A month ago, I interviewed Avery Carey (GentlemanThief), a United States player from Florida. GentlemanThief finished 6th at Evo 2012 demonstrating exceptional skill with a game he had only a month to actually play with. I think one of the nicest compliments given to him were by some of the core Japan VFers asking if GentlemanThief had previously played the game in Japan. In this interview, I asked various questions related to his VF beginnings, Evo experience, goals, and his view on the community.

Akai (AK): To start things off, what name do you actually prefer to use: Lucky GT, Gentleman Thief, or something else?
GentlemanThief (GT): Just, GentlemanThief. One word .

AK: Any particular reason you chose that name?
GT: Actually, not really. It was originally my brother's LIVE account and I've taken it over. It just stuck over time.

AK: So can you give a summary on when and how you started playing Virtua Fighter?
GT: I played a bit of VF4 for fun a long time ago, but never really got into playing competitively. I had no idea what frames were back then and just messed around in quest mode. I only began to play seriously back when VF5 was released on the 360.

AK: What were the reasons you started to play the game seriously with VF5?
GT: I was interested in how the game worked back then but didn't have anyone to play. When VF5 came out my friend Slide basically convinced me to get the game. We had played other online games before so we moved from Alpha 3 to VF5. Virtua Fighter was basically the first 3D fighter I had ever played.

AK: Ah, Slide. Was he originally from Florida? Or a friend you met playing online?
GT: Yeah, he was someone I played in Alpha 3 on a program called Kaillera a long time ago. I believe Slide was in the military at the time, but I'm not 100% sure where he was stationed back then… somewhere on the east coast of the US.

AK: So the online mode of original VF5 got you to play the game seriously, any local offline competition?
GT: I've had no offline competition for VF. The only chance I had was by traveling to tourneys which I didn't have the opportunity to do very often back then.

AK: When was the first time you traveled to play VF and how did you do?
GT: It was at the NYG event that AdamYuki hosted about a year after VF5 was released. I only got the chance to play in the team tourney and my team actually placed last. Due to poor planning and it being my first time traveling on my own, I didn't get the chance to compete in the actual tournament and had to head back to the city.

AK: What was the experience like? Traveling alone and meeting people offline for the first time is somewhat daunting for people.
GT: I enjoyed it to the point where I began traveling to many more tournaments afterwards. It was a lot of fun getting the chance to put names to faces and getting the chance to see the trash talking in person! I believe I was 18 back then and I've always been a social person so traveling to meet everyone just seemed like a fun opportunity to me. Winning wasn't much of a priority for me.

AK: New York is a pretty long distance to travel from Florida. I remember you said you played Marvel vs Capcom 3 in tournaments before. So did you play and travel for many other games competitively? Or play mostly events in Florida?
GT: I've mostly been compelled to travel out of state for VF. Florida has a pretty healthy scene for Capcom games so I usually travel to central or south Florida to play in tourneys for those games. I'm kind of located in between those two scenes.

AK: Do you remember when was the first time you won or did very well in a VF tournament?
GT: The first time i won for VF was at CEO 2012 when FS had just released. It wasn't a very big tournament for VF but it was the first VF tourney I went to in a long time.

AK: Was that before or after the game was officially released on consoles?
GT: About a week after.

AK: So many of the older and regular users on VFDC knew you were a promising and strong player. You also did very well at Evo 2012 finishing in the top 8. What was the experience like to see so many people playing VF?
GT: EVO was probably the most fun I've had at a tournament. I feel like I met the east coast at NYG and I got the chance to meet the west coast at EVO. There were tons of people there for VF and other games but I only entered VF because I knew I didn't have much of a chance in the other games.

AK: One of the things that surprised many people was the level of your play with a game that was officially released to the entire world for just a month. How did you prepare yourself to play a game with only one month of hands-on experience (I assume you did not went to any of the pre-game released tournaments/demos)?
GT: I basically cheated! I already know VF very well so it was just becoming adjusted to the new mechanics. I studied what the Japanese players were doing with Jean and as long as I understood it, I knew I could implement it in a short amount of time. Outside of that I focused on the matchups I knew I would have to play against, which were Jacky, Akira and Shun. If I had to play Shironuko, I would not have known what to do.

AK: So a little luck in how the brackets panned out?
GT: Basically, I had prepared to play against certain players in America as well but I never got the chance to play them.

AK: So Final Showdown have been out now for 4-5 months now. What do you like and don't like about the game?
GT: I like how FS feels more nailed down then VF5, It's become easier to play to the matchups because of this. I don't have to worry about OMP or DMPK anymore. The throw escape system in VF5 could be difficult because of 0 frame throws so it became very reaction dependent. What I don't like is at -5 or below disadvantages. There are almost too many options to account for in FS. It's difficult for me to wrap my head around all the defensive options sometimes. But overall I'm enjoying FS more than VF5.

AK: And about the VF and VFDC community? What do you like and don't like about it?
GT: I like that the VF community is willing to help you learn the game when you are starting out in VF. I'd have likely been in trouble in VF5 if there wasn't frame data or a wiki up when the game was released. My biggest problem is that there aren’t enough of us!

AK: With so many other fighting games that have been released and with larger communities, what keeps you motivated to continue playing Virtua Fighter?
GT: I just keep playing because I continue to enjoy learning about the game. I find you can't really put in the work necessary to be good at fighting games if you don't enjoy what you are playing. When you stop caring, you stop trying to find new information about the game.

AK: Any specific goals you want to accomplish in the near future?
GT: In terms of fighting games? Not really. I don't play as well in tournament if I'm just focusing on wanting to win. I just focus on growth and hopefully that allows me to do well in the tournament.

AK: For some people, their motivation and focus in the game is by having rivals or sparring partners? Do you have any in particular or is it mostly a self-focus growth?
GT: I've had tons of rivals. It started out as Glory and Slide. Then later it became the strong New York players like Konjou, Denkai and AdamYuki.

AK: Thanks for taking part in the interview. Any last remarks or comments you want to make?
GT: Thanks for the interview Akai it was nice getting the chance to meet you at EVO! Hopefully VF continues to have more major tournaments so I can continue to get the chance to meet everyone in this community.

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Modified photo originally taken by Ninjimbo/SamtheSeed​