New Jersey Continental Championship Qualifier

Please join me in congratulating Ben Peal, the V:EKN Prince of
Boston MA, on becoming the:

2001 V:TES Northeast USA Champion!

Ben bested a total of 32 great V:TES players this past Saturday, May
26, at the 2001 V:TES Northeast USA Championship (Regional Qualifier)
to achieve this feat.

Also, by their performance at this tournament, Ben and the top 10
players qualify to play in the 2001 V:TES North American Championship
to held at GenCon on Saturday, August 4, 2001.  A big congratulations
to ALL the qualifiers!

Here is a list of all the players at the event, and their finishing
positions:

Rank, Name, City-State, Total VPs, Final VPs, TPs
01. Ben Peal, Boston, MA, 13, 3, 138
02. Francis Mercier, Doylestown, PA, 7, 2, 144
03. Colin Riggs, Washington, DC, 8, 0, 144
04. Gregory Williams, Providence, RI, 8, 0, 138
05. Chris Kemp, Kinnelon, NJ, 5, 0, 138
06. Scott Blakey, Fort Meade, MD, 5,  , 132
07. Trey Morita, Silver Spring, MD, 5,  , 96
08. Matthew Hirsch, Wellesley, MA, 4.5,  , 144
08. John B. Whelan, Flushing, NY, 4.5,  , 144
10. Jason Babbitt, Washington, DC, 4,  , 138
11. Martin Henley, Bucks County, PA, 4,  , 126
11. John McGlynn, Meriden, CT, 4,  , 126
13. Wayne A. Chin, Crofton, MD, 3,  , 120
14. Peter Oh, Baltimore, MD, 3,  , 108
15. Keith Woodward, Doylestown, PA, 2.5,  , 108
16. Terence Cooper, Philadelphia, PA, 2,  , 120
17. Ben Spaulding, Bangor, ME, 2,  , 114
18. Sarah Anthony, New Hope, PA, 2,  , 108
18. Jon Evers, Timonium, MA, 2,  , 108
20. Michael Manning, Providence, RI, 2,  , 106
21. Todd Richter, Chicopee, MA, 1.5,  , 96
22. Wilbert Bishop, Philadelphia, PA, 1.5,  , 78
23. Remy Auclair, Quebec City, Canada, 1,  , 108
24. Mark Stoholski, Perkasie, PA, 1,  , 90
25. Lance Shope, Brewer, ME, 0.5,  , 82
26. Matthew Heslin, Newtown, PA, 0.5,  , 78
27. Josh Duffin, Bethesda, MD, 0,  , 88
28. Steve Holman, Washington, DC, 0,  , 78
29. Edward McGlynn, Meriden, CT, 0,  , 72
30. Nick Watkins, New York, NY, 0,  , 66
31. Neil Davis, Philadelphia, PA, 0,  , 60
31. Nick Fofonoff, New York, NY, 0,  , 60

(*)  The top 10 are automatically qualified and invited to play in the
2001

V:TES North American Championship!
Here is Ben Peal’s 2001 V:TES Northeast Championship Deck List,
with a description/commentary by Ben:

Deck Name:  Short Leash Bleed
Created By:  Ben Peal
Description:  Obf/Dom stealth/bleed.  Typically bleeding for no more
than 3.  If bleeds are bounced, use “media outlets” to
give opposing minions intercept to help block, then Change of Target. 
Deflection, Obedience, and some intercept for defense, plus a few fun
gimmicks.

Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 13, Max: 28, Avg: 5.17]

  1x Normal: 2, obf, Malkavian
  1x Roland Bishop: 4, obf, dom, aus, Malkavian
  1x Didi Meyers: 5, obf, DOM, aus, cel, Malkavian
  1x Zebulon: 5, OBF, dom, aus, pro, Malkavian
  1x Ozmo: 6, obf, dom, AUS, Malkavian, +1 bleed
  1x Gilbert Duane: 7, OBF, DOM, AUS, Malkavian, Prince
  1x Mariel: 7, OBF, DOM, aus, tha, Malkavian, special
  1x Guido Lucciano: 5, obf, dom, OBT, Lasombra
  1x Gratiano: 8, obf, DOM, OBT, pot, Lasombra, Priscus, special
  1x Regilio: 3, obf, aus, Nosferatu
  1x Laurent de Valois: 4, obf, dom, ani, Nosferatu
  1x Reverend Blackwood:6, obf, DOM, THA, !Tremere, Bishop, special

Library: (90 cards)

1x Asylum Hunting Ground
1x Muddled Vampire Hunter
2x Malkavian Rider Clause
3x Blood Doll
2x The Barrens
2x KRCG News Radio
2x London Evening Star
2x The Rumor Mill
1x Malkavian Dementia
4x Sudden Reversal

2x Dramatic Upheaval
8x Change of Target

2x Revelations
2x Eagle’s Sight
2x The Spirit’s Touch
2x Enhanced Senses

4x Spying Mission
4x Swallowed By the Night
4x Faceless Night
4x Lost in Crowds
3x Cloak the Gathering

10x Govern the Unaligned
5x Bonding
5x Threats
8x Deflection
5x Obedience

Final notes from the Tournament Organizer:

I undoubtedly witnessed some of the best V:TES playing and interesting
decks in my experience.  There was a wide variety of deck styles and
themes represented at the tournament.  Combat decks are very viable
now, as expected, with the introduction of the Sabbat War cards and
reprints.  Very importantly, 3 players (each of which had only 2
months of play experience) placed 2nd, 11th, and 18th in the
tournament, which shows that this game is alive and well, and can be
successfully taught to new gamers.

It was agreed by all those who watched the Final Round that it was the
single most intense game of V:TES they had ever seen.  With the
Northeast Championship on the line, there was virtually no chatting. 
The players were all business, conducting themselves professionally,
having the single-minded goal of completing their mission to win the
event.  In the end, Ben Peal came out the victor in a very tough
fought match that lasted over 2 hours!

Best,
Stephen "The Evil One"
Prince of New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA


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A side view of the finals, by Todd Richter:


This is my opinion of what was an awesome Battle. Ben manipulated his Prey
and GrandPrey perfectly. Greg handled himself Supremely, and here it is...

It was down to four, Ben Peal preying on Colin Riggs, who was preying on
Francis Mercier, who was preying on Greg Williams. The two most notable
players would have to be Ben Peal and Greg Williams, and here is why...

Ben being the epitome of the controlling Methuselah had Colin applying major
pressure on Francis, "You need to keep pressure on him, I won’t Bleed you..."
However when the Bleed came to Ben it was deflected to Colin.  This went on
repeatedly, yet, there was an alliance struck between Ben and Colin,
meanwhile Francis was being put into a position to keep defending against
Colin, which is working out for Ben as Colin is getting weaker.
Francis was playing exceptionally well but he was splitting his resources,
he needed to focus on his gameplan. Francis was new to the game, and through
verbal suggestions, Ben had gotten Francis to try and block all of Greg’s
actions, which of course would most likely go towards Ben i.e. War Ghouls
which is acceptable as Greg is his prey.
Ben has no more use for Colin and he is ousted. Now Puppet one is gone and
it’s time to take care of Francis, who himself is weakened after fighting on
two fronts. Francis had Kendrick out and was looking at random cards in Greg
’s hand so he had an indication what Greg was about. Greg stated "I don’t
want to kill all of your Vampires" but the tension was high, very high. (I
was glad I was not at this table.) But alas this is what happened, and Greg
has silenced his Vampires. There were Minutes of silence that hung for what
seemed to be hours.
Meanwhile, Muddles is whacking away at Greg and he is now fighting on two
fronts. Greg bleeds; it gets deflected to Francis. Francis then blocks Greg’
s actions, leaving him open to Ben. Ben attacks Greg’s Vampires and Bleeds
Francis. The end is near.

Ben gets the award for manipulation, Ben would tell the younger players what
they needed to hear and off they went do the Masters bidding, but Greg gets
the award for having to deal with essentially three decks at once and almost
winning with Tzi-Intercept/Combat.

This is not the first time that these two have faced off in a final and I am
sure it will not be the last.

This is my personal opinion, based on my observations, and this was the
finest competition I have ever witnessed, and I mean no offense to any in
this.

Todd Richter
greywolf31@charter.net