NiKo: "We tried to find a permanent fifth but we just didn't have enough time"

We spoke to Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač during FaZe's day off in Cologne and heard about their search for a new fifth and the Intel Grand Slam.

FaZe stormed through the group B at ESL One Cologne to secure a spot directly in the semi-final, beating BOOT-d[S], MIBR and fnatic along the way. The international roster are therefore on the course to meet Astralis in the grand final, if both teams make it past their semi-final opponents.

As the first quarter-final between fnatic and Natus Vincere was starting, we sat down with NiKo in the press room and talked about FaZe's current situation.

Let's talk about post-Belo Horizonte, what was the team up to?

After Belo Horizonte we went home and we searched for a permanent player, we tried to find a fifth but we just didn't have enough time to buy someone or make an agreement with some other team. That's why we took cromen as a stand-in and it has been working out well. We didn't have any practice as a team, we just played individually. We did it the same as we did before Belo Horizonte, we just played individually and it worked out there and we hope it is going to work out here as well.

As you said you are searching for a permanent fifth so obviously you are not looking to keep cromen. How has playing with him been and what's the thing that he is missing that you are searching for in another player?

Playing with cromen was something new for us because now we have rain and him who kind of have a similar role, they run first and they shoot, and what we need is an experienced player who is going to play the role we really need, that is going to play it smart, basically kind of a lurk role, but who is also able to adapt to any situation we are in. That's what we are looking for right now and cromen is not that kind of a player, I think. That's why we are looking for other players, but I think he is going to be a stand-in for us for ELEAGUE as well.

So you think the style you are playing right now, even though it kind of worked, it got you good results, it wouldn't work long term?

I don't see it working long term like this, even though, as you said, we've been playing good, but that's just because we are confident right now and we are really motivated to win the Grand Slam and everything. We are just trying to push ourselves to play much better than we did before because we kind of need it right now and that's pretty much it.

How big would it be to win the Intel Grand Slam, especially now during an "Astralis Era", at least people have been calling it that?

Winning the Grand Slam would be something amazing, I don't even know how we would feel if we would win it because no one ever experienced it before. But winning it would be something special, I would say that it's something similar to winning a Major probably. But I'm happy that we are going to play Astralis in the final if we manage to go there. I'm happy that we managed to pass the group as first so we are not going to face them earlier, because I think we have an advantages playing in the final against them.

What are your thoughts on Astralis skipping quite a few events recently?

I don't know, it's just the way they work right now and I respect that even though I don't think it would affect them if they played more events. I think that they would still perform as good as they are performing right now. But maybe they wouldn't, I can't know that. But for us, we'd never consider skipping tournaments to prepare more for other ones, I think playing events is better practice than actually practicing.Also, if you also compare our style to Astralis' it's completely different, they are more structured, maybe that's why they need more time to prepare. We are playing with more freedom so we don't practice the tactics so much and stuff like that.

You've played a lot of events and the player break is coming up, are you kind of tired, saturated with all of the events you played, are you looking to have a break from CS?

Yeah, definitely, I can't wait to have a break. We've played so many events since January, after the Major, and the worst thing is that we lost some tough finals, that affected us a lot. We all kind of need a break after that, so I'm definitely looking forward to having a break from CS for 20 days or something.

Talking about the tough finals you lost, do you ever go back to the fnatic one, thinking that with that and Belo Horizonte it would already be over?

Yeah, we regret every one of them, the NiP final, the fnatic final. It's just insane to think that we could've already been Grand Slam champions.