g-Lp was banned! The latest Interview + Important Notice
Dear Kreedzers,
I would like to welcome myself on behalf of the whole team.
Fake prepotency and diva stuff aside, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to the people who gave me a chance & brought me into the team. Some of you might know me from a past community where I used to be a Head KreedZ Admin, from one of the birthday maps that were made for me, or from various conflicts, engagements, and links I’ve had with people in KZ.
In January last year, I officially joined the CC Community as part of the Control Team, and as of recently, I’m present here as well, as some of you may have already seen. The way I view the whole concept of KZ is a bit different, as I believe that at this point nearly everyone is a good player and we all know it, and therefore I’m more interested in the people behind those records. With that in mind, in my interviews I will try to balance KZ-related topics while also scratching the surface of who these players really are (which I call "KZ Showbiz") - how fast they answer, their attitudes, their charisma (or lack of it), etc., and by doing that, bringing them closer to the readers. Honoured to be here and collaborate with such legendary people, I will try to ask them questions my former colleagues did not think of asking them in the past.
Without further ado, and at the request of many, I’m bringing you a new interview, along with an important notice at the end of the post.
I have the immense honor of interviewing what I can confidently say is one of the strongest pillars of this community. Hello, g-Lp, and welcome to my first interview I’m doing! I'm glad it is exactly you who I'm interviewing first, and I sincerely hope you will not want to leave it at some point, haha *chuckles*, especially given that I heard you do not like being interviewed! But I do hope that has changed in the meantime ;-)
I believe this interview will be read by many, including potential new players and future generations, so I think it’s important to start with some basics that even I am curious about.
Does your nickname stand for anything in particular and has anyone asked you this before? On the same topic, could you tell more about the profile picture you’ve been having for all these years?
Hey Hopez! I’m also super glad to be interviewed by you, this might actually be one of my first interviews! Although I do remember doing a quick one for a ROTW newspost a few years ago. (Editor's Note: Check out g-Lp's previous Interview here)
Regarding my nickname, I’m sorry to disappoint you but it doesn’t really mean anything in particular - I know quite a few people came up with some theories about it :D. I switch to it around 2008 or 2009. I used to play under different nicknames before that, and at some point I wanted a change. I remember seeing a lot of good players with catchy names mixing uppercase letters, random characters, cool hyphens, and all that. I ended up switching to this simple three-letter nickname, and I’ve stuck with it ever since!
As for the profile picture, it’s just a cute meerkat I stumbled across at some point, nothing special behind it. I used to change my picture from time to time, but now I’m too lazy to bother. Also, a lot of people guess the animal wrong, which always makes me laugh.
So your nickname does not stand for Galápagos, as thought by some, and the animal is meerkat. Got it! In fact, I remember seeing you playing on Clarion KZ server, almost a decade ago, and I remember seeing the animal back then as well. I like when people pick an avatar and stay by it!
We know you originate from surf-slide servers. How long was the path of becoming a good, quality KZ player with many records? Did you have anyone to look up to?
Well, I’d argue that I don’t really originate from surf-slide servers. I believe I started playing deathrun around 2007/2008, just by searching for weird or unusual maps in the server browser. That’s when I met MepH, one of the players who got me into KZ in late 2008 and someone I stuck with for many years afterward. He was probably the player I was closest to, and he basically taught me everything. His knowledge about KZ felt endless, and we spent hundreds of hours playing together. He was also the one who motivated me a lot in the beginning.
My first KZ record came in 2010 on the infamous kz_mages_courtyardez map that no one likes. Around the same time I went through a surf phase. For a short while I was even ranked Top1, although I’ll admit it wasn’t exactly a “real” Top1. It was more of a symbolic Top1 on the website at the time (world-surf, after xtreme-surfs closed), and I still think some Brazilian players were actually better than me but just did not record there.
I came back to KZ around 2012/2013. At that point I was playing a lot of Cosy Climbing maps, and that’s also when I started getting really into slide. It was also a period where I recorded a lot of demos for Cosy Climbing in a very short time - each record usually took about 10 to 15 minutes of uptime.
Then one day in 2013 I got banned from Cosy Climbing for cheating, which was something I never did. To this day I’m still not entirely sure what happened. I think they suspected I was using a segment recorder or something like that. In any case, it upset me quite a bit, so I decided to switch over to Xtreme-Jumps instead. Around that time I started getting around 10 records per release during the summer, and I quickly climbed past the top 10. That’s more or less how things really started for me in KZ.
As for the Cosy Climbing ban, fame eventually looked into my case and found that all my demos were clean. I got unbanned some time later, so I definitely owe a lot to him for that.
Do you think anyone can learn to play KZ well enough to become a decent and popular player? Apart from having World Records, what else would you say is important for a player to become successful and famous in this game?
As with any game, I think there’s a part of natural talent that’s different for everyone. KZ is a very unique and fast-paced gamemode, and it won’t necessarily click for everybody. But overall, becoming good at it mostly comes down to time and dedication.
I believe that if you take the time to learn every aspect of KZ - and CS movement in general - you’ll naturally improve. Getting familiar with how the CS engine works, how movement behaves, and how different mechanics interact makes a huge difference.
Personally, I went through a lot of different modes: KZ, slide, surf, deathrun, HNS… I even played KZ across several games like CSS, CSGO, and TF2. All of that helped me understand movement better and definitely shaped the player I became.
A lot of maps in the beginning were made by French mappers. How close have you remained with KZFR members? Anyone who you would like to mention?
Ah! That’s a very special topic. I’d say I was never really close to the KZFR community. From what I remember, they had a very strong core of old-school players, and I never truly felt like part of it. Instead, I mostly kept playing with MepH and other international players.
There’s one specific moment that really stuck with me though. I was playing kz_wsp_inferno alone on a KZFR server, and suddenly a bunch of people joined. From what I remember it was heL^_x, lolz, chick3n, and a few others (I might not be 100% accurate). They joined and immediately wanted to change the map, even though I was in the middle of a 10+ minute run. They didn’t really seem to care — except for one player, who I think was Lolz, who told the others something like “wait, let him finish" and they started watching me. For some reason that moment stuck with me. It felt like I was acknowledged for once by the French community.
Aside from that early story, I feel like KZFR was already falling apart by the time I started becoming more active and improving at the game. Around 2013 the community wasn’t really that alive anymore, and the website eventually closed.
That said, I still got to meet a few francophone players I really appreciated. Obviously MepH, but I also enjoyed talking with Lolz, 8ball1 and a few others whose names I unfortunately don’t remember right now (sorry!).
That's wholesome! What would you tell Mr. Tobi (Editor’s Note: g-Lp's first nickname) at the beginning of his KZ career now, if you could?
Mr. Tobi was a nickname I used when I played TF2 a lot, roughly between 2008 and 2010. There was another player on the server I used to play on who had a nickname like “Monsieur something,” and I thought it sounded really classy, plus I was reading Naruto and Tobi was a new character that I liked at that time. That’s basically where the idea came from. Since TF2 used your Steam nickname, I kept “Mr. Tobi” on Steam for quite a while, while g-Lp was only used in 1.6. At some point though, I finally said goodbye to Mr. Tobi!
As for what I would tell my past self… that’s a tough question. I can be quite nostalgic sometimes, but I don’t really have any regrets. Everything I did - all those thousands of hours spent on the game, all those nights spent with others on servers, all the cups, records, wins and losses - turned into really great memories.
So honestly, I think I’d just tell myself to enjoy the moment.
What do you think are your strongest demos ever?
I’ve always had a hard time defining what my strongest demo is. Whenever I get a world record, I usually end up thinking I could do the same run again but with one more skip or combo, or that I was actually faster on a specific section in many of my previous attempts — so why not just retry and do it even faster?
So honestly, I’m not really sure what to answer. The most logical choices would probably be kz_cellblock_hard, kz_cg_tower, kz_man_ultrablock, or slD_bside_nightblock, but I’m pretty sure those could be beaten by a few seconds - if they haven’t already been on public servers.
That being said, I’m still ready to fight back on kz_mages_courtyard. That record has been unbeaten for 13 years!
Terrific! Do you remember the details of recording that one? How did that day look like and how did you feel after finishing the recording? How long did the session take, if you remember? How much patience do you usually have to sit and try to record something?
About kz_mages_courtyard, unfortunately I don’t remember that much. I do remember training and recording the map, but it happened during a period where I had decided to record a lot of demos for XJ, so it was just one among many that I recorded in a short time.
The map is quite similar to kz_mages_courtyardez, which was actually the first map I ever recorded. So transitioning to the normal version felt pretty natural. As for kz_mages_courtyardez, I remember that I originally wanted to get the world record on it back in 2009. Unfortunately, fReelaN and Lolz beat the map at the time, and instead I ended up recording my first KZFR demo on kz_mages_courtyardez in 2009!
A year later I came back and finally got my first ever world record in 2010 - taking back what I felt I deserved 😄
Overall, when I’m recording, I’m usually extremely focused. I actually have to force myself to take breaks if I’ve been grinding a map for an hour or two. Sometimes my fingers even get painful, but I guess that’s part of what it takes to beat records!
From some of your previous records, which one would you especially like to obtain again? ;-)
Many! I wish I had the time and dedication to beat some of them, especially those that were lost by just a few seconds. I’d say cg_islands, kz_cursed_tomb, kz_faw_cathedral, kz_j2s_summercliff_h, kzcn_45, kzfr_ramses, and trC_climbgarden are definitely on that list!
How did you end up joining the team here? Could you briefly describe your role in the community and your responsibilities in development and technical management?
There were multiple attempts on my part before joining the team as a developer. I actually wrote a detailed explanation about it in the one-year newspost for the revival of kreedz.com. But in short: Xtreme-Jumps.eu went down in 2023, and that’s when I decided to step up, in an effort to revive a website that means a lot to me. At first, I took over what we call the backend, and I quickly ended up managing the full development of the site because everyone else had left.
Now, my main role is to maintain the website, develop new features, listen to feedback, make sure KZ history is preserved, and make decisions alongside p0ker when needed. Most of my time goes into coding for the site. Sometimes I try to help out with other projects within the team, but we already have very talented and passionate people working on those.
We're all thankful to you for that! 🙏
I think that KzGuessr is also worth mentioning, as people have really liked it. How do you feel about that project?
It actually started as a funny little side experiment that I coded in just an hour or two. The main idea was to create cool features that people enjoy using and that make them want to come back - and I think it worked pretty well, with over 10,000 games played!
I’d love to expand this mini-game into something more interactive - maybe a daily leaderboard where everyone can compete, with streaks like in Duolingo or the new LinkedIn games. I’ve also spent a lot of late nights in kz-endo, and SilverNinja used to make mini-games on the fly for players on the servers, so I think some of the inspiration came from that. I wanted to make a game that KZ players could enjoy together. Even though the idea hasn’t yet expanded to include full group play or similar features, I really think the possibilities are limitless for what we could do!
How did you gain knowledge and skill sets for all this you've been doing here?
In real life, I’m a software engineer with seven years of experience, working at an international Big Tech company. So in many ways, all of this is just an extension of my professional career! I’m really glad I can use those skills to contribute to KZ.
How do you manage to find time for everything? And how would you describe g-Lp in private life, as a person? You can also use this as opportunity to share some of IRL information about yourself and your life to readers.
Time? That’s the main problem - I just don’t have enough! I’m usually really busy with life, and I love what I do, whether it’s work, KZ, gaming, or anything else. These days, I play maybe around 10 hours per month, probably even less.
I usually spend the little free time I have coding for the website, but that’s just a few hours at most per week (or even per month). As for myself… well, I’m not great at describing myself 😅. I’m soon turning 30, and I guess that’s about it! You can usually get to know me better by chatting with me, and if you’re around, I’m always down for a beer!
A close source of mine told me that you moved to Switzerland. Is this true?
That's correct, I've been living near the Swiss border for over 3 years now, since I work in Geneva, right by the lake!
Alright, my source will not get fired. *chuckles*
How do you like it there?
Pretty cool! I’d say it’s not for everyone - it’s much calmer than some of the bigger cities I’ve lived in - but the outdoor activities are amazing, whether you’re into skiing, hiking, climbing, sailing, or anything else. And of course, the views are incredible! Those pictures you see of Switzerland? Totally real 😄
Among many awards, you also received an award for being the best Admin of 2025. Did you expect that award, and which of your awards means the most to you?
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting it - truth be told, the community isn’t huge, so you can usually guess what’s coming. As for the award itself, it’s great and it’s a nice acknowledgement that what you do isn’t useless.
But for me, it’s not really important. My main goal is making sure KZ thrives for many years to come - that people stay interested, entertained, and find reasons to keep playing this game we all love. I’m much happier seeing people discussing, commentating, recording, or visiting the website than I am receiving an award. I used to make world records for the excitement of doing something great that people would appreciate. But that kind of feeling doesn’t matter if KZ dies, so I’m not interested in awards anymore, I just want to keep seeing KZ alive!
As someone whose zodiac sign is Cancer, and is therefore emotional, how do you handle conflicts/ drama inside the community? Are there any, or are the things as perfect as often viewed by others?
I used to jokingly call XJ “Xtreme-Drama.” In my opinion, that’s just part of the life of the community, and honestly, I kind of like it. I don’t really care about all the stories of cheaters, people flaming each other in chat, or stuff like that. The only thing I usually pay attention to is when people actually give constructive complaints about the website or our processes, for example, feedback about news posts or record releases. I really want the best for the community, and the team and I are all working hard to make things better. But sometimes, the hardest part isn’t doing the right thing - it’s figuring out what the right thing actually is.
(Editor's Note: wise words, I loved this. g-Lp was very fun to interview because he came up with descriptive answers very quickly, as if he had known the questions in advance!)
Relatively recently it happened that R3AL, the official owner of Romanian-Jumpers community, irresponsibly left KZ.com Discord server and decided to no longer take part of it. What do you think about this, and how hard is it to quickly find a solution to such issues when people decide to quit at once?
I mean, KZ is a community of passionate people, no one gets paid, and no one is forced to do anything. If someone decides to leave, end a partnership, or step back for any reason, that’s just life. I don’t dwell on it, and there’s nothing you can do about it. What really matters isn’t looking back at what’s already passed, but moving forward and focusing on the opportunities ahead.
Have you ever become acquainted with a KZ player and then changed your opinion of them, either positively or negatively?
Mmh, probably - I don’t have anyone in particular in mind right now. I’d say I generally have a positive opinion of most people. Sometimes I’ve found out someone was a bit sketchy, but that’s usually the extent of it. Most of the time, it actually goes the other way, my opinion becomes even more positive after talking with them.
Who would you say you're closest to in the community, and is there anyone you’d like to become closer to as friends?
I’m unfortunately not that active anymore, except within the management team. So I’d say people like p0ker or sitka are probably some of the closest I interact with these days. As for who I’d like to get closer to, I think McL was a good candidate - unfortunately, I'm not sure he's able to logging anymore 😄
If you had to play and record one KZ map for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
Tough one! slD_bside_nightblock or kz_mages_courtyardez
How about your maps? Have you ever been interested in making a map and how did that go?
I probably made some silly deathrun map back in 2008 or 2009, but I don’t think I really have the artistic skills for that.
(Editor's Note: g-Lp later stated how it has never been published)
I have to inform the readers that this interview was late due to your cooking. What is your trick for a tasty Blanquette de veau?
True story! For a good blanquette de veau, you’ve got to cook it for at least two hours, and getting the sauce thick enough is really the key!
Okay, at the end, I would like to give this interview a bit more diversity. You will be given two mini-games: to choose between two players and two maps, five times each. The criterion is entirely up to you, whether you’re closer with the person or prefer their style of playing, and so on. Can you do that?
Sure!
fykseN OR shooting-star?
fykseN because shooting-star is just a shortcut abuser /s
topoviygus OR colcolx?
topo is more versatile, but I'd choose colcolx for his determination, and I love the maps he plays.
p0ker OR sitka?
This one hurts...it's a tie, but probably sitka if I had to choose, we spent so much time over the years!
ShoCk OR Toffifee?
toff - despite how much I appreciate ShoCk
xdd OR R3AL?
R3AL
(Editor's Note: after a bit of hesitation)
qn_winterhole OR kz_arsacid?
kz_arsacid. I'll be coming for you MEEL
chk_section OR qcg_hb_domino?
qcg_hb_domino, it's a shame that this map is not played!
kz_cg_tower OR kz_cfl_aqualand?
2 iconic maps, but I'd choose kz_cfl_aqualand just because of the vibe
kz_dirtblock OR kz_dirtblock2?
kz_dirtblock because I'm much more used to it
clr_hb_hopez OR kz_hb_Hopez? :-)
kz_hb_Hopez 😄
What would you like to be asked, in case I did not do it?
I don't have anything in mind!
Thank you, g-Lp! I feel we sewed a good job here and I hope to see you in one of the future interviews again!
Thank you for your time and questions, Hopez! And a big kudos to everyone who’s part of kreedz.com - whether you’re someone on the team or just logging in from time to time!
PS: Check out the ending of kz_ea_parkblock to hear my shout-outs!
Important Notice (Surprise): Readers can comment under this post with questions they’d like KreedZ himself to answer in the upcoming interview. The top ones will be chosen.
Good luck, and stay tuned!
Kind regards,
Hopezev
Head of KZ Journalism