MAP RELEASE #13 + Mapping recap of 2025 + Team update
Good day, kreedz!
We hope you celebrated the New Year awesomely! There's a lot to unpack, so buckle up. Today on our post-holiday table, we've got two high-quality maps.
EDIT (11.01.2026): cy_dtm has been updated on the site. Please download the latest version HERE
The first one is cy_dtm by Chrizzy. This time, he delights us with something untypical, a rather short (in comparison to his other works) speedmap with lots of tricky combos among multi-coloured tiles and bricks, woven together by strange and shiny magic with occasional fragments of fallen stars. It's a bizarre place, a climber's fleeting dream.
Now, for a bit of lore: this map was originally a minimap inside the kz_kzsca_downtown, very raw-looking and made with just three textures, which was common at the time (2007). Then, 18 years later(!), in the middle of 2025, Chrizzy decided to redesign and repurpose the forgotten climb courses, breathing new life and modernity into them. You can see the scale of metamorphosis in the comparison below.
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Download: cy_dtm
Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Length: Middle
Type: Climb
Mapper: Chrizzy
Second one has previously been released on KZ-Rush, and we’re eager to welcome it into our custom kreedz.com map pool as well!
ph_slide_urban by Phinx offers a difficult sliding journey through exceptionally well-designed brick tunnels which, despite being a relatively tough challenge for a non-slider, will not leave you bored even if you get stuck! Its walls, adorned with dozens of colourful graffiti pieces and a rapidly evolving colour palette, keep you engaged until the very end.
Nearly the entire map is painted with unique textures, powered by AI and brought to life by Phinx's ingenious yet painstaking trial-and-error prompting method. Let's give a round of applause to the mapper for making the map look incredibly fresh while also being incredibly fun to play!
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Download: ph_slide_urban
Difficulty: Hard
Length: Middle
Type: Slide
Mapper: Phinx
Source:
THE ANNUAL MAPPING RECAP
Besides that, I would like to make a small recap of the maps released on kreedz.com this year, to emphasize the importance of mappers' yearly contributions to the community and to appreciate their efforts and infinite creativity.
Therefore, the maps of the year 2025 have been as follows:
21/01/2025 (click on the date to open the map release news)
1) hb_zza by Spider1 marked the beginning of the year for KZ mappers. A middle-length speedmap dedicated to the outstanding player pizza^, built in Spider1's famous style.
06/02/2025
2) arte_drift by arte de la puerta. Chaos and order collided in this map, creating a wild abstraction drifting through the void of endless cosmos, which would become, unsurprisingly, his most "normal" map to date.
12/03/2025
3) kz_hb_Hopez by V4R10L4V3R4 & sekai, with minor contributions by Qicg & xdd, was a birthday gift to Hopez, a beloved member of the community. A seemingly never-ending journey through changing locations and landscapes, difficulty: Hard. The map ended up becoming a real hit, staying on servers for weeks, with players "marathoning" it occasionally to this day.
19/04/2025
4) cy_slide_brickhaven by Chrizzy was the first slide map released on kz.com in a very long time. In a sense, it was a grand opener for the previously almost non-existent kz.com slide map pool, which was about to grow rapidly with the announcement of the slide map contest. Its increasingly unique layout, impressive design, and intense slides made it an unforgettable map and one of the best slide courses ever made in KZ.
01/06/2025
5) kz_realmshift by Chrizzy is not just a map, it is a piece of art. As the title implies, it is a wild blend of shifting realms, from forgotten ancient temples to frostbitten icy caves, from Greek antiquity to radiant Egypt, even venturing into deep space at one point. All of that is spiced up by Hard difficulty and lowered gravity, creating a completely unique challenge.
15/07/2025
SLIDE CONTEST MAPS RELEASED!
6) arte_mon by arte de la puerta. CS:S surf-style huge slides and extreme speeds, made in his usual abstract manner. Unique look and gameplay, medium-hard difficulty, short but intense challenge.
7) slide_anguish by enf. Perilous slides stretch across medieval halls flooded with glowing lava, and the smell of molten stone permeates the air. This map favours those who possess flawless precision of movement and sharp reflexes. The gameplay manages to be traditional and diverse at the same time.
8) slide_ereshara by FLasH^ (aka 074769). The vibe is a pure eastern palace of patterned elegance. Interesting and somewhat unconventional incorporation of curved slides at low speeds makes it instantly recognizable.
9) sp1_slide_climb by Spider1. A vast rocky landscape carved by time, with a massive stronghold embedded right into the cliffside. It is a slide journey with a touch of climb across stony giants and forgotten citadels. Based on Spider1's style, bold and focused on pure skill. Your hands are about to get sweaty from anxious sliding at extreme heights. The risks are just as high as the stakes!
10) slide_v4rious by V4R10L4V3R4. Frozen caves lead you toward a soft orange dawn at the end. The entire world lies motionless in eternal winter. High-intensity slides and high-speed boosters combine to transform the player into unstoppable turbulence, tearing through the map like a comet.
14/08/2025
CONTEST RESULTS, WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
Five maps in total! All of them ended up being very different from each other, which was a pleasant surprise. Shoutout to the mappers for participating!
14/08/2025
11) kz_dirtblock2 by Chrizzy. The sequel to the legendary 2005 kz_dirtblock(_hard). This map is so colossal, so enormous, and so unfathomable that I used to jokingly call it "kz_world2", "kz_universe", or "kz_Chrizzyworld" during its testing, since it seems to have inherited something from almost every Chrizzy's map so far. Some time ago, I actually wrote an epic meme essay review of the map, which I cannot paste here as it is too big for this newspost, just like the map itself. Give it a read if you want! LINK
27/08/2025
12) kz_pinkblaus by maiLyy. A middle-length, Hard difficulty map that offers a variety of techniques, including bhop, climb, and slides. Only the most agile players will be able to navigate through the pink and reach the blaus quickly enough!
19/09/2025
13) kz_stronghold by FLasH^ (aka 074769). An imperishable fortress built by forgotten masters of the past as a refuge for nations nobody remembers anymore. Yet after thousands of years, its walls stand impenetrable, whispering of grand battles and failed sieges. Walls so immutable that even time could not ruin their perfect stillness. Will you be the first to conquer this middle-length speedmap stronghold?
19/10/2025
14) kz_cygnus by Queen. A lengthy combo map that takes you through the remnants of a forgotten space citadel under a violet sky. The environment of ancient stones and cold steel is so immersive that you start feeling the cold of space, only to suddenly remember it is just a game!
05/12/2025
15) ph_slide_fiction by Phinx. A slide course that fits players of all sliding skill levels. Newbies benefit from a safe and forgiving layout and enjoy the beautiful sci-fi rooms, while seasoned sliders exploit the seamless connections between locations for uninterrupted, lightning-fast performance, where a flawless run does not seem like fiction anymore.
If you have not played any of these maps, you should certainly give them a try! Each one is an unforgettable experience, which is exactly why they are part of our elite kreedz.com map pool.
Some statistics:
Most active mappers:
1) Chrizzy - 3 maps released
2) arte de la puerta, FLasH^, Spider1, V4R10L4V3R4 are tied for second place, each with 2 maps released
Longest maps (ideal run time):
1) kz_dirtblock2 - 70+ MIN
2) kz_hb_Hopez - 34+ MIN
3) kz_realmshift - 30+ MIN
Most recorded maps*:
1) slide_v4rious - 5 records
2) arte_mon - 4 records
3) slide_anguish - 3 records
* also counting the unreleased demos from submit demo page
Best maps of 2025:
...remain to be seen! We'll know the top 5 best maps once the MEGA POLL results are out. Take part in it and vote for your favourite map HERE
Head Map-checker update
We would like to inform the community that our current Head Map Admin, edZika, is stepping down from her position. She has been a Map Admin since February 2022, almost FOUR YEARS, and a Head Map Admin for a little over 3 years! This is truly a lot, and we would like to sincerely thank her for the time, dedication, and responsibility she has put into maintaining the quality of maps released on kreedz.com. From this point on, the role of Head Map Admin will be taken over by sekai.
Before stepping down, edZika would like to share a few words with the community:
"I can only express my gratitude to all the mappers who continue their hard work. I sincerely believe that they are the ones who keep the community alive. If there were no new maps, there would be no new records.
You could say, "But people can just record already existing maps!", and I would answer, "It is not interesting at all to grind the same maps over and over again." Moreover, mappers often come up with new techniques and mechanics, forcing players to adapt to ever-changing game realities.
Therefore the mappers are undeniably our mightiest elephants that uphold the flat Earth of KZ."
Once again, on behalf of the kreedz.com team and also as a fellow player, I would like to express heartfelt gratitude to our tireless mappers for their invaluable contributions. And not just those of kreedz.com, but every mapper out there who still opens the map editor and creates something for the community. Remember, every map is a little miracle, and every mapper is a wizard. Please keep making us happy with your creations. Thank you everyone, you are fantastic!
Much love,
Map-checking Team.
P.S.: Let's not forget the other members of the map-checking team: SAJKEE, xdd, maiLyy, V4R10L4V3R4, as well as the ones that resigned this year - FuZzy1 and Spider1. They rarely get credit for all the work they do behind the scenes, but it is exactly this kind of effort that ensures released maps are not broken, no bugs are overlooked, and all shortcuts are fixed on time. Thanks, guys, for another year of service!