Playing small-cap Dominate bleed, Dominic scored only one game win in the three preliminary rounds, but with enough victory points to make it to the finals of the 25-player Championship tournament.

The finalists, in order of preliminary round performance, were Michael Sedunary, Craig Johnston, Dominic, Justin Evans, and Noel Somerfield. Shane Clements was tied with Noel for fifth but lost the coin toss. Noel, with a bloating vote deck, and Justin, with a bloating Fortitude/Deflection deck, took the default positions in the seating order of the final table.

Dominic elected to bleed Noel's Ventrue Stealth/Vote/Second Tradition/Obedience deck, having faced Noel earlier and not knowing what Justin was playing. Definitely a wise choice, as it turned out, given the large number of Deflections Justin had.

Craig, with his unusual Thaumaturgy/Dementation bleed combinations elected to bleed Justin, as he had faced Noel in the first round, and saw what bloating Noel could achieve.

Michael, with the weenie votes, choose to sit between Noel and Craig. An unusual choice. Sitting himself as the prey of the only other voter on the table really negated his chance to deal. Not only this, he also sat himself between the only two decks on the table to play _any_ intercept. Not a strategically sound move.

With the table seating, the carnage began. Dominic bled Noel out on the fifth turn. Dom's deck was really the ultimate answer to Noel's Second Tradition/Obedience angle. Seduction and Sleeping mind really are quite nasty when you only have the opportunity to get out a single minion in defence. Losing fourth fifths of his starting pool before even taking an action probably didn't help either.

Once the first VP went the table really started to talk about how this was going to all pan out. Michael and Craig eventually struck a bargain that would have seen Craig win, Michael come second, and Dominic third. Dom bled out Michael, and that was the end of that.

Down to three, the game stopped for ten minutes or so while these masters of strategy and intrigue attempted to negotiate their way to the top of the food chain. Unfortunately for Craig and Justin, Dominic's two VP's really had all the bargaining power. Craig's various means of giving Justin third place just couldn't compare with the sweet sound of Dom's "give me the game win and I'll concede you second place". About the only thing Craig could offer was to try and help Justin win. Craig was out either way, doomed to fourth unless he could nab a VP (that neither Justin or Dom was willing to help him do), he couldn't guarantee Justin first, whereas Dom. could simply hand Justin second.

Better luck next time Champ.

Congratulations to the finalists, and many thanks to John Merton organizing the event. Particular congratulations to Dominic who has gone from fresh faced newbie to consistent tournament finalist in a disturbingly short period of time! (Dom. wrote that bit...)