NiKo on HooXi: "He reminded me a lot of karrigan"

Both Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen took the time to conduct a post-match interview shortly after G2's opening-round win over Eternal Fire.

G2 came into ESL Pro League Season 17 fresh off their first-place finish at IEM Katowice, where they continued their otherworldly form to win back-to-back Big Events after first winning the BLAST Premier World Final back in December.

Regardless, the recently-crowned No. 1 team in the world were tested in their debut matchup at ESL Pro League Season 17 versus Eternal Fire, being pushed to the limit on Nuke and needing all 30 rounds on the map before being able to close the series out, 2-0.

NiKo and HooXi took the time to speak with Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers, Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole, Adam "⁠Dinko⁠" Hawthorne, and Harry "⁠JustHarry⁠" Russell shortly after their opening matchup, starting off the post-match interview by touching on the series against the Turks and what led to Nuke being such a hard-fought affair.

"I think our CT-side sometimes feels off on Nuke," the Bosnian star admitted. "It doesn't happen often, but it happened now and it happened, I don't know who we played, but one of the games it felt the same, maybe it was against FaZe a couple of games ago.

"I felt our communication wasn't the best today. I think we missed a lot of information, we were not connected in the rounds. We usually don't give up so much space, but props to them [EF], they had some good rounds that they ran as well. The most important thing is we closed it out in the end and we really want to continue our streak on Nuke as well, we're happy with the win in the end."

G2's winning streak on Nuke was then referenced, a map the team now boasts 12 wins in a row on in an offline setting and a spree NiKo thinks will only grow once the team corrects their communication problems.

"That's why we have the streak going because even if we have a bad game, we still have so many good things that just work. If the communication isn't working, we can always rely on something that we have set. Once everything is working out on Nuke, that's when we're unstoppable, right? I think we've shown it many times."

The six-way conversation then pivoted towards what teams have to expect when playing at tournaments like ESL Pro League Season 17 and the upcoming BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMR, where the vast amount of teams leads to a great difference in playstyles.

"It's not every day that we play against a team like this, who is so execute-heavy. That's the thing about playing in these tournaments that Eternal Fire is usually playing in, and where I played as well in [Copenhagen Flames], you have to be ready for 10 different styles. We are not really experienced with that, and that's partially what is scary about the RMR that is coming on. We just play against so many different styles and not what we're used to; normally we just play against NAVI every week."

When quizzed on the pressure of being on the best team in the world, NiKo was upfront about G2's preparation and mental fortitude in maintaining their world-leading position when things don't go according to plan.

"Our expectations are definitely high. We are aware of it, but we're also talking a lot about it. We are super aware of what we are capable of, where we are right now, and what our goals are. We constantly talk about those mental things that are probably going to be the most important things in the upcoming weeks.

"Every time something is going wrong, we try to reset immediately. We just try to do the habits that we already have so we don't lose it if we lose a stupid game or stupid round," NiKo added.

"We always remind each other that if someone's having a good round, we're hyping it up. Even though this game was... it didn't feel important, but we tried to treat it like it was a semi-final at IEM Katowice, so that there's this mental thing going on, hyping each other up and so on. That's the most important thing, to keep this mental energy always high and always hungry to win."

JustHarry dug a bit deeper, asking the Bosnian rifler about what it was that made HooXi stand out as a player when G2 were searching for a new in-game leader.

"I remember when I talked to our manager back then and we were trying to find the best fit possible, I think HooXi was a clear option for me. If you look at how he played for CPH Flames, he was sacrificing a lot for the team, he was entry-fragging, and he was not asking for positions where stars need to be, he's going to do everything for the team.

"I think that's what we lacked in the past lineups we had. He reminded me a lot of karrigan back then, that's what we needed in our lineup as well. We have so many stars, we need a guy who is going to sacrifice a lot for the team and take a lot of the shitty spots and not take it because he's forced to, but it's because he knows that it's the best for the team and he's feeling, not comfortable, but he knows that it works... I think he was the perfect fit for this team, and that's it."

The interview wrapped up with a focus on the Russian wunderkind, Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, and what the 17-year-old prodigy brings to the team, as well as how Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage has been unleashed in comparison to the Australian's underwhelming stint with Complexity from October 2020-November 2021.

"Of course there's a lot of confidence when you can see what that kid can do. It's insane, I'm mind blown almost every time we play. His movement, his flicks, it's almost the easy shots that he has to work on," HooXi commented.

"I think it's very healthy, it's not just for m0NESY that we are jumping for each other. I think everybody is starting to understand what it takes to win a round as a team and not let one guy jump through. A guy like NiKo, you probably know that you can kill pretty much everyone if you take duels straight up, so there's no need for you to jump through smokes, but for the team's sake, it makes sense."

"Obviously I try to help everyone on the team. It's definitely not me who should take the credit, it's himself [jks] and the rest of the guys who are trying to help him out," the Danish tactician continued.

"I think Complexity, the lineup he was in at least, was a very dysfunctional team and that probably doesn't help. His confidence probably didn't go up by playing in a team like that, right? I think slowly he had to get back; he came back from a long break, so it will take some time and he has to get used to my way of calling and get used to new teammates in general. But yeah, it's mostly credit to himself."

G2 will continue their upper bracket run through Group A of ESL Pro League Season 17 with a matchup versus Cloud9 on Thursday at 19:30 , where a win would guarantee HooXi and company a spot in the playoffs in Malta.