and have a great time in > the three different events works for me. The smallish turnout has nothing to do > with the rules, I assure you. It has to do with the fact that Jyhad has not > printed a card for 4 years and that there was a second large convention > (DragonCon) in Atlanta the same weekend with large Jyhad events (I believe that > LSJ was running them). The fact that we were there, having a good time, and > running a tournament, on the other hand, convinces WOTC that people still like > their game, regardless of the size. Here in Europe, VTES is not a dead game. In fact, many people play it because they don't have to spend huge amounts of money (see M:t$). We are still bringing new players to the game, and we experience a slow revival of it. Getting cards is increasingly difficult. > > >>IMO, a tournament who doesn't have a judge is *very* badly organized. Anybody > similar experiences?>> > > Again, they were committed to running the events, but didn't have any qualified > judges. Would you rather they not run the events? No, of course not. It's just the WC thing that made me go berserk. Sorry again. :) I hope that WotC will increase it's support. Carl (VEKN Prince of Vienna) Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ [ quoted text not captured ]

carlos_...@my-deja.com wrote in message <7lv488$7g7$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>... >> >>What about all the others, saying that Setites are not good in >> tournaments?>> >> >> I don't know what to make of this statement. > >I meant that many players tend to say that Setites are not tournament- >capable. I guess that tourney proved them wrong. :) >I'm a great fan of the Setites. > That's why I played them. I knew I had a very good settite deck and needed to show the world. ack! Ego check! Raille.

In article <93126836...@news.remarQ.com>, "Xian" <xi...@waste.org> wrote: > Peter D Bakija wrote: > >Columbus Ohio--in a mad and violent struggle, fraught with revolting > >Anarchs, decapitations, charming socialites, and a Garou biker gang, > >two clans emerged from the fray victorious: the Settites and the > >Tremere. > > <plug> Go Tremere! </plug> > > [snip] > >Josh Duffin (3 vps) playing a Tremere Cryptic Mission/Society of > >Leopold deck. > > Excellent. And featured in the recent Tremere newsletter. Most > intriguing. Hehe. Famous decks always win. Or, uh, something. I had modified the deck slightly for Origins, by putting in 3 more Society of Leopold (up to 10) and 7 more Cryptic Missions (up to 30) to bring the deck to 90 cards. I think that worked out well, although I did suffer severe master hand-jam during at least one game. (Which is fairly expectable with 30 masters in 90 cards. Which is why I was playing Parthenons. But anyway...) > [snip] > >Josh then quickly destroys most of Peter's vampires with the > >combination of Cryptic Mission and Society of Leopold, and ousts him, > >giving Josh 4 vps. > >First Place with 4 vps: Josh Duffin > >Second Place with 1 vp: Howard Sanders > > All I have to say, is: Josh, you rock my world for winning with a funky > Tremere deck! Go Tremere! Woo-hoo! > > Xian (see...the Tremere *can* win!) > [done with pointless posts for the day] Yeah, and I hadn't even been strictly planning on playing that deck in an Origins tourney; just brought it along for humor value. But since I'd played the old Brujah pot/cel rush combat deck on Thursday, I figured I should give everyone a change of pace on Saturday. Josh ...the only cooler thing would be if I'd won using a Tremere Immortal Grapple/Walk of Flame deck... ;-) [ quoted text not captured ]

In article <93130180...@news.remarQ.com>, "Raille" <rai...@mich.com> wrote: > [snip] > Friday, well I lost, but not by too much. I had 3 VPs going into the final > round, which tied me with another player. I missed out by 12 Tournament > points and ended sitting out. Saturday, you mean? That other player was me. And you made it into the Thursday final on tiebreakers, right? Interesting, that both the tourney winners had the lowest VPs going into the finals. Might suggest that the top-VP contenders weren't picking the best seats they could have. (Although in the Saturday game that may not entirely apply since the seats were rearranged during the game...) Josh [ quoted text not captured ]

In article <19990706201109...@ng-xa1.aol.com>, pd...@aol.comANTISPAM (Peter D Bakija) wrote: > Raille wrote: > >>The final round was yet another massive sweep for the settites taking 4VPs > and not 3 as peter claimed.>> > > That, and as pointed out by LSJ, I wrote that Jing Wei deflected Chandler twice > on the same bleed. As Jing can't do that, it seems likely that it was actually > Merril Mollitor who Woke and played the second deflection. Josh? It certainly wasn't Jing Wei twice, no. As I remember it, it was Sarah "Peach" Cobbler the first time (who I had just influenced out, bringing me to a fairly low pool total, thus inducing you to try and oust me), and then Merill Molitor was Forced Awake and re-Deflected, burning two blood. I think Jing Wei was already tapped when Chandler came by for the visit. Josh but it's all a blur... [ quoted text not captured ]

In article <19990706200822...@ng-xa1.aol.com>, pd...@aol.comANTISPAM (Peter D Bakija) wrote: [slice] > In the second tourney, I played my weenie Pro Form of Mist/Computer > Hacking/Garou deck (which I posted fairly recently), which did really well, > getting 8 VPs in the first 3 games. My Form of Mist bleeds were surprisingly > effective, and my Garou on Hawgs were wreaking havok (I never got the RPG on my > Garou with Hawg, sadly...) and then I got whacked in the final due to my good > seating getting moved by a Dramatic Upheaval, getting put in a bad spot, and > having to make a deal with Josh (to keep his Cryptic Missions from killing my > Garou and keeping down my weenies). In the end, when he had 2 pool which I > could have easily bled him out of, I neglected to due to A) Not really paying > attention and B) being too much a man of my word. As such, Josh eventually > killed me. Yup. I had gone down to 2 pool bringing out the Arcane Library, so after not being ousted by Peter at that point I built up my forces (and pool) for a while, which put me in a position to kill Howard by playing that Chandler of very little brain like a puppet. My 'coulda been a contender' story is: in the last preliminary round on Thursday, the game was down to three players. I think it was me, my prey Dave McCarty (Setites), and my predator Jay Kristoff (also some Setites, but doing stealthy bleed and Anarch Revolts instead of Corrupt things). Anyway, we were all fairly low on pool, and I foolishly ousted Dave one turn before I should have: if I had left Dave alive another turn and rushed Jay's vamps instead, I would have had a really good shot at getting all three remaining VPs. Instead I got one for killing Dave and was quickly whacked by Jay. Oops. But the reason this would have mattered is that with those two additional VPs I would have had a better seed in the finals, enabling me to sit somewhere *other* than as Howard's prey. And not get so harshly punished for not having a Bum's Rush in my opening hand. Boh. Josh but then, maybe in that case I too would have suffered the 'can't pick the good seat' syndrome. yeah, that's my excuse. [ quoted text not captured ]

Josh wrote: > >...the only cooler thing would be if I'd won using >a Tremere Immortal Grapple/Walk of Flame deck... >;-) > Man, I'm still working on my IG/Anathema/Blood to Water deck... Enjoy, though. Tremere are fun. John Baker

Carl wrote: >>I know that there are no qualifiers or something else. But just calling it X Championships doesn't make any sense, if it's not official. I wouldn't mind you calling it "Crusade US" or something like that, but national or even world CS? Better not.>> I'm not calling it anything--I have nothing to do with any of this. I don't work for WOTC, I'm not affiliated with WOTC in any way, and I'm not running the event. I'm just reporting what I heard, and it is possible that me calling it "World Championshp" was an error on my part (he could have called it "National Championship". It is all a blur to me now...) >>Yes, it's laughable IMO, too. And yes, the support from WotC is cool. But is the name "World Championship" official? I mean, did WotC give it's consent to use it officially? That's the big question.>> I honestly don't know what they are calling it. I know that they are having a "big" tourney at Gencon, and the winner gets their picture on a card in the new set (i.e. they get to be a vampire), and the WOTC guy I was talking to called it either the National Championships or the World Championships--I don't remember which. Either way, it is just a vanity title, as the field is not going to be made up of "reigonal" champions or invited masters, or anything of the sort. It is just a tourney they hope will be big, and has a cool prize (get to be on a card). In the end, I suspect that it has a "big" name in hopes of attracting players, and as Gencon is the biggest annual con in North America (12-15 thousand people?), but having it there, they are most likely to get a good turnout. By making a big deal of it (giving it a "big" name), the increase their turnout. [ quoted text not captured ]

carlos_...@my-deja.com wrote in message <7lv1sv$6s7$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>... >In article <7lt85v$27s$1...@nntp8.atl.mindspring.net>, >Well, of course the US is LARGE! But I always thought that there is >also a larger number of players compared to Europe, due to one >consistent language... >So, if the country is larger, the number of players is larger, and the >average number of participants on any given tourney would be the same >then in the larger and the smaller country (here: Europe). > For the numbers to ratio like that, you'd need a larger number of Jyhad players in the US which proportionates with its increased area. We're fanatics over here, but there aren't _that_ many of us. ;-)There probably wasn't even that many M:t$$ player until about 1996. Anyway, just having a proportionate number of players doesn't mean a proportionate number of people at tournaments. You haven't solved the problem of reduced player density yet, and how to get them to one place... I'm vocalizing this because its one of the greatest problems with Jyhad in the US; communicating with and even just finding others who play, then taking the large amount of time and expense needed to get together face to face. The player registry has been a great tool, but that doesn't get you in contact with the non-web surfing populace playing the game. >> >> In addition, another 2 tournaments (sealed Sabbat and DCI >constructed) were >> scheduled on the same weekend in Atlanta, GA at Dragon Con, with >attendences >> in the 20's on both, I believe. Several travellers who would have >gone to >> Origins instead made the shorter trip to Atlanta, myself included. >So for >> total numbers on the past weekend, consider 40 to 50 to be a more >accurate >> number. > >OK, granted. But it's still not overwhelming for a tournament at a >convention! This reminds me of another hindrance. The USF$60 to $75 entry fee for most conventions... >Antediluvian Awakening was not at a convention, and it drew >more players than a single of the given tourneys in the US. :) >I myself had to drive over 500km to get to Kosice, but it was worth it: >there were players from Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republik, >Austria and Spain! And what you have to take into account is the >different languages; where in the US there are no difficulties, we in >Europe have great difficultier understanding foreign players. Some of >them even don't speak English! But we still managed to have great games >and made some good friendships. :) Hey. If I found anyone within a reasonable distance, I wouldn't care what language they spoke either (unless it was Esperanto, then I'd have to worry ;-) Besides, I'd expect _everyone_ to have a problem with my bastardized version of the Queen's good English (nods to Legbiter ;-)... Friendships abound in this game. We're all a sort of outcast society in the gaming world, sustaining a game which everyone is trying so hard to kill. It builds comraderie. And calluses. >PS: Sorry, I may have been somewhat harsh. I didn't mean to insult >anybody in this and my previous post. <grin> I never took it that way, myself. It is tough for those not here to realize the distances involved in getting to a good game of Jyhad. I felt compelled to try, though.

carlos_...@my-deja.com wrote: > I know that there are no qualifiers or something else. But just calling > it X Championships doesn't make any sense, if it's not official. > I wouldn't mind you calling it "Crusade US" or something like that, but > national or even world CS? Better not. Andrew Finch (Brand Manager for V:TES) assures me that it is official. To quote: "The DCI choses events and designates them as championship events. The GenCon V:TES event has traditionally been the best attendened event each year, there by making it the obvious choice for the championship event." -- LSJ (vte...@wizards.com) V:TES Net.Rep for Wizards of the Coast. Links to revised rulebook, rulings, errata, and tournament rules: http://www.wizards.com/VTES/VTES_Rules.html

In article <37839810...@wizards.com>, LSJ <vte...@wizards.com> wrote: > carlos_...@my-deja.com wrote: > > I know that there are no qualifiers or something else. But just calling > > it X Championships doesn't make any sense, if it's not official. > > I wouldn't mind you calling it "Crusade US" or something like that, but > > national or even world CS? Better not. > > Andrew Finch (Brand Manager for V:TES) assures me that it is official. > To quote: "The DCI choses events and designates them as championship events. > The GenCon V:TES event has traditionally been the best attendened event each > year, there by making it the obvious choice for the championship event." OK, I understand. So this is supposed to be National Championship? It also leaves me with the impression that Europe gets a bit neglected in regard to such events... :( I also heard that the winner will get his picture on a vamp, is this true? Carl [ quoted text not captured ]

carl.pi...@philips.com wrote: > In article <37839810...@wizards.com>, > LSJ <vte...@wizards.com> wrote: > > Andrew Finch (Brand Manager for V:TES) assures me that it is official. > > To quote: "The DCI choses events and designates them as championship > events. > > The GenCon V:TES event has traditionally been the best attendened > event each > > year, there by making it the obvious choice for the championship > event." > > OK, I understand. So this is supposed to be National Championship? > It also leaves me with the impression that Europe gets a bit neglected > in regard to such events... :( Not so. The UK and Ireland V:TES Championships are taking place at GenCon UK again this year, for the 3rd year running. The event starts at 10.30am on the first saturday of September (whatever the date is) at Loughborough University as part of the GenCon UK event. With a bit of luck we can beat the 1997 attendance record of 24 players (if the Portsmouth crowd come to it this year). HRH James Coupe assures me he will judge this year so I can play. Prize is looking like a 6' x 2' laminated, magnetic-backed John Bolton picture of the white-dressed female vampire. Ideal for any truely enormous fridge-freezer. Possibly some artwork up for grabs too. Somebody please stop Mr. Treasure from walking away with the prize 3 years in a row. Further details as they become available, or call Wizards UK on; +44 1628 780801. If you want a Championship in your local European country, why not contact Wizards of the Coast, Europe at the Antwerp offices? These things don't organise themselves... matt.