Legend anwsers: GitzZz!

GitzZz is a nickname known by nearly all Unreal Tournament players, and also many others interested in world eSports scene. This 19 year old German won many tournaments thanks to his fanatastic skills. The best achievements are winning gold medals on the two World Cyber Games in Korea. Recently GitzZz won also a tourney in France - Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC), standing on the better podium position than Fatal1ty or Zulg. Christian (that's his name) would like to win another WCG, this time in Unreal Tournament 2003 cathegory, unfortunatelly he can't because of the circumstances about which you can read below, where GitzZz anwsers my questions (below the interview You can find links to 2 small galleries of GitzZz pics).



sxl: We'll start with the usual question, please tell our readers a bit about yourself - name, age, living place and your gamer's side.

GitzZz: My name is Christian Höck alias GitzZz and I am playing / have played UT2003 in SK. I am 19 years old, living in Germany and I'm working at a hospital for 9 further months of my life. My favorite gamer's site is actually www.esreality.com, a site on which not so much flaming is going on and sometimes there occure really interesting threads about important topics. go ESR ! o/

And what about the real life GitzZz, how is he? He's got to be a nice guy :)

Well, my life has changed pretty much since I have been working at this hospital. My spare time was reduced quite a bit so that I am not gaming much atm, but actually thats not THAT bad, because I don't have a game to play competitve at the moment anyways ;). At least they gave a little computer (p-133 :/) at work so I can at least check some pages at work.

Nowadays everybody know you as a legendary UT gamer, but what did you do before such a state? Please focus on your gaming past before UT

Compared to my UT-times I played almost nothing before. I sometimes had some LANs at weekends with some real life friends playing games like Duke3d, Descent2, C&C1+2, Ultimate Racing, Starcraft and Total Annihilation... just to mention some ;). It wasn't like being one of the best in those times. It was rather about taunting each other during these games. I kinda miss that taunting actually, these big official LANs have tamed me pretty much I think. UT1 was my first game I got addicted to... playing four hours straight away wasn't rare actually.

And now, something about the UT part of your life. What were your experiences with becoming a Godlike?

As partly answered in the question above I enjoyed UT1 like hell. I really can't explain why I got addicted to it so much. Becoming that good was just a result of having very much fun with this game. Based on fun I invested much time in UT1 which brought me to the level of play I had at WCG2002. Most or at least some people think I was playing only for money, but I have to disappoint them. I would definetely never have played UT1 if it wasn't so much fun for me. Gaming has been a hobby for me and probably will forever be.

What were your first thoughts about UT2003 after leaving UT, and what do you think about it now?

At first I was very happy to have a new game after playing UT1 for almost 3 years. UT2 being the follower of UT1 I was expecting an awesome game again, and actually it is quite good, but has some flaws in my opinion that didn't let me get addicted to it. I started playing UT2 about 1-2 months after WCG2002 (due to a PC problem) and was looking forward to getting better and catching up to the skill of the players that have been playing that game since its publication. At first everything was fine. The shieldgun wasn't used that much and sometimes there were some nice fights within a game. This seemed to change after CPL when Fatality showed up with a very defensive playstyle. This playstyle is just a result of the shieldgun of course, because you would never be able to run away 14 minutes in a traditional shooter, being the underdog all the time and score would still be 0-0. Crowned with a frag of the underdog with the bio rifle that makes like far too much damage 5 seconds before the end of the game the gameplay has become pretty boring and lucky. Leaving out the shieldgun at the beginning would have changed much I think. TTM and TWM do a great job in improving gameplay of UT2 but one of the biggest flaws, the shieldgun, wasn't removed. UT2 has good basics to be a good competitve game with some changes. But carrying through such changes takes much time and now that UT2 is almost playable in a competitive way there are almost no big events left that would be worth attending. TTM and TWM are improving the game by the theory of "correcting flaws". The problem is that these flaws have to be found out first. Adding things like hitsounds and bright skins didnt take long. But improving the weapon balance takes a lot of testing and experience, which means time. If UT2003 wasn't published that soon and there would be some more big LANs to attend I would have given UT2 a chance to be played competitive. But with epic releasing a new Version of the game a positive development of UT200X is actually impossible in my opinion. I am looking forward to Quake 4 and Doom 3... letz see how things develope ;).

How much time do you spend playing? I know players that loose half of their day fragging, also others that play only 30 minutes daily and are really good. How is it in your case?

That changed from day to day actually. There were days I played like 6 hours UT1, but there were also days I just played 1 hour or not at all. But if u want to hear an everage value I assume 2-3 hours of playing a day would represent a rough view (LAN events excluded of course ;)). Something I really don't want to calculate is the time I have played UT1 in the whole, hehe.

On the last big tournament, the ESWC event in Poiters you placed first. You beat Fatal1ty, Zulg, Lotus and many others placing on the top. Did you feel any pression because of the tourney? Many people around the world counted on Fatal1ty as he was aiming really high, before the tournament he was doing really good in UT2003. And in addiction, he was the Q3 all-time legend. The UT players watching the scores counted on you, you knew that. What can you tell us about that situation and the ESWC itself?

To correct something: I didn't beat Fatality at ESWC, I didn't even play him (in the tourney), but I think you mean that I placed before him ;). I didn't have any pressure to be honest. In the week before ESWC there was a point I totally lost the fun in UT2. I haven't played one game during the last days before ESWC. I knew I could go pretty far if luck was on my side, but I didnt actually aim for the Championstitle. The only game I got a bit nervous was the Final vs Zulg. But again, this was't because of the money (was "only" §2000, and after winning over 40.000 I didnt actually care about getting 2000 more or less) but because I wanted to hold this awesome cup in my hands and call it my own :)). But after the Match vs him on Ironic which went pretty good on my side I began playing Antalus quite calm. The last few seconds on Antalus were damn exciting though! :)

ESWC is concerning the organisation as good as WCG. Nothing was postponed as far as I know. ESWC wasn't only a LAN which you could win prizemoney at, it was rather like a little paradies for gamers. Rules were discussed before the lan (at least for UT2k3) which made ESWC an event for gamers, not for organiser or money. There were two big audience halls that were used as gaming movie theaters which attracted not only gamers but only "foreign" people. After I have played my tourney matches on each day I was looking out for a Quake match that was shown on huge screens in the big audience hall (if I wasnt playing DDR of course! =)). There were also some free for all internet PCs, a few exhibitons of gaming-related agencies and some console playing areas. To put it in a nutshell ESWC was the best/most professional LAN I have attented next to WCG. The only thing that makes the WCG a bit different to the ESWC is the reputation. WCG has achieved much respect during past years. ESWC was hold for the first time this year but if it keeps on being run like that I am sure ESWC wont even stand a bit behind WCG.

You won two WCG events in Korea. Players all around the world know you as the all-time UT champion. How does it feel? 99.99% of us, gamers, will never get the same feeling :)

Hmmm.. nasty question ;). I do know I am probably one of the most successful gamers in the world or at least in Europe. It is definetly awesome to win the Championtitle of UT1 and even defending it for one time. So I guess people aren't that wrong when they say I was the most successful / best UT1 player ever. I have tried not be become arrogant, because I hate arrogant people myself ;). I hope and actually think that I did a good job on that. A few teasing comments shouldnt be taken the wrong way ;)).

After winning both tourneys, you were supposed to get an autoberth to the next one. We know it was cancelled, why was it?

That is a very confusing story I dont even understand myself 100%. At first I was meant to get an autoberth keeping the UT1-Champion title and UT2 being the follower of UT1. But then as far as I know some countries didnt agree with having autoberths anymore cause they were seen as giving korea too much advantages or something (?). So korea agreed to cancle the autoberths and just stick to the qualification of each country. I dont know if the staff of the german qualifier didnt realise in time or the decision not to give autoberths was just made so late, but at once I wasnt be able to attend WCG2002 anymore, because there were not autoberths anymore and the seats for the german qualifier were already distributed. All seats being used and no change being possible there was no seat left for me to attend WCG2002. These are the points I know concerning this autoberth thingy.

And now you have a nasty problem. As for now, you said, you are not going to attend the 2003 WCG. The headache is caused by German law and the WCG comitee. You can't qualify because there are no qualifiers in your region. How do you feel about the whole situation?

Well.. how to feel about it ? ;p. Disappointed of course. Germany is one of the strongest countries regarding shooters and exactly of these games no representatives are sent. Thats so sad actually. I think I'm gonna escape from Germany ;p.

Isn't there anything you can do? I read at some comments that CarMac is going to try to help you out. Is he?

Carmac tried or still is trying (I dont know) to help me in this issue. But due to the answers of the korean referee everything depends on the national organiser. If they would send me, it would be ok. But based on many talks with the organiser I came to the result that there is actually no chance left. But I appreciate Carmac`s participation very much!

Ok, that's it for complaining. Let's know you some more. Do you have a girlfriend? If so, do you spend much time with her?

I dont have one at the moment but I am looking out for one ;). Having no game being addicted to lets more space focusing on other things ;)

Tell us something more about your hobbies and other things you like doing.

My most favorite hobby (next to gaming) is sports actually. I like almost every kind of sports with a few exceptions. But my favorite ones are Beach Volleyball, Fitness (Weightlifting), Jogging, Rolerblading/Snakeboarding. Next to that I like dancing actually ;p. I have been in a dance club for more than a year. But freestyle is fine, too! =)

What do your parents and rest of the family think about "GitzZz the gamer"? Do they support or rather cause troubles with your gaming carrier?.

My parents support me very much now. They were pretty worried when they heard that I was about to fly to korea to participate the Woldchampionships of a PC-Game. I havent been so far away without my parents in that time yet (I was 17 years old in that time). At the beginning they didnt want to let me go, but me being the big whin0r I carried my will through of course =)). They were following each tournament I was attending in the internet since then and even visited me at PG-Challenge in Prague and watched some games of me (They combined this with sightseeing in Prague).

Any special plans for the future?

At the moment I just wanna absolve these 9 months of obligatory work at the hospital. There is the chance in Germany that u can work in a social job instead of going to the army. So I chose being the pacifistic solution so I am working in a hospital now. Not too bad actually. Helping other people is more satisfying than I have expected. I dont really know what I'm gonna do after that but I think I will study something.

The last one, you can take a deep breath :D What do you want to say to our readers in Poland (we hope it will be something like philosopher's big thoughts:P )?

Keep on practising and kick my ass in the next good shooter mates ! =)

Thank you very much for loosing some of your precious time for me and our readers. GL in the future mate!

Np. It just took me about 3 hours to do this interview, so nevermind ;p

Some pics of GitzZz
Gallery 1 | Gallery 2


Interview by sxl; for eSports.pl