Meet the players - Villyness

Who is V? V is a player who needs no introduction, so lets give her one anyway.
V is a Smash Wiiu player from Melbourne Victoria, ranked as one of the best players in the state, and widely considered one of the best in the country. She mains both Villager and Ness, two characters whose names can be combined to create 'Villyness', and if regarded as the best villager player in the country.



V's entry into the scene was quiet at first, she showed up to an anime convention and took out a tourney there which got her in touch with long time regular and Melbourne smash daddy, Jei, who told her about Melbourne's regular tourneys. Despite being quite young tourneys were something that V couldn't pass up.

It wasn't as simple as one two threed though, V came into the scene quite late in brawls lifetime, and being as she wasn't interested in Melee or the then just emerging Project M, she was greeted with a dying scene for a dying game. Being an already established scene, she found herself somewhat of an outsider with nobody to talk to. Coming from winning an anime tourney into a much more hardcore scene made things even tougher. Melbourne had been known as Metabourne to the other states, the place where everyone played Metaknight, so playing a character like Ness, it was quite difficult for her to compete. To V though, there was no other option "regardless of how many times I got told to play Meta Knight I wouldn't. Ness was the reason I played brawl; to represent the Mother series as a fan."



It wasn't about winning, it was about having fun with a character she loved. Still, one by one players started to drop away from the dying brawl scene, and V was set to follow, until a chance encounter with another Mother fan, luco, who also played the Mother characters. Shortly after V made another new friend and had some familiar faces to talk to at tournaments. V kept on attending Brawl tourneys until smash 4 arrived.

Smash 4 was a fresh start, a new game that changed things up and leveled the playing field.
All the hard work V had put into improving her game suddenly started to shine through and she started winning tournaments with her new found love, Villager.
It was all very new pork city for V
"All of sudden, people I used to think were Gods were being beaten by me, and all-in-all it still feels like some surreal dream. I personally still feel so used to brawl days where I would come, be beaten hard, then go home and try again. I never expected to get top 8, let alone 1st place in anything. After that, so many new people came and talked to me. All the new Smash 4 players wanted to get to know me (and I was happy to help them) and people I didn't know would suddenly look at me and go, "Hey V!" I don't dislike the attention I get but because I won with custom Villager when customs were on and because of the debate that went on in the ruleset discussion, I always feel like my wins are attributed only to my character. I may have won BAM, but I don't think that mindset will ever go away, but it also means I'll continue to strive to improve.
"My hope now is that after my studies I want to take control of the Smash 4 scene and support it by helping TO. I mean Attila and stuff are great at TO'ing, but I want to get to know everyone and make sure no one is left out, something I experienced during the brawl era. I hated it a lot but never had any courage to say anything, so I suppose it is my fault, but if I can prevent that myself by meeting every Smash 4 player, new or old, and getting to know them, I hope that they'll enjoy their experience more.
I dream of one day going to America and becoming an amazing player."

"BAM was, for me, my favorite tournament, not because I won, but because I got to meet new friends from other states, and if I had lost in Grand Finals or anywhere else in top 8, I would still be very happy in the end, because everyone I met made BAM a wonderful experience."



Being a girl in a male dominated environment doesn't seem to faze V one bit and she didn't have much to say on the subject
"for the most part, I don't feel very different to how males are being treated in the community. No one took it easy on me back then and no one does now. I'm grateful for it though. I haven't had people go, "Girls can't play games." or "Wait, girls can do that?", so my experience has been largely sexism-free, which I am grateful for. I don't really care about having been the first woman to win a major, but it's nice I guess, and I hope more female smashers will join with friends and have fun as well!"

Smash for V is all about pitting her against herself and proving to herself that she can work hard.
"One of my biggest goals is to always give it my best, something I really hate is giving half-assed effort. "

V has accomplished quite a bit already and her smash journey has only just begun, after she graduates from year 12 she is going to dive into it full force.
Will 2016 be the year of V?

If you have any questions for V or anything you are curious about, post them here in the comments!

-10 points for gryffindor if you can spot the mother references :)