Tradition Upheld Unofficial Tournament Report Convinced by Norm and Sorrow that we would have a full complement of New Orleans players, Ethan Burrow (VEKN Prince of Austin), Brian Reed, and I made the nine hour trek from Austin to New Orleans. We stopped in Houston on our way over, and played a game with Mike Ooi, who is soon to be the VEKN Prince of Houston, if Carl Pilhatsch can ever confirm his emails. I played a Lasombra Embrace deck that swept, fooling the players going to New Orleans into thinking I was going to be playing that deck. We then headed on to New Orleans, arriving about 4:30 a.m. We slept on Sorrow's couch, floor, and futon mattress. Around 9 a.m., Norm showed up to pick up Sorrow, and the Austinites each hit the showers. About 10:30 we headed across one of the longest bridges in the world (15+ miles) to get to the tournament. We arrived a little afer 11. Sorrow and Kristin tried to get a hold of a bunch of local players, but were unable to get anyone else to show up. Norm and the Austin players played a game while we waited to see if anyone else would show up. We ended up sitting in the same positions during the first round, and at the restaurant where we headed for a quick lunch while waiting for the other table to finish. Even though the tournament was scheduled over a month in advance, with the date determined to benefit specific players, only four New Orleans players showed up (Norm lives in Lafayette, but usually plays in New Orleans). We used the multi-judge tournament rules, but never had to make use of them, all of the questions asked about rules were well known to most of the players in attendance. Seven players planned on playing and we picked up a new player right before the tournament. There were 2 preliminary rounds and going into the finals were the following players: Ethan Burrow, Austin (Weenie Auspex) - 5 VP Christoph Boget, New Orleans (Weenie Obfuscate) - 4 VP Jeff Thompson, Austin (Lasombra commons deck) - 3 VP Norman Brown, Lafayette (Dominate Potence) - 3 VP Brian Reed, Austin (Weenie Bounce) - 1 VP Not going into the finals were the following players: Kristin Siegrist, New Orleans (Brujah - pitch) - 0 VP A.J. Kyles, New Orleans (Gangrel - Garous) - 0 VP Ashton Mazzera, New Orleans (!Nosferatu - Voting) - 0 VP We played two rounds, with every victory point being important on our way to the finals. In the first round, all of the Austin players got to play at the same table as Norm Brown. I added three Dramatic Upheavals to my deck 15 minutes before the tournament started, and I used two in this game. First, I used it to get Norm out from under Ethan's weenie horde, who could have ousted him by sheer force of numbers, then I used DU to oust Norm after he put an Anarch Revolt into play (moving to have him as my prey, of course). That was my only victory point at that table, with Ethan ousting Brian fairly quickly after I ousted Norm, and then me not too long after. On the other table during the first round, Sorrow was able to politic the table, and eventually swept, with many, many Embraces with Obfuscate. In the second round, I bled Sorrow, who bled Ethan, who bled A.J. I was able to oust Sorrow with some dominate bleeds and a little stealth, while pretty much ignoring the Gangrel's bleeds for one. Eventually, A.J. brought out a Renegade Garou with only 5 pool left afterwards, and I used a Dramatic Upheaval to make him my prey. On my next turn, I ousted him, but I was horribly outnumbered by Ethan yet again, so he eventually took two victory points by killing me and being last. On the other table, Norm and Brian were doing much better without Ethan around to block actions or contest vampires. Brian was bleeding Kristin, and bouncing all of Ashton's bleeds to her as well, so he was able to take a victory point. He was then bleeding into Norm's hurtful dominate potence deck, and he was slowed down enough that Norm was able to oust Ashton, and then Brian as well to net Norm three victory points. Original seating in the final was: Norman Brown preying on Ethan Burrow preying on Jeff Thompson preying on Christoph Boget preying on Brian Reed preying on Norman Brown Ethan had the magic touch this game, gaining upwards of 20 pool from Malkavian Pranks, 11 from me. As I was his prey for most of that, I was not doing real well. I swapped seats with him using Dramatic Upheaval, and almost immediately got bled for four at stealth by my grand predator Brian because of Norm's deflection. Norm was then able to smash my vampires with Torn Signposts and/or Burning Wraths, and I was bled out within 2 turns of jumping. Ethan got out all of the vampires in his crypt in the meantime, and at one point had 18 pool of vampires in play, with 33 pool in addition. Three of his vampires ended up with Pulse of the Canaille, so he was a serious bleeding threat, in addition to bouncing most of his predator's bleeds. Ethan was also able to cut Sorrow's deck to a Jyhad backed card after every time Sorrow got out a new Embrace and put an Obfuscate card on it, so Sorrow only got 1 of his 7 Tribute to the Master cards. Ethan was able to oust Sorrow, and Brian was able to oust Norm, but then Ethan's superior numbers, and miraculous pool gain enabled him to take Brian out as well. Ethan won the tournament with 3 VP in the final Norman came in second with 1 VP in the final Brian came in third with 1 VP in the final Christoph and Jeff ended with 0 VP in the final New ratings for each player are: Player Name Old Rating New Rating Brian Reed, Austin 3000 3022 Jeff Thompson, Austin 3063 3051 Ethan Burron, Austin 3123 3215 Norman Brown, Lafayette 3003 3050 A.J. Kyles, New Orleans 3000 2965 Christoph Boget, New Orleans 3035 2999 Ashton Mazzera, New Orleans 3000 2946 Kristin Siegrist, New Orleans 2905 2881 More information regarding the tournament history (including ratings and V:EKN ID #'s) of New Orleans players can be seen at:
http://www.melancholy.org/domain-no/tournaments/ratings.php3
The next tournament in the area will be at Exoticon (http://www.exoticon.net) which will be held towards the end of November (11/17 - 11/19). At least some of the Austin crew will probably try to make that trek as well, so start making plans now! After the tournament, the Austin players, Norm, and Sorrow headed back to Sorrow's place and we drank Honey Brown Beer, Newcastle, and Dr. Pepper and played until 1-2 in the morning. On Sunday, we played once as soon as everyone was awake, then headed back to the BSI Comics shop to play and see if any other of the New Orleans players would show up. We played until about 4 in the afternoon, then headed back to Austin, arriving around 1, and having everyone at their own homes by 1:45 a.m. Ethan Burrow's winning Weenie Auspex deck: Weenie Auspex v1.1: Vampires: 12 1x Aleph 1x Brazil 1x Colin Flynn 1x Dieter Kleist 1x Dollface 1x Dorian Strack 1x Dr. John Casey 1x Franciscus 1x Isabel de Leon 1x Remilliard, Devout Crusader 1x Richard Tauber, Ayelea's Puppet 1x Zoe Library: 80 2x Aching Beauty 1x Art Museum 1x Asylum Hunting Ground 3x Aura Reading 6x Effective Management 13x Fake Out 2x Inbase Discotek, Frankfurt 5x Malkavian Prank 2x Muddled Vampire Hunter 2x The Parthenon 5x Precognition 2x Primal Instincts 3x Pulse of the Canaille 7x Read Intentions 2x Resplendent Protector 1x Society Hunting Ground 6x Spirit's Touch 2x Sudden Reversal 5x Telepathic Counter 7x Telepathic Misdirection 2x Tribute to the Master 1x Unnatural Disaster