diff --git a/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/connection/client/StatusSessionHandler.java b/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/connection/client/StatusSessionHandler.java
index 4f38ffb44..0916d4aea 100644
--- a/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/connection/client/StatusSessionHandler.java
+++ b/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/connection/client/StatusSessionHandler.java
@@ -69,7 +69,11 @@ public class StatusSessionHandler implements MinecraftSessionHandler {
     ProxyPingEvent event = new ProxyPingEvent(inboundWrapper, initialPing);
     server.getEventManager().fire(event)
         .thenRunAsync(
-            () -> connection.write(new StatusResponse(VelocityServer.GSON.toJson(event.getPing()))),
+            () -> {
+              StringBuilder json = new StringBuilder();
+              VelocityServer.GSON.toJson(event.getPing(), json);
+              connection.write(new StatusResponse(json));
+            },
             connection.eventLoop());
     return true;
   }
diff --git a/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/protocol/ProtocolUtils.java b/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/protocol/ProtocolUtils.java
index 6b50392da..907a8640f 100644
--- a/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/protocol/ProtocolUtils.java
+++ b/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/protocol/ProtocolUtils.java
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ public enum ProtocolUtils {
    * @param buf the buffer to write to
    * @param str the string to write
    */
-  public static void writeString(ByteBuf buf, String str) {
+  public static void writeString(ByteBuf buf, CharSequence str) {
     int size = ByteBufUtil.utf8Bytes(str);
     writeVarInt(buf, size);
     ByteBufUtil.writeUtf8(buf, str);
diff --git a/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/protocol/packet/StatusResponse.java b/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/protocol/packet/StatusResponse.java
index 84493513d..df0d856cc 100644
--- a/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/protocol/packet/StatusResponse.java
+++ b/proxy/src/main/java/com/velocitypowered/proxy/protocol/packet/StatusResponse.java
@@ -9,12 +9,12 @@ import org.checkerframework.checker.nullness.qual.Nullable;
 
 public class StatusResponse implements MinecraftPacket {
 
-  private @Nullable String status;
+  private @Nullable CharSequence status;
 
   public StatusResponse() {
   }
 
-  public StatusResponse(String status) {
+  public StatusResponse(CharSequence status) {
     this.status = status;
   }
 
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ public class StatusResponse implements MinecraftPacket {
     if (status == null) {
       throw new IllegalStateException("Status is not specified");
     }
-    return status;
+    return status.toString();
   }
 
   @Override