just got back from the states and thought i write some of my immpressions 
from the se qualifier in atlanta.
arrived on friday afternoon from europe so i choose not to take part in 
friday night vtes at the "official se qualifier hotel".
saturday morning the lasombra picked me up from my hotel and drove me to 
the war room.
originally i wanted to play my tzimisce intercept rotschreck deck, but 
friends in vienna told me that it would be to slow, and i should go for a 
more offensive deck. so i choose my 2 cap weenies with no dis except some 
dominate for deflections. i took out all delaying tactics, which proved to 
be a fatal mistake

first round:
preying dave tatu, beeing preyed by Matt Guinn the eventual winner, both 
playing ploitical decks. i had a great start, but then dave ( he had vote 
superiority) allowed matt to play a domain challange that cost me 9 pool. i 
had tapped out thinking i had a wake in my hand. but when i wanted to play 
it it was gone (damn jet lag). matt then bleed me for another nine and i 
was down on one pool. dave was still positive that he would be able to keep 
me in the game but an awed krc by matt finished me off. dave went on to 
make 1 vp while matt had the game win. first tatu to not listen to me and 
losing vps. highlight: playing with steve wieck a game of vtes

second round: stephanie turner preying me with a nossie political deck, i 
am preying mike oi who played a fun baltimore purge deck with ankla and 
assamites. xian was preying stephanie, and he was preyed by a ravnos 
intercept deck.

i was afraid to bleed mike because he had that assamite out who could burn 
a blood to make his hand damage aggravated. so i just tried to gain pool 
with hunt and tribute to the master. stephanie played a lot of anarchist 
uprisings but got severe pressure from xian who played tremere dom bleed. i 
was on 14 pool and had 11 minions out when stephanie thought she could kill 
me and called for an anarchist uprising. her mistake she controlled only 
two mininos and had only 2 pool left. so xian had the easy vp. he was then 
hit hard by the tremere while i found out that mike was playing without 
combat cards. i then bleed with all my minions torporizing all his minions 
and finaly killing him. xian still managed to hold of the ravnos. by that 
time i had 13 minions out so it was easy for me to oust the ravnos player. 
i then offered xian the last point.

third round:
i was in a good mood and hoped that i would qualify with one GW. my mood 
turned sour when i found out that i was beeing preyed by robyn tatu and her 
for combat weenies, and preying ben who played euro brujah. so i was stuck 
unable to do anything. so i offered ben to not harm him as lond as he would 
not block my hunts. he agrred and i bloated using hunts and tribute while 
driving robyn to near insanity she bleed me with all her minions (4) and i 
just played tribute and went on to hun with alls of them( i had 8). ben 
quickly ousted his prey his prey and i was hoping that robyns predator 
(bens new prey, he played nossie combat) would be able to stop ben. but ben 
ousted him quite fast. by that time ben had almost depleted his library, so 
i told robyn to wall while i would finish off ben. she beeing very greedy 
declined and hoped to oust me. me and her being down on five blood, ben 
bled for five and 4 deflections later (two played by robyn, two played by 
me) robyn was ousted and one turn later ben used his last cards to oust me. 
would robyn have walled i mihjgt have qualified so i ended up with 2 vps 
short of tenth place.
BUT:
i never enjoyed losing that much in my whole life. while beeing used to 
play very tense competitive and sometimes agrresive games at tourneys in 
vienna, the atmosphere in atlanta was so relaxed und people were so 
friendly and fun, that i have to say it was the best vtes experience in my 
life. thanks to the lasmobra for providing me with transport an organising 
a great and fun tourney.
to dave and robyn tatu, todd banister, steve wieck, xian, halycan2, norman 
s brown, mike oi, ben spalding and all the other players at the se 
qualifier: thanks for beeing such a fun and nice crowd and i really hope to 
meet you all again.


stefan ferenci aka proc_f