Interview by Kingo, November 6th, 2013- In my opinion, Italy carried on the shoulders of G0d3L & Mister is becoming a major representative of the European VF scene. With a solid core of players, online & offline, these two good VF players actively contribute to the VF community's growth. Not only do they have their own website (http://virtuafighter.it) catered toward the Italian VF community, they also share their experience and knowledge on VFDC. They maintain a strong competitive spirit through their participation in different offline tourneys. Let's get to know more about these guys through this interview!

Mister (left) and G0d3L (right)
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Introduction
Kingo: Hi guys. Let's start with a small introduction of each of you…when did you started playing VF, what was your first VF, etc...

Mister: Hi, I'm Mister (Fabrizio), the best Wolf player in Europe. Well, I got interested in VF after watching the anime with a childhood friend. So we started playing VF1 for PC and after some time we found VF2 in a PC shop. That was the last VF we played together. The release of VF3 in the arcades was also the first time I visited VFDC.

After buying the PS2 and playing VF4, I started browsing VFDC more. At the end of the game's life I understood there were something more than just remembering the moves to get good at a game. When VF5 was released on Xbox 360, I didn't have the money and the chance to play the game at any European meeting.

In 2009 at the end of VF5 vanilla's life, I travel for the first time to a VF meeting. That is when I met Krye, Ngkrush, Marlyjay, Monkey Punch Lupin, Bob and Jeneric. Too bad the last 3 guys don't play anymore. When VF5FS was released I already was in contact with an Italian crew. So now I could finally get serious with my competitive style.

Kingo: I remember that vanilla 2009 Euro gathering. It was in Amsterdam and organized by Krye. Was that your first offline tourney experience?

Mister: Yes it was. Had a lot of fun, but my English wasn't really good at that time. So speaking with everybody was difficult, especially with the guy from UK.

Kingo: Wait, you learned English that year? Just for VF?

Mister: That's a side story. I started "understanding" a little bit of English after I started visiting VFDC. I knew English at least 1 or 2 years before going to Amsterdam, but it wasn't good yet. After 2009, I started practicing harder because you never know how useful a language can be.

Kingo: For sure, the English language is useful in many areas nowadays. I'm glad VF helped you in that way.

G0d3L: I'm G0d3L--Simone, in real life--33 years old and Kingofscrubs is my bitch. My first love for fighting games happened one night at a friend's house. We played Dead or Alive 2 on PS2. It was my first time playing against someone else and it was thrilling. When DOA3 came out on the original Xbox I bought the system just for that game to practice at home and kick my friends' ass. And by that, I mean knowing the move set and the "cheapest" moves to spam like a monkey....wait, that's how YOU play VF.

The first time I started playing seriously is with the release of DOA4. It was the first time I saw frame data. It was love at first sight XD. So I started studying the system's mechanics and got into this mysterious “Fuzzy Guard.” I remember VirtuaKazama on the doacentral forum saying it was something taken from the Virtua Fighter series. So I googled it and VF5 VFDC's wiki came up. I'm really into mathematics/logic stuff and that wiki was so well done that I was able to enjoy the game's deep system by only reading it. That was the moment I fell in love with Virtua Fighter.

Kingo: I always wonder where you get your ideas for the frame testing threads, but now it makes sense if you're into math. Your involvement toward VF sharing experience is really exemplary. In some gathering, I heard G0d3L is called the VF Scientist / Professor because he teaches VF like nobody to anyone willing to play. I myself don’t know where to start, considering VF gameplay depth. How did you do that?

G0d3L: I think it's a forma mentis due to my mathematical background. I really love to understand all the insides and out of a system/puzzle. When FS came out I didn't look at any videos. I just wanted to have fun discovering the game by myself. That's when I came up with the frame analysis thing.

Kingo: I like your approach of the game G0d3L, all by yourself. It is kinda hard for a game like VF.

Mister: Well I'm not into math, but I like schemes. Most of the time I try to simplify everything. In fact, for people starting to play the game I always teach my first rule: "in doubt BLOCK HIGH" which turned into "in doubt block high and yutori.” After that I just need to know how much that person knows about the game and I start filling the gaps. These are my starting points with everybody. The real problem with people not learning VF is that they won't invest enough time or they are already into other fighting games so they don't wanna learn new stuff.

Kingo: You're doing a good job with Wolf punishment videos and with the Wolf wiki too.

The Appeal of VF
Kingo: What aspect of VF appeal to you the most, how did you learn to play the game?

G0d3L: The defense. The defense in VF is what really separates it from all the other fighting games. It's such an active part of the game and is so much fun. I learned the game mostly by myself, but the biggest improvements came from offline meetings. After every tournament/meeting, I went back home with a lot of new stuff to work on. And I'm really looking forward to what I'll learn in a week at Rome.

Mister: Honestly, I don't know how to truly answer this question. To me, VF always felt so natural. I know VF doesn't have a story mode, but to me the anime was the story mode and that was enough to keep me interested in the first 3 games. When VF4 came out, the two new characters, Vanessa and Lei-Fei, were just too similar to 2 villains in the anime that I can't believe it's just a coincidence.

But anyway, the system and how the characters move, everything just feels better in every version. When VF5 came out, I thought it was the best 3d fighting game ever made, but then i saw VF5R and VF5FS. The fact that you can always study every situation and make it clear with the game mechanics is the best part of the game. It's a simple game made up of many little things and that's how the complexity of the game lies. Many simple situations!

Kingo: Good vision of the game! Wait, I watched the VF anime too. I don't remember there being 2 villains that looked like Lei Fei and Vanessa.

Mister: C’mon, the 2nd season, Gao and the lady with white hair? A monk and a big lady…and the other villain was Onimaru - Kage's rival from the Hagakure village.

Kingo: Ah, didn't know there was a second season. I only watched the season with Pai and Akira.

VF Italia
Kingo: What are your thoughts on the VF scene in Italy? From your experience, are there some notable differences between the Italian VF community compared to the VFDC community? I heard about the Rome Fighting Megamix Road to Nowhere in Nov 2012 in which both of you were finalists. Was that the first major VF Italian tourney?

Mister: Even defining that as a "major event" is kinda weird. We ended in the finals because VF wasn't really active at that time. That was the first event to sponsor the game. After that event, we got JohnCa much more involved with the game and he also came with us to Cannes 2013. He is a good example that getting good at this game is not impossible.

The Italian scene has a few, but good, people that are getting good step-by-step. Also, the passion is slowly spreading. Now the next step is to get those people to travel more for gatherings and tournaments. I think after Rome they will be motivated enough to do so.

G0d3L: The VF scene in Italy is improving. After FS came out, we got fresh new blood and the tournaments help keep up the interest. The French and UK community are bigger and stronger than us but we are catching up. In fact, I'm very glad that this event in Rome will be a first time for some Italian guys. I hope that after playing it offline, they will feel the "urge" to have more.

Kingo: You guys have your own VF Italia website and also contribute to VFDC. Does it take a lot of your time contributing to both English and Italian VF websites? Are there other prominent Italian VFers whether they are a strong player, organizer, or contributes to growing the VF Italia community that we should know of?

Mister: I'm admin and founder. The third founder is DWR, although he barely writes anything recently. Working on stuff for the website is one of the things I enjoy the most. My last project, the Wolf vs The Cast web series, didn't take so long once I got the process down. The main problem is finding something else to record and edit to put on youtube. Every time I try to ask to the community what they would like to read, I get the same answer: "I don't know." So I go by heart and try to sponsor events, streams, and info about VF in general. G0d3l is more specialized in technical stuff and every article he writes is really accurate. Our last guy, Ylyon, is the "Eastern" guy. Since he knows Japanese he always look into blog that none of us can read and translate them. Thanks for that, Ylyon, but remember also to train.

G0d3L: I'm an admin & founder too! It's been a while since my last article but it's very hard for me to find time to play, try to improve, analyze stuff, and write on VFDC, on Arcade-Extreme (our Italian community forum for several fighting games), and on virtuafighter.it. Ylyon is our last addition and is our Asian contributor. It's thanks to him that we were able to know why it's possible a double Kage's 9K+G bound, through a translation of an official Virtua Fighter tweet.

And don't forget our artistic contributor Kanoppio, who made our website's banner and the Rome: Road to Nowhere flier. Shout out to Ricciotto who has not much time to play the game but he's the guy who organized these two events in Rome. About players who are helping our scene level up, it may sound like one of the usual sentences but being a small community everybody's support is essential (i.e. matchups coverage, organizing local gatherings, etc).

And for you, who thinks you have what it takes to be the strongest Italian, come to Rome and prove it! ;-)

Offline VF Experience and the Rome Gathering
Kingo: Let's talk about your experience through VF euro tourneys. Both of you have travel many times showing your interest in the competition (Cannes WGC 2013 and Sega Cup Europe). Do you have rivals? I even heard that G0d3l got to play against the west coast US players? Playing Itazan, Ash (Atsushi), Chofu KK was quite an experience, right? I mean, we never imagined we could play with Japanese players one day!

Mister: I actually didn't play with Itazan. He was always playing with someone or someone else was asking to play with me. I was looking to play with him at HoG, but he just got sucked into playing that evil game like SSF4. That was really a bummer for me. I was also hoping that Ash (Atsushi) could come to this Rome meeting, but he told me he won't be able to since he's going back to Japan soon. But playing with the UK guys, Krye, and also with you Kingo Scrub, is my favorite way to enjoy the game. VF gets really fun when you fight someone who's good like you or better than you. So I'm pretty sure for you, the most fun experience is losing to me ;D

G0d3L: In the past year, I got the opportunity to play VF all over the world. Cannes WGC and SEGA Cup aside, I was able to play with the New York crew in December, and then the Los Angeles guys in May. It was so much fun. Playing against Itazan made me reconsider my standard for reaction time. The guy is uber fast, even more then you, Kingo. The New York guys are crazy!

Kingo: Yeah, I actually played a lot with Itazan and he really made me think about others ways to deal with his Shun. And now there is that Rome VF meeting. With a good amount of Italian players representing do you have any particular expectations?

Mister: Well, the Italian meeting idea was born, because after SEGA Cup, other players and I just wanted MOAR VF. So I asked my contacts in Rome if we can organize something and here is the result.

Kingo: …and for our dear Krye.

Mister: Lol, it just happens that his interests are more or less the same as the meeting: having fun with VF.

G0d3L: I'm looking forward to finally meet these other Italian guys, play with them, and start to build a stronger and wider scene in Italy. What I expect from this event? There will be a lot of high level VF and lots of fun with all the guys.

It will be legen...wait for it....dary!!!

Kingo: Yeah it will be fun! I'm looking forward to it too. Only 10 days left. Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions. Do either of you have anything else you want to add or comment?

G0d3L: Thanks for your time and prepare your ass to be spanked in Rome XD.

Kingo: Oh come on, that would be my line, copycat.

G0d3L: Now it's miiiiiiiiiiiiine!!!! Thanks, that was fun.

Mister: I'm really looking forward to see how many weird situations will come out this time at Rome. See you soon Kingo and thanks for your time.