NiKo

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NiKo
Current team
TeamG2 Esports
GamesCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
RoleRifler
Personal information
NameNikola Kovač
Born (1997-02-16) 16 February 1997 (age 24)
Brčko, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Team history
2012–2013iNation
2013–2014GamePub
2014–2015aimface
2015iNation
2015–2017mousesports
2017–2020FaZe Clan
2020–presentG2 Esports

Nikola Kovač (born 16 February 1997), better known by his in-game alias NiKo, is a Bosnian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player for G2 Esports. He is considered by many to be one of the best CS:GO players in the world.

Career[]

Kovač first gained notoriety across Europe after being picked up by team iNation. His impressive performances led to interest from mousesports, who signed him in March 2015.[1]

In February 2017 he was acquired by FaZe Clan to garner together a star-player team. Kovač's first big tournament win was at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3, followed by a winless period of five months with a near miss at Esports Championship Series Season 3. Following a re-shuffle of the FaZe roster, bringing in the two best players of 2015; Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer Gustafsson and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács,[2][3] FaZe was rejuvenated and managed back-to-back flawless victories at ESL One: New York 2017 and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017. Following this, the team went two months without a win before taking the Esports Championship Series Season 4 trophy over mousesports at the end of the year. Falling just short in ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, the first Major of 2018,[4] the team then entered another lull, this time with Richard "Xizt" Landström standing in for olofmeister, until they managed to take home Intel Extreme Masters XIII - Sydney, and shortly after, managing to win ESL One: Belo Horizonte 2018 trophies at the beginning of the summer with Jørgen "cromen" Robertsen as a stand-in. In October 2018, FaZe came first place in the EPICENTER 2018 event in Moscow, Russia, making this his seventh first-place victory at a premier event with FaZe Clan. At the end of 2019, this trophy count had gone up to ten as FaZe had won BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen. 2020 marked another victory for FaZe and now team captain Kovač, as they won the European division of IEM New York 2020 Online over OG.[5]

On October 28, 2020, after a three-and-a-half year venture with FaZe Clan, Kovač was acquired by G2 Esports.[6]

Awards and recognition[]

  • Was voted the 11th best player of 2016 by HLTV.[7]
  • Was voted the 2nd best player of 2017 by HLTV.[8]
  • Was voted the 3rd best player of 2018 by HLTV.[9]
  • Was voted the 11th best player of 2019 by HLTV.[7]
  • Was voted the 4th best player of 2020 by HLTV.[10]
  • Was voted the MVP of 7 different tournaments.[11]

References[]

  1. ^ "mousesports pick up NiKo". HLTV. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  2. ^ "Olofmeister joins FaZe, replaces kioShiMa". HLTV.
  3. ^ "GuardiaN replaces allu in FaZe". HLTV.
  4. ^ "Cloud9 beat FaZe to win ELEAGUE Major Boston". HLTV.
  5. ^ Cooney, Bill (11 October 2020). "FaZe Clan wins IEM New York EU: Results & final placements". Dexerto. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  6. ^ Sillis, Ben (11 May 2020). "Gaming squad goals: superstar NiKo signs to G2 Esports". Red Bull. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  7. ^ a b Švejda, Milan. "Top 20 players of 2019: NiKo (11)". HLTV. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  8. ^ "Top 20 players of 2017: NiKo (2)". HLTV. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  9. ^ "Top 20 players of 2018: NiKo (3)". HLTV. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  10. ^ "Top 20 players of 2020: NiKo (4)". HLTV. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  11. ^ "Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač's CS:GO Player Profile". HLTV.

External links[]

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