Who are the most influential North American KZ/Kreedz players of all time?
Check out p0ker's take on this topic here https://x.com/KREEDZcom/status/1866523508445982984
or simply read the full article down below.
We'd argue that these four were head and shoulders above their peers:
Bibo
Supa
brian
zza
So let's take a deeper look into each one of them.
1. Bibo
Bibo's first entrance into the KZ scene dates back to June 2007. However, that's not indicative of the first time Bibo was interested in practicing his movement technique. When he used to compete with a team, he would often go in the practice server alone, and then he would train advanced and unknown movement techniques for his times. This eventually led to him discovering KZ.
During his KZ tenure, Bibo focused on quality over quantity. In other words, he was aiming to have the world records on the most prestigious maps, which is one of the reasons he became quite popular within the community. On top of that, he appeared 'cocky', as he would often criticize his own world records as not that impressive, despite beating the 'hardest' maps. This is evidenced when he managed to beat the world record TWICE in 2008 on the most prestigious map in KZ history - bkz_goldbhop. He had a 01.35:00 and a 01.34:00 respectively, taking the WR from the legendary zhady. Nevertheless, he still thought his records were quite slow, which caused a lot of heated conversations. While he never quite reached a top5 ranking demo-wise, he is still remembered for his innovative mindset, always looking for that new technique or map route which would net him some kind of advantage.
Beyond regular KZ runs, Bibo was also famous for his immense longjump talent. He managed to jump 250 block within 3 days of learning about longjumps, and later on in 2007, he beat the longjump world record by landing the alluring 255 LJ block. What is impressive is that he finally ended T3dbundy's longjump dynasty, since he was the LJ world record holder of the first 251, 252, 253, and 254 block. Bibo's LJ record would stand for over a year, therefore indicating that he was already closing in on the perceived limits of the technique.
2. Supa
It would be an insult to Supa to say that he's merely one of the most influential NA KZ players. No, he was likely one of the most influential KZ players overall.
Supa's history in the KZ scene begins in April 2004, when he set some of his first world records, although it's very likely that he was already interested in movement before that.
The most famous thing he is known for is him basically establishing a whole new competitive discipline within KZ - longjumping. Supa invented the so-called longjump prestrafe, which gave you some extra speed before jumping off. In fact, one can go back right now and watch the first implementation of the technique in his 2004 kz_ep_gigablock_b01 WR. Moreover, he was the first player to jump the 240 LJ block, which as mentioned before, inspired others to compete over this new discipline. Before him, players only cared about clearing a gap on a map for the sake of finishing it. Now, they wanted to compete for the longest jump possible.
But Supa's influence doesn't stop here. Some might argue he had a shot at being the G.O.A.T of KZ in the early era. He reached the top of the world leaderboards in early 2005, competing against the early legends, and already in an era with many players who are vying for the top. However, what's more impressive is that after a prolonged hiatus during which he lost all of his records, he had a comeback in late 2008 to reach the top spot once again. It is incredibly difficult to do this, because all of his rivals were long gone, and new talent had emerged in that era. The scene was way bigger and the competition had levelled up considerably. He had a peak of 49 world records, but it was a close race, because right behind his tail was his fellow countryman brian, and the legendary zhady. A fun fact about this era is that this would be the peak of the US as a country in KZ, since it had two players in the top3, and therefore the most amount of world records out of any other nation in the world.
Once Supa left 1.6 KZ for good, he had a brief comeback in CS:GO KZ back in 2014-2015. While he cracked the top spot for a very short amount of time, that era wasn't as competitive and it would be more comparable to his Top1 spot back in 2004. Nevertheless, this only further proved his natural talent, as he was capable to play on a high level years after his peak.
3. brian
brian likely paved the way for the first "modern" KZ players, as he embedded and popularized certain movement techniques via his world record runs. His raw talent was undeniable because out of all the names mentioned so far, his KZ career was the shortest lived one, so he made sure to make a name for himself rather quickly.
His first record can be tracked back to September 2006, and his last one would be in August 2009, so he would last a little less than 3 years overall. Nevertheless, one could argue that brian had the highest peak out of any other North American KZ player of all time.
The main claim behind this comes from the simple fact that in 2008, he managed to be the first player to overthrow what many would have considered the G.O.A.T of Kreedz at that time - zhady! Not only that, but the fashion in which he did it is also extremely impressive, since he reached a peak of a staggering 72 records, which equalled to 14.88% of all maps in KZ back then. It's important to note, that the amount of official KZ maps a player had to operate with was way less compared to contemporary times.
To this day no other North American player had more world records at a single point in time. Later on, he would be challenged by Supa and zhady again, to create one of the most exciting three-way rivalries in KZ history, until he ultimately quit KZ for good in 2009.
brian's contribution doesn't just stop with his fast rise to the top. He influenced a whole new generation of trickjumpers and moviemakers collaboration. His innovative use of the doubleduck technique in his trickjump movies took trickjumping to the next level. To this day, one of the most popular trickjump KZ movies are still echoing his name.
4. zza (pizza)
Last but not least, we have to talk about zza. His first record was set back in November 2009. While this definitely makes him look like the "newest" entry among the bunch, his longevity is completely unmatched, perhaps even with any other KZ player. He is still active to this day, since his last record was set in June 2024. That would be the complete opposite of brian, since his career looks more like a short stint in comparison.
Unfortunately for zza, he never quite reached the top spot like some of his rivals in this list, as his best achievement was second place in the world rankings back in 2013 and 2014, right behind the KZ giant that was LEWLY. Nevertheless he remained a consistent threat and we would often see him in the Top5 during his 15 years of play. A testament to this would be that even today, he is still ranked 11th in the world with 24 records!
Another important trait of zza is that his gameplay levelled up with the scene itself. In other words he always adapted his playstyle according to the ever-developing KZ scene, which meant that he could always compete with new and emerging KZ talents. This could perhaps make him the best NA player of all time (not to be mistaken with 'greatest') in terms of pure skill level.
zza is also famous for his tournaments success. Historically he has always been one of the most consistent players under pressure, which is a vital attribute to have in live competitions. He won numerous KZ tournaments, rivalling the resume of the best tournament KZ players of all time, and he'd always enter a tournament as a potential favourite. Even in the latest big KZ tournament iteration in 2024, he still managed to crack a Top8 placement versus the best of the best of the contemporary era. A fun fact about zza is that he did reach the top spot once in KZ, but in another game - CS:GO KZ. Back in early 2016, he managed to overcome temporarily the reign of the early CS:GO KZ giant - linus (also known as Jokkan in 1.6 KZ). And you guessed it - zza was also very successful in CS:GO KZ tournaments too. He took the crown in what would be considered the biggest CS:GO KZ tournament at the time in 2016 versus none other than linus himself in the grand finals!
*Disclaimer: The CS:GO KZ 2014-2016 stats may not be 100% accurate.
And that concludes our brief KZ history lesson of the most impactful NA KZ players of all time.
Do you agree with our picks? Or perhaps you think we missed out on someone else?
Let us know down below!
