My ACC 2014 Report

Methuselahs from Manila, Japan, and Taiwan escaped the fury of rains brought on by typhoon "Mario", and descended on Iloilo last weekend for the 2014 Asian Continental VtES Championship (ACC). Held at the Iloilo Midtown Hotel, the ACC brought together 22 players to vie for the championship title.

I was afraid I was going to miss it, since my family's flight the day before was cancelled due to the storm. We were able to re-book an early morning flight, and we arrived in Iloilo at close to seven in the morning on the day of the tournament. After a quick refresher at my wife's family home, I was on my way to the hotel, and the ACC.

The ACC had three rounds and a final. Here are my recollections about the three tables I was on. I left the first two tables after being ousted, so I'm not too sure of the final results in each of them.

1st Round

Me (Auspex Weenies) -bleeding- Ferdie Paredes (Malgorzata) -bleeding- Hidetoshi Hayakawa (Stanlislava) -bleeding- Taka'aki Ayukata (Al-Muntaquim) -bleeding- Aurelio Icasiano (Lasombra)

While I was able to bring out about four vamps, including Michael Luther, it was, as Aurelio observed, a rather strange table. One of the early highlights was Al-Muntaquim torporing Moncada. Then, Taki sent in Nedal the Careless to diablerize Moncada; Nedal immediately burned afterwards, with both Hayakawa and Aurelio throwing out vote cards to make it happen. Aurelio then brought out Polonia to compensate, but, with Stanislava out, he found it difficult to maneuver politically. Taki was the first one out, courtesy of a big bleed by Hayakawa. I followed soon after, as I lacked the intercept to block a 3-stealth KRC from Aurelio; I realized too late that Eyes of Argus is only used for (D) actions.

2nd Round

Me - Raf (stealth bleeder) - Don (Imbued) - Johann (Gerald Windham toolbox)

I had gotten an Anarch Revolt out, which was bad news for Don, whose Imbued could not neither go anarch to escape the pings nor could they call off the revolt, since they were not vampires. Hammered by Raf's big bleeds and pinged by the Revolt, Don was quickly off the table. Johann, who, as he has pointed out, did not bleed me at all, took me out by bouncing all of Raf's bleeds to me. My intercept was not coming out as consistently as I liked, and I soon followed Don off the table. Looking at the results, I guess Johann eventually managed to oust Raf for the table win.

3rd Round

Me - Ace (!Ventrue grinder) - Zandro (!Gangrel) - Haig (potence weenie with Beast and Theo)

It was a lucky thing for me Haig decided to pound on Zandro, since that left me to set up. Zandro was caught in a hammer-and-anvil of Ace's bleeds and Haig's pounding, and was soon off the table. Ace then manged to oust Haig, although the effort left Ace's minions either low on blood or torpored. By then, my minions were armed and ready. While Ace blocked, I was able to maneuver and shoot, sending his minions into torpor. I managed to be the last man standing, and gained two victory points.

The finals table was a veterans' table, with only Ace as the new player. The other players were Johann, Charlie, Faust, and Carding, who had just come out of torpor this year. I had to leave after playing one more friendly game (although I learned that it is not proper form to play From a Sinking Ship), and learned over the social media that Carding, using a classic EuroBrujah deck, had managed to win the championship. Congratulations to Richard Barnett, the new ACC champ!

All in all, it was an enjoyable day of VtES, and the ACC demonstrated that, while the game is technically out-of-print, the players remain passionate and dedicated enough to keep it going.