NiKo: "We needed our redemption [after Rio]"

The Bosnian player opened up about his struggles in Brazil, where he had the worst tournament of his career.

G2 have locked up a spot in the grand final of the BLAST Premier World Final after seeing off Vitality in the last-four stage. It wasn't the prettiest performance from the team, who left it late to win Dust2 and were outclassed on their map pick of Inferno, but they pulled through in the end after taking Mirage convincingly.

It's the third grand final of the season for G2, after the Esports World Cup and the BLAST Premier Fall Final. The team came into this event on the back of a rough showing at IEM Rio, where they went out in last place and Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač had a career-worst 0.51 rating.

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"As soon as I arrived in Rio and started playing DM, I could feel that something was off," he told HLTV after the match "I don't know what and why and how, but I just did not feel comfortable playing at all, and it sucks that I couldn't bounce back at any point."

The Bosnian player also discussed today's rough showing on Inferno, where he and Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa struggled on the B site, admitting that Vitality had a good plan to counter his team's setup.

Quizzed on whether he has a preference for the opponent for Sunday's final, NiKo said he'd like to face Spirit, against whom they are 4-0 this season. "In the end, we shouldn't really care," he said. "I believe we are better than both teams, and we just need to show up and do our job."

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A 2-1 victory and you guys are through the grand final here. How does it feel to make it this far in the tournament, especially after what happened in Rio?

It feels good. Obviously, it was one of our goals. We needed our redemption, I would say. We really wanted to do well in this event to perform at the RMR. It feels good. Honestly, it was a tough game to play, especially after losing Inferno, which kind of didn't slip away, but I felt like we should have won some more rounds on the CT side. I think the game would have been a bit different. But I'm very happy overall that we are in another grand final, that we have a chance of lifting a trophy.

What happened in Rio? It was the worst tournament of your career. And what kind of work did you put in to make sure that you would be in top shape here?

I'm not really sure what happened in Rio and what went wrong exactly, but when it comes to me, as soon as I arrived in Rio and started playing DM, I could feel that something was off. I don't know what and why and how, but I just did not feel comfortable playing at all, and it sucks that I couldn't bounce back at any point.

The way it started, that's how it finished. That's when it comes to me, but when it comes to the team overall, maybe we got a bit relaxed after winning the BLAST Fall Final. We didn't practice after it, which we thought was necessary to relax, but maybe, looking back, we could have played a day or two, and then maybe it would have been different, who knows? But yeah. Just a bad event.

You had a hard time on Dust2, even though you won the map in the end. You had an 11-3 lead and then you let them come back a little bit, and then on Inferno you had a 6-1 lead, and then they just took control of the game. What happened in those first two games?

I'm not really sure. I think we wanted to close out the games too fast. That's what it looked like. We wanted to win every round that we played, we wanted to play the situations way too fast. As soon as we got some exchanges with frags, we wanted to react to every situation, and then they were just out there punishing us for every move. That is probably the biggest reason. Obviously, it's hard to say now without rewatching it, but that's just how it felt in-game.

On Inferno, I think we just messed up our CT side. We had good starters. We get a frag or two early in the round. I think they just had a good plan on how to counter us on B. Me and malbs… It's not that we didn't play well. I just think they were ready for what we had and they were well prepared, I would say. It sucks that we couldn't adapt faster on the CT side.

I think those two maps were probably the reason why we closed it out on Mirage. I think we were like still calm, even though we lost a couple of rounds. We still took a timeout to discuss what was going wrong, and then we came up with a plan and we won the last round quite comfortably.

You're now going up against either Spirit or Astralis in the Grand Final. You beat Spirit here in the group stage. It has been almost four years since your last defeat to Astralis. What are your expectations for this match and do you have any preferences?

I'm not really sure. I think I would probably rather play Spirit. As you said, we haven't played on Astralis in a long time. I don't know the way they play. I haven't even watched them too much. And I don't know what's happening in their camp with cadiaN and everything. Maybe they play with a little bit more freedom, now that maybe he's feeling a bit worse or whatever. So I think we probably prefer Spirit, also because we beat them the last couple of times. But in the end, we shouldn't really care. I believe we are better than both teams, and we just need to show up and do our job.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier World Final 2024
03/11/2024	G2 10:00 Spirit	Match

You're now just one win away from taking your second trophy in a short amount of time. How big of a boost would that be, before the Major?

It should be a big boost, but again, we don't want to make the same mistake we did in Rio. I think we got some experience with that. But it would mean a lot for our confidence going into the RMR. But again, the RMR is just a very difficult event to play, especially with all the other teams that you don't really have too much experience playing against. I don't want to focus too much on Shanghai right now. A very important game tomorrow, and we just need to give it our all.