July 2023: Helsinki torn
What does it matter to you?
When you have a job to do
You got to do it well
You got to give the other fellow hell
Hello, visitor.
Welcome to the Thessalian scrolls. Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring.
This is a place to share information about the never-ending war of the Kindred. If you have reached this place by chance, please find out what this is all about here. If you came willingly, take a sit and allow me to tell you a story of the eternal struggle. I hope this collection of deeds can entertain you, and maybe you can extract some interesting conclusions among all these scattered scraps.
Today I am bringing the report for July 2023. I know it´s been much longer than in the previous months, but I have stopped my research´n´gathering job for almost a month this summer, as I enjoyed some rest that was not deserved, but very much needed. Even then, back in the office I also enjoyed a lot of work and new projects, and I could not focus enough on this blog. All this together have made me think that the best I can do is publish this entry, and then gather info and wait for the accumulated report for Q3. This means I will not be writing the August and September entries, and all the info for those months will come to you in the consolidated report. I hope you forgive the delays and information gaps. Things not always move as we planned.
In the report for June, I highlighted the month for including the highest number of players in the year so far, and I remarked how inspiring and amazing it was to count such numbers. One of the reasons for that burst was the week of nightmares, in Ohio, which gathered so many events and added a total of 364 participations in the USA. Even without those, the number of players would have been awesome, adding 529 players all around the rest of the world. Well, after recording the data for July I have to say that those deeds were not a one-off burst, as I counted 516 players in July! Almost as many participations as in the previous month (not counting the WoN). We should consider that, this time, there were a lot of tournaments that I could not include in the report, as I was not able to find the winning deck. While in the second quarter of the year my rate of data included was around 85%, this time it has dropped to 76%, meaning I am not counting the results and participations of 13 events with 163 methuselahs that took place in July. It would have been great to have them in my scrolls, and so I encourage all tournament organizers to add the winning deck to the VEKN as soon as they can. Also, I thank all them who are regularly doing it. Great job!
As you may know by now, I am collecting information about the tournaments that are registered in the VEKN event calendar, and the decks that won. The VEKN is the main portal for any player who wants to be informed on the evolution of the game, and I also go to other sites where players share more data about decks and strategies, and I will list those sites here not only to thank the efforts of those developers, but also to allow any reader to access these fantastic tools:
- El Setita Loco and his Instagram deck database. Easiest to see twd archive in the planet.
- VDB, a fantastic deck building tool including also information about decks all over the world.
- VTES decks, also a database with good searching engine and a friendly display to see all the cards. It includes not only TWDs, but also others, created by the community.
- Last but not least, BCN Crisis, including the best event management tool you can find and use to run your tournaments along with a brilliant youtube channel including valuable comments on several topics. You will find some videos related to playstyle, strategy and some particular decks.
GENERAL DATA.
As I said, in July I could count 29 events, totalling 516 participations. This is 76% of the players participating in events registered in the VEKN (remember I am not including in my data those events for which I don´t have the twd).
General summary/Resumen general:
Players total/Total de jugadores: 516 (-377 vs June, +36 vs prev average).
Higher count/Torneo con más jugadores: 49 (Brussels GP).
Lower count/Torneo con menos jugadores: 8.
Most populated event was the Brussels GP, but as I featured that beautiful city in a previous entrance, this time I will highlight another one. These were the scenarios of the eternal struggle in July:
The GP in Brussels (Belgium) with 49 participants (wow!).
10 recorded tournaments in Brazil, with 148 players total, in Amontada (14) Campinha Grande (10, 12 and 15), Fortaleza (20 and 19), Juiz de Fora (15 and 15), and Sao Paulo (two events with 14 each).
1 Struggle in Chile with 12 warriors.
Hungary gathered 20 methuselahs in Retsag...
and Italy found also 20 participants in Bologna, a city that is quite popular in this place.
Mexico hosted two events, both in CDMX. 10 and 9 participants fought as brave as they are.
Two tournaments were played in Portugal: The NC championship in Lisboa (17) and a brawl in Amadora (15).
6 events took place in Spain, in different cities such as Barcelona (18), Córdoba (16), Gijón (32), Granada (8), Palma de Mallorca (10), and Sevilla (21).
In Geneva (Switzerland) took place the Swiss NC, with 30 participants.
9 players took their chances in Norwich (UK).
And 12 more participated in a struggle in Charlotte (USA).
In Finland, we found 12 players in Jyvaskyla, and also the highlighted tournament of this month, the Ropecon VTES event with 47 methuselahs, in Helsinki.
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| Given the intensity of the struggle in Finland, we can be sure vampires are inmune to cold |
THE WINNERS.
Let´s now praise the achievements of those who got to win over all those players. Please note this list is not a ranking, as I am writing here only the winners. For a more precise and balanced rating of players, I think the VEKN ranking should be considered, as it counts the achievements of players on most the events they participate in, and spans a much wider period of time.
DECKS.
This month again, 18 clans have achieved at least one tournament win. Well, not exactly, as one of the decks has such a mix of vampires I would not dare to classify it in any clan at all. It was Bram´s multiauspex deck winning in Brussels. It might be barely classified as Gangrel antitribu, but being focused in auspex and given the composition of the deck, I finally decided not to. You can see it here and decide. I also had some doubts with the auspex/guns deck played by Jose Roberto Barbosa in Sao Paulo, but I think the cript has enough roses and the library has enough guns, as to classify it as a Toreador.
Let´s see the chart:
Some well known names around, as their eternal struggle to be the "clan of the year" continues. Tremere and Gangrel take more advantage over their pursuing clans (Banu Haqim, Ministry and Harbinger of Skulls). But even then, all those three are also adding some points to their accumulated rating.
About Playstyle, July has been a strange month, with preeminence of blocking strategies. Bram´s multiauspex deck winning over 49 players in Brussels, Otso´s Modern Gangrel anarch (47 players in Helsinki), and Marius winner dek in Geneva over 30 players (his Carna wall deck), are the three staples for this plot twist. Reactive decks have a rating of 40% in July, which is quite remarkable, given they grow from the 18% in June. This will surely balance the acumulated data.
Classification summary/Resumen de clasificación de mazos:
Political decks/Mazos políticos: 1 (14).
Bleed&vote/Politica y sangrado: 2 (26).
Total active decks/Total de mazos con estrategia activa: 13 (177).
Block decks/Mazos de bloqueo: 4 (119).
Block and bruise/Mazos de bloqueo y combate: 4 (88).
Total reactive decks/Total de mazos con estrategia reactiva: 8 (207).
Archetypes.
Playstyle and classification give us an idea of the general strategies that are being used to win. But as the months go by, we can see how several decks are repeating some structural virtues, and I think we can group them in archetypes. Let´s see the ones that were successful in July, sorted by number of players defeated.
FEATURES.
Card types: Given the preeminence of reactive decks, it is not a surprise to see that reaction cards are high on the list, going from 16% in June to 20% in July. Combat also was popular this month, though not so much as it had been in May. Master cards are, again, the most used.
Disciplines: There has been some comments in the spanish community about the disciplines recently, and the data of this month add more fuel to the discussion. Dominate has been quite successful in July, though in the accumulated it still does not match auspex. Anyway, data of July is quite consistent with the previous months, and the five top disciplines of my ranking are the same in july than in the accumulated seasons 1 and 2, only changing order among themselves.
It is a small surprise to see obfuscate high in July, as it has been a month with preeminence of blockers, but remember this chart counts the number of twds using the discipline. It is not affected by the number of participants in those events, and the rating of the playstyle does.
Redirection: June was a month with a low rate of redirections, and this month there is a change in trend (upwards). The rate of success for redirecting decks in July is the highest so far this year.
Redirection summary/Resumen del uso de redirecciones:
Decks with no redirection capability: 6 decks, 21% (-8%).
About the use of Ashur tablets+multimaster decks: In July their rates get a little lower, with 13% (-5%) of the decks using it, and able to defeat 18% (-1%) of the players.
Deck size: This month there is a small growth in the number of cards of the decks, with a lot of the winners bearing all 90. Two of every three decks were complete. It may appear as logical in a month showing so many successful blocking decks, as traditionally they seem to rely on long term plans, and have more cards in them. Out of the 8 blocking focused decks this month, 7 of them included all 90 cards.
The average number of cards per deck slightly grows from 81 in June, to 84 (+3).
Deck size summary/Resumen de tamaño de los mazos:
80-90 cards in the deck/Mazos conteniendo entre 80 y 90 cartas: 1, 3% (-27%), over 9 players (2%)
Less than 80 cards in the deck/Mazos con menos de 80 cartas: 11 (32%) 9, 31% (-1%), over 154 players (30%).
Average crypt capacity remains stable, being at 6,16 (-0,16). This month, the tendency for big caps we saw in June is still there, but mid cap decks grow firmly. The number of twds with a crypt capacity of 7-8 grows (almost) dramatically
Average crypt capacity summary/Resumen de media de capacidad en la cripta:
Seven or more: 7 decks winning over 119 players, 23% (-20%).
That is all for this month. I hope you obtained some piece of useful information among all this chat.
Just one more thing: In a few days, European Championship will take place in Barcelona. I have recently learned I will be able to assist. Hurrah! I am eager to meet all players who come to greet. It will be a great place to suggest, criticize or simply share a beer. I hope I can meet as many of you as I can. And remember: I owe a beer to every italian who claims it!
After the event, that promises to be one to remember (I know the organizers are giving their best to make it a great experience), I will work on an accumulated report and, if I have some spared strenght, I would like to write a tale about the EC. See you there!
Until then, I thank you for reading, and wish you all a nice wake with the evening´s freshness.
Pritoos.
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