Jonas Klevas we had a Lackey friendly game with voice in which two players flipped Lydia as their first vampire, got grumpy and self-defeatist, so we decided to move on playtested contesting rules instead.

Lydia summon history (ally) bruiser -> true brujah block and bleed -> Toreador Aching Beauty -> !Brujah rush with some bleed 3 with extra strength -> ishtarri low stealth bleeder

!Brujah had to backrush for most of their game, Ishtarri set up to bleed rather fast. summon history one started tooling up with clothos gift and extra strength, with support of two weenies. block and bleed one brought out another true brujah (notice scarce making it extra 3 pool). Toreador got quickly torpored without blood, so they did not do much. ishtarri started to struggle with unmasking in play, but still got bleeds through (no bouncing there). block and bleed ignored their predator, only got one ally, and was reliably bleeding for 6+ each turn. in the end it was ishtarri vs block and bleed, but ishtarri spent all their blood and could not handle combat effects depsite having No Secrets and Magnum.

[19:59]

thoughts regarding the impact of contesting in this game

contesting pool loss was negligible for both contesting players. the summon history one had enough to compensate eventually and their pool damage output was negligible to threaten the other one. block and bleed was relying on far more proven playstyle and transient effects, thus was working way sooner and had less weaknesses. 5 or 6 pool lost due to contest did not change anything about playstyle, for neither of them and was not least prohibitive of risking contest. having a good concept easily overcompensated it. if we have proceeded with old contesting rules, the prey one would not have lost any more pool if contesting, and likely they would have still won the game. the summon history one would not have been able to employ their defences, but the key problem their effectiveness was still not good enough for their matchup and it would have been a question of dying a turn or two earlier, resulting in less pool spent contesting for its prey.

[19:59]

thoughts regarding the broader impact in general

best non-vote decks would easily overcompensate any contesting costs based on sheer resilience. in highly competitive environment fear of contest would have no factor in picking a deck (except, possibly, for ones relying on am unique title). in most games a contesting deck in better position should still come out in similar shape as if old rules were used. for the one in worse position, the badness of position should still be governing factor, although they would stay in the game longer.