Vampire: The Eternal Struggle

2007 European Championship
VTES European Championship to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden. Make plans now!

The 2007 European Championship for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden. Make plans now! The following is information given by Alexander Ek, Prince of Gothenbug. You may have met him at the NAC this year.

General information about Gothenburg

Gothenburg (Göteborg in Swedish) is the second biggest city in Sweden and hosts approximately 500,000 inhabitants. It is located on the west coast of Sweden on the banks of the Göta älv.

The city can offer most things that a city of its size can offer when it comes to clubs, pubs, restaurants and shopping malls. You can find further information about Gothenburg on the official site of the city: http://www10.goteborg.se/english/

If you have any questions about Gothenburg don't be shy and e-mail them to me (aek@student.chalmers.se). I will be happy to respond as quickly as I can.

The climate of Gothenburg

I know this scares you, so here is some weather information. The average temperature ranges from the coldest month which is January (with its -5 degrees Celsius) to the hottest month that is July (with its 20 degrees Celsius). The probable EC months: September, October and November have average temperatures of 12, 8 and 5 degrees Celsius.

Being a coastal town, we have our share of rain. Average rainfall during September, October and November is 80, 85 and 75 millimetres. So bring a good umbrella.

The History of Gothenburg

Gothenburg was founded in 1631 by the Swedish king Gustav II Adolph (most notorious for the sacking of cities during the 30 Year War) and built by imported labourers from Holland. It was part of Swedish military operations to get a hold on the west coast (most parts of the current Swedish west coast were Danish and Norwegian territory at that time). It has played an important role as a trade centre since its foundation. For more information on the history of Gothenburg check http://www10.goteborg.se/english/history.htm

Languages in Gothenburg

So, will you be able to make yourself understood? Yes, hopefully you will.

a.. 99% of the Swedish population speaks English and learns English from their 3rd year of School.
b.. 35% speaks German.
c.. 30% speaks French.
d.. 10% speaks Spanish.
I'm one of those bad people who only understands English (and a few words of German) so please use English when you contact me. It's still OK to write in other languages. I will do my best to find a translator, but I can't promise a reply.

The VTES community in Gothenburg

Our local playgroup consists of around 20 people. We have tournaments on the second weekend every month with around 12 players attending. More famous local players are:

a.. Alex Ek, which would be me, The Prince of Gothenburg, ranked 40 in the world at the moment. He goes by the name "_angst_" on the newsgroup and the VTES IRC chat.
b.. Erik Torstensson, local player and masterful deck-builder, was ranked 1st in the world for half a year or so, is now ranked 17 due to some inactivity. Author of the only working Slaughterhouse deck I've ever seen (can be viewed in the VTES players guide).
c.. Sten Düring, local player and semi-organizer, has been travelling to a lot of international VTES events with his wife.
d.. Beatrice Düring, local player who can take almost any pile of cards to the final round, is also a well travelled player.
e.. Christoffer Arvidsson, also known as Stoffe, is ranked 18 in the world ranking at the moment.
f.. Archibald Zimonyi, the former prince of Gothenburg, who still helps me with the organization. He has a great sense on how to create chaos during a civilized game of VTES. Archie is also well travelled on the international VTES scene

The EC in Gothenburg

We are planning to host the EC in 2007 using the "3-day model" for championship events. That is the same thing that will be used at the NAC and Turin this year. The venue is not yet set but we are having a dialog with several centrally located hotels/schools/restaurants that are big enough to host us. We hope to have more information on the venue to present at this year's EC.

How to get to Gothenburg

Gothenburg has two smallish airports. The bigger one is called "Landvetter" and the smaller one is called "Gothenburg City Airport". The latter only hosts the low cost airlines. It also has a train station just called "Central Station" and a bus station called the "Nils Ericson Terminal".

Here are some examples on airfares from bigger VTES communities (that I know of) to Gothenburg. Airfares are using the same dates as this year's EC in Italy (23-27 November 2006). Please note that no "budget" airlines like Ryan Air are included in these searches.

These are the costs for a return ticket from the Swedish travel site "Travelstart".

City - Price - Low cost alternatives (that I know of)

Australia

Melbourne - 2270 AUD
Sydney - 4430 AUD

Europe

Amsterdam - 220 EUR - Bus
Barcelona - 227 EUR
Berlin - 224 EUR - Bus
Brussels - 144 - EUR
Budapest - 59912 HUF - Wizz Air
Copenhagen - 1722 DKK - Bus, Train
Frankfurt - 119 EUR - Ryan Air
Geneva - 426 CHF
Helsinki - 247 - EUR
London - 116 GBP - Ryan Air
Madrid - 227 EUR
Milano - 240 EUR
Oslo - 1190 NOK - Bus, Train
Paris - 192 EUR - Bus
Prague - 6433 CZK
Vienna - - 242 - EUR
Warszaw - 924 PLN - Wizz Air

North America

Atlanta - 776 USD
Boston - 714 USD
Columbus - 801 USD
Los Angeles - 875 USD
Mexico City - 11282 MXN
Montreal - 1037 CAD
Washington DC - 726 USD

South America

São Paulo - 5554 BRL

Staying in Gothenburg

There's really not much to say about staying in Gothenburg. Gothenburg offers around 30 centrally located hotels of different prices. There are also lots of youth hostels. We can't recommend anything in particular yet but we are hoping to find a place that offers the attending players a special price.

A regular 3 star hotel costs approx 500 SEK/night = 54 EUR = 68 USD.