Alessandro Avallone goes by the name of “Stermy” in video games. This young Italian has recently turned 20 years old but has already accomplished a lot in his short lifetime. In 2005 he was a Painkiller professional, taking 3rd place at the Cyberathlete Professional League World Tour finals. Alessandro is one of the top professional Quake 4 players today. He plays under the “Free Player Organisation”, a team set up by gaming legend Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel himself. Alessandro has many fans around the world who admire his gaming style and success. He could be a pin-up boy for young teenage girls. But what goes on behind the scenes? Is Stermy more than just a name that you’d be frightened to run into on a Quake 4 server?

Born and raised in Andora (a small town near Genova), Italy, Alessandro started gaming at an early age. Like any other gamer he has interests outside of killing opponents online and on LAN. Alessandro is a huge fan of football (or soccer for all you Americans). His favourite team is Inter (Internazionale Milano, a football club based in Milan). His current favourite player is Adriano, “even though he’s going trough bad times since 2006″. Alessandro never misses a match. “In the past my idol was Ronaldo, he was an amazing player but one day he got injured. I still remember when that happened and I was waiting his return. That night, Inter was playing vs Lazio, another Italian team and Ronaldo joined the game just for the last few minutes. After few seconds on the field he fell down on the field again and he got the same injury again. I still remember him crying. I guess that was his last chance to  become as good as he was before”. Ask Alessandro anything about soccer and he will be able to give you a lengthy answer, claiming, “I know everything about soccer (smile)”.

Being a fan of soccer Alessandro also enjoys to play from time to time, both in “real” life and virtually. “Every Monday night, my friends here in Andora, organize a pro evolution tournament 1v1 or 2v2 with little prize money. Soccer here in Italy is a big thing, and most of the people from 10 to 40 years old play Soccer video games (Pro evolution soccer is the most famous).” Unfortunately in the latest tournament, Alessandro missed out on the 100€ first place prize. Besides from playing virtual soccer, Alessandro also played a variety of sports when he was at school; “I played different sports besides soccer, like basketball and volleyball for my school team and I did pretty good in all of them”. Playing these sports when he was younger would attribute to his hand-eye co-ordination which helps him have such amazing aim in games.

Being a professional gamer means a lot of time on the road away from family and friends. Alessandro is used to it though, since despite having lived in Andora all his life, he has been travelling around since the young age of 1 or 2 years old; “My dad works in the travelling business (travel agency, hotels etc) so I was used to going on a lot of trips with my family”. He has seen the world before he’s even left his teens. When Alessandro is on the road he keeps in touch with his friends and family over the phone. After tournament matches he usually receives a call from them. They follow all his tournaments online through video streams or Quake 4 TV; “they always have supported me in everything I did and I’m really thankful and greatful to them for this. When I was playing soccer my dad always drove me to every match, practice or test. He almost never missed a match. When I started gaming it was the same and now they keep following my events”. When he isn’t travelling to various gaming events or visiting his beautiful girlfriend Sofi Byström (from the top Counter Strike female team Les Seules) in Sweden Alessandro lives in Andora, Italy with his parents, little brother and cat. Because he is travelling so much, he didn’t feel the need to move in to his own place because he’s never home. When he does come home, it’s like coming to visit his family instead of really living there.

We all know that nerves before something big (like an important match for instance) can really screw with your stomach. Alessandro is very aware of this and claims “I usually just eat a bit at breakfast and I bring with me juice (not orange juice, it’s too “sour” and that doesn’t help at all for your stomach sometimes), so I go for apple, or peach with some chocolate or energy bar in between matches. And a lot of WATER.” Alessandro really knows how important it is to stay hydrated to keep your concentration at it’s maximum. He is a health concious person who plays a lot of sports to stay in shape. When he’s home he does three days of soccer and three days at the gym, with a “relaxing day” on Sunday. He is also always trying to eat good food but finds that hard to do when he’s on the road and usually ends up losing a lot of weight. Anyone that has been lucky enough to stay with Alessandro knows that his mothers cooking is top notch and can’t be replaced with any other food.

Italy (Milan especially), is one of the fashion capitals of the world and is home to fantastic luxury brands such as Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, GUCCI and Armani. I guess it must be in Alessandro’s blood to have a taste for nice, expensive clothing. He is always seen at tournaments sporting nothing but luxury labels. I wasn’t surprised to learn that he is also a platinum member of Armani Exchange, where he receives discounts and special sale opportunities on their products. This young man knows how to dress and he really does have a great sense of style. This is something that other gamers are starting to pick up. According to Alessandro; “I definitely think that gamers have to be dressed in a good way, especially at professional tournament. It’s not only good for yourself but also for promote gaming in the right direction. Most of the teams right now are getting good clothes for their players. That’s a good thing and I’m looking forward to seeing it more and more in the future.”

In his youth, Alessandro was also a model and an actor. He worked (and still sometimes does) for an important agency in Milan. When he was younger, Alessandro would go there every week and do auditions for movies, TV commercials and photo shoots. He has been in a variety of commercials on the largest channels in Italy for various products like clothing and chewing gum. Alessandro even made it to the big-screen, playing a leading role in a movie about a famous comic group that does comic shows. However, playing soccer was his main priority; “I was really busy in my soccer career and also school that I didn’t want to go to Milan every time they called me. I was young and I wanted to do what I loved.” Despite his TV and movie apperances, Alessandro mostly gets recognised on the streets in Italy thanks to his gaming career! This is because he has been in a lot of important media in Italy over the past years. Often seen at events wearing a Radio Deejay cap, the explination behind it is that Radio Deejay is one of the most popular radio shows in Italy. Many famous people are invited to speak on the show and Alessandro has been a guest there three times. Along with that, all the Italian gaming magazines follow the large gaming events Alessandro attends and they always have a page about him.

So as you can see, Alessandro Avallone is a lot more than just a top contender in games with deadly aim. There is a lot more to this young Italian than meets the eye. Make sure to watch out for him at tournaments as this young star is a truly talented player.

Stermy is still very active in Quake Live today and I hope to bring you an updated lifestyle feature from the great Italian.

Links:
Stermy.com
@Stermy
@HelloLiefje (Let me know what you think via twitter!)

Tweet your thoughts to @holysh1t

It was really nice to see some old faces and also meet some new ones in the Quake scene. It was great to meet especially spart1e, rapha and noctis. ESL hosted an IEM tournament there in Quake Live. There were 16 slots, 10 invites and the rest of the slots were filled by lucky lottery winners.

I was one of those “lucky” participants so I got to play in the tournament and my first opponent was the Frenchman Strenx. I lost badly, but at least I got a telefrag on T9 hehe. You can download the demos here.

Of course there are also lots of galleries up! You can view mine on ESReality, or check out the ones on ESL, Fragster and derquaker.

Next weekend it’s a couple of colleagues birthdays (so close to mine too) so we should be having some fun on a certian bierbike.

If you’ve been reading my msn then you’ll know on Friday we did the first VFBL (Virtuelle fussball bundes liga) games. It was fun to be a host even though the stream was too laggy for anyone to watch. At least if there was about 2 other people watching, it was worth it! One of the players totally lost his shit and threw juice all over the room. Release the passion, HAHA.

Hopefully I can get some pics from my colleague of the stream soon.

Since then i’ve been playing a few more ladder games, winning some, losing most I know I need to heavily devote more time into duelling and practice, but I have too much fun playing Clan Arena right now.

On that note, I have some really exciting news about the girlz 0f destruction. Now this doesn’t happen often but we have recruited a new player to the ranks by the name of Videl. It’s a beautiful story… she sniped me on ESL, I sniped her back and the love began to blossom…. haha! Anyway needless to say, i’m very happy to have her on board.

And again about Quake, the AGP site has been launched, and there you can go and read my interview with Karl “fooKi” Johannson. GOOOOOOO