NiKo: "I wanted to go and hug malbsMd right after that clutch"

"I would have hated myself if we had lost Mirage," the Bosnian rifler added.

G2 moved past HEROIC to reach the semi-final of the Shanghai Major, but it was touch-and-go for much of the series as the team had to capitalize on an exceptional CT showing from Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač on Nuke and two crucial clutches from Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa on the Mirage decider to edge out the victory.

The Bosnian rifler told HLTV after the series that he "would have hated [himself] if [G2] had lost Mirage and praised his Guatemalan teammate saying, "he bailed us out big time" in the intense decider.

NiKo also spoke about his own masterful CT effort on Nuke, where he powered G2 to a recovery from a 5-8 deficit with triple-kills in six rounds out of the last nine.

"I really didn't want to lose that game, I felt like I needed to be there for my team, and I'm happy I managed to step up."

If you cannot see the SoundCloud embed above, you can listen to the interview here.

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Congrats, 2-1. You had an on-fire start to the series, but it took an insane effort from malbsMd in the end to take it over the line. He had this 1v3 in OT and a big Tec-9 round in regulation, so just tell me about your thoughts after such a ridiculous end to the series.

Yeah, he bailed us out big time. Honestly, I would have hated myself if we had lost Mirage because, as you said, I played pretty well on the first two maps and then on Mirage, I was okay on CT, but then I fucked up one round where I overpeeked in a 4v2.

Thank god he [malbsMd] stepped up massively, he bailed us out with those two rounds as you said. They were both super impactful rounds for us and I wanted to go and hug him right after that clutch. Actually, I think the round with the Tec-9 was maybe even more important, and I'm super happy for him honestly. Maybe he's struggled a bit sometimes on stage, but this game should help him a lot going forward when it comes to the big games.

(Sighs) Yeah, emotions are high, it was a really exhausting game and I don't know how I would have felt if it had gone their way. I'm really happy and relieved right now.

This was probably the hardest game for us in the playoffs because I think HEROIC is a very good team right now, they're a huge dark horse, and they're playing very, very solid CS. We knew it was going to be tough and I'm just happy with the win.

You and m0NESY both had really good games when the series started, the rest of the team was struggling. You ended up 0:4 in clutches on Ancient and nothing seemed to be going your way despite your best efforts, can you tell me about that start, falling so flat as a team, and still bouncing back on Nuke?

I don't really know what happened on Ancient. We lost some crucial rounds, such as the retake on A — if we had won that round it would have been a different story. We got a 5v3 and a 4v2 very quickly, and then it all just fell apart. MR12 you cannot really lose those types of rounds.

The bigger issue is we went too confident into the game, like we were... I don't want to say relaxed, but we just felt comfortable and confident. It was not enough effort from us as a team even though we had some good starts to the rounds, some good reads, we knew where they were going a couple of times but we didn't manage to close out the rounds.

Ancient is a map we have been working on a lot and it's not so consistent as of right now, but we have some good things. We knew it was going to be very tough against HEROIC on this map, they destroyed us in practice once as well, so we just knew it's not going to be easy. I believe it could've been way closer if we won some rounds on CT and if we could have broken their economy on T side, it would have been a different story. Unfortunately we didn't and... yeah.

But I'm happy how we put that map behind us and we focused on Nuke, but even Nuke then started hard as well. You lose the pistol, we were full eco, and then they survived with five guys, two rounds in a row. You know this is going to be tough already. But we had a good game plan on Nuke and that's a reason we came back on T side, and on CT side we just kind of steamrolled them-

YOU kind of steamrolled them, you had six rounds where you got three kills out of the last nine rounds.

That's good to hear, I didn't even remember what was happening to be honest (laughs). But I really didn't want to lose that game, I felt like I needed to be there for my team, and I'm happy I managed to step up.

I just showed disrespect to them, I was just running and overpeeking everything. I felt like we needed to show them we had bigger balls than them and this time it worked. They were not punishing me, maybe there were also a bit stressed that they were close to winning, I don't really know what was going on.

I'm happy with how I played today overall, maybe not so much on Mirage and not so much on T side, but overall I'm happy with my performance and happy with how we came back as a team. Because on Mirage it was the malbsMd show towards the end, but it was also a lot of team effort, there were a lot of close rounds, and I'm very proud of everyone for this one.

On Nuke it seemed like you flipped a switch, like you said, 'I'm not losing this game, this is who NiKo is.' Did it feel like that for you as well?

Definitely. After I got this 3K with the Deagle, I don't know, everything started going my way, basically. I just showed no fear and went out there, took every duel that I could. I was running, even when we had an advantage.

It worked on Nuke, on Mirage it didn't (laughs), sometimes that's the life when you're over-aggressive. But as I said, team effort, Wiktor [TaZ] also played a big part as well. After Ancient he had a good talk for us, he motivated us, and he brought us back together. That also helped a lot.

One out of six pistols in this series, the only one you won was at the start of Ancient, actually. Rough starts every time, how do you keep fighting back from something like that especially now that you're going into the semis?

It's definitely something to look at and improve because if you lose both pistols, the game is just so tough to come back. That's one of the reasons Mirage was so close as well, they got good starts, we didn't manage to break them on second rounds because we ecoed, so overall it was just tough. But overall they were very on point in pistol rounds, especially TeSeS had some very crazy kills.

We just need to step up when it comes to pistols. Obviously, I'm happy if we win in the end like we did today, I wouldn't mind, but it will make our life easier if we start by winning. Usually we are super good on pistol rounds but I don't know what happened in this game.

You play the winner of FaZe vs. Vitality, any thoughts on that game and how you feel going into the semis tomorrow?

We feel very good, to be honest. We honestly thought that this was going to be our hardest game, and against both Vitality and FaZe we have a good record lately. They're both good opponents for us and I believe that they would think the same way if they go to the semi-final.

You're not going to the semi-final thinking that you are worse than anyone or that you shouldn't beat them. We have good things, we are confident now, and as I said this win helped a lot. We just need to do the same thing tomorrow and we don't really mind who we play. It is going to be just as tough so just hoping for another great game, maybe a little bit less stress and a bit easier if possible, but hoping for a very fun exciting game.

Lastly I've talked to you at a few Majors now, they've ended in heartbreak every time. Is this the one that is going to be different, are you winning it?

That is my goal. I always try not to think too much about it because that puts more pressure on myself mostly, so I'm trying not to think too much about just lifting a trophy but rather what I need to do to make me get there. I don't need to say how much I want it or... I don't want to say deserve it, but I've been fighting for it way too long.

I need to do my job, I need to play well, I need to help my team and be there for them because I have a lot of experience so I think I can share some of the past struggles that I had. The most important thing is to have fun and enjoy (bursts out laughing).