NiKo: "This is the first time my team is very open to problems"

G2's star rifler sat down for a three-hour long discussion on the Talking Counter podcast.

G2 have started the year in blistering form, winning IEM Katowice and becoming the No. 1 team in the world. All this has been achieved in the midst of a hectic schedule, which finally concluded for the time being with their showing at the ESL Pro League.

After successfully qualifying for the ESL Pro League playoffs Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač sat down alongside Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill, Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole and Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović for an episode of the Talking Counter podcast. He spoke about a range of topics including G2's preparation for the early part of the year, his opinions on his teammates, as well as his thoughts about rival team Outsiders and rival player Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev.

The first immediately relevant discussion came with NiKo addressing G2's hectic schedule for the first months of 2023, and how being on the road so much has affected the team's preparation.

"It can be hard to always come up with crazy new things, but we still have to find a way if we want to maintain being the No. 1 team in the world." the rifler stated. "We are a very hard working team, when it comes to server and in-game things I am 100% confident we will keep delivering."

The Bosnian opined that it was factors out of the server that G2 needed to focus on, saying "it's just about those mental things, we always have to talk about how to be always happy when we are playing, always motivated, even if you are having a bad game. I think that's probably our biggest weakness." He later confessed "I'm struggling sometimes when I am not playing my best, then we have jks as well who is very similar to me, and those things can spread… we are working on these things a lot."

NiKo went on to credit Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen for the team's work on the mental side of their game, calling him "one of the most honest persons I have ever met in CS", adding "every time there is an issue or something that is bothering, he will tell you straight to your face... this is the first time my team is very open to problems, every time we have a problem we sit down and talk about it."

Discussion eventually turned to G2's performance in their ESL Pro League group, with NiKo stating "I think individually this has been the worst event for us in ages, I don't remember the last time since I joined G2 we played this bad individually." It wasn't all doom and gloom from the Bosnian considering the team qualified for the playoffs, and he concluded "if we can manage to win playing our B game, then we are a very strong team."

The 26-year-old also had some interesting thoughts to share when the podcast turned to the topic of Outsiders, the reigning Major champions: "They are always going to make a deep run at the Major, they can always make a good run at a tournament… but it looks like they cannot run with momentum because of their playstyle." He later summarised his thoughts by saying "I think the playstyle that Jame wants to play, I don't think it's good enough to be a No. 1 team."

There was plenty of chat regarding the meta in Counter-Strike throughout the podcast, both historical and more recent developments, and NiKo weighed in with his opinion, saying "default is the most important thing, but everyone also knows how to counter a default, so it's important to dictate how you want to do the default… if you default, you need to make sure you put pressure everywhere at the same time."

Bringing his thoughts to his own team, he went on to add "if we are doing default that means we have to constantly be annoying, so they cannot greed nades anywhere, and then it's easier for HooXi to make the call as well. I think some of the teams are missing that... HooXi wants players to make the calls if they see an opening, that's when we are the best." There are some interesting parallels here with how Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller views the game, as evidenced by his comments on jabbi in an interview after winning last year's BLAST Fall Final.

Plenty of talk regarding Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov also came up in the podcast, and NiKo provided a number of interesting thoughts on the young AWPer. First he praised the sniper's mind for the game, stating that "in practice he is very good, but on FACEIT when he speaks Russian, he could be an in-game leader… the way he speaks and understands the game is just insane." Then NiKo addressed m0NESY's work rate, saying "I think we finished the game yesterday and then he played FACEIT until 5am or something, it's crazy... I wish I could play this much CS, I just cannot." He later quipped "it's so hard to be happy playing FACEIT, but m0NESY is!"

Finally NiKo referenced an experience hearing the Cloud9 comms at a tournament, recalling "we were sitting behind Cloud9, I was warming up, but I was hearing a lot of voice, I didn't know who was talking so much… I asked m0NESY who is talking so much, it was sh1ro." The rifler went on to say "this is what I want from m0NESY as well, you need to control the game, especially on CT… you can constantly build the game around yourself."

Conversation briefly turned to NiKo's reputation in the scene, particularly focusing on times where the Bosnian has been seen as a toxic influence. The infamous clip of NiKo shouting "shut up" to his team during his time on mousesports (now MOUZ) served as the catalyst for the discussion, and it was revealed that it was two of his teammates arguing about a prior round that caused the exchange. "That's why I was telling them to shut up, so I could actually call something," he said, also revealing that he was the in-game leader at the time.

Speaking more generally about whether the community perception still bothered him, NiKo stated "not right now, I think I had issues before I left FaZe, that's when I was at the lowest point in my career. Everything was going wrong, everyone was kinda blaming me, everything was on my shoulders and my back. The biggest reason I left FaZe was because of the pressure, I couldn't handle being there anymore." He concluded the discussion by saying "right now I am more mature, obviously I don't care as much about those things, the only thing that I hate is when people have the wrong picture about you but you cannot do anything about it."

In one of the last relevant topics discussed, the podcast gave their thoughts on the recent slump of s1mple, which NiKo weighed in on: "He is definitely not the same player as he was, I think he lost a bit of confidence… it just shows when the team is not functioning, how much it can impact on your individual level as well. I think that's what he is going through right now." The Bosnian was in no doubt as to whether s1mple would return to form however, stating "I guess it's the system they have right now, it's probably not the best for him… I think he will bounce back sooner than later."

A vast range of other topics were covered in the three-hour long podcast, including NiKo's origin story in Counter-Strike, his opinion on the competitive landscape now versus during his time on FaZe, and how he feels playing FACEIT pugs. Check out the full podcast to catch all the discussion.