NiKo: "kyousuke reminds me a bit of myself — the way he shoots, he likes to go for flashy plays"

The Bosnian ace is disappointed with the Falcons' showing in Bucharest so far but sees a silver lining in the team's fight back from an 0-2 start to 2-2 going into the final day of the group stage.

Falcons could not have had a worst start at PGL Bucharest, losing one-sided affairs to Complexity and GamerLegion, but have since rallied with a 2-1 victory over paiN and a 2-0 against Rare Atom. This is a far cry from the form they showed at a similar event, PGL Cluj-Napoca, where they finished second only to MOUZ.

Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, who says he has never "experienced this bad of a level of CS at an event," still sees a silver-lining in the fact that the team is alive going into the final day of group stage play in the Romanian capital, where they're set to face another favorite that went 0-2 and is now in the Swiss stage's decider round, The MongolZ.

The Bosnian star took some time after the victory against Rare Atom to speak about that and more, including his desire to reunite with Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, what he thinks of what he calls "the hottest prospect right now," Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin, and more.

You can listen to the interview here.

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You lost against GamerLegion and Complexity, two teams that are now through to the playoffs. What seemed to be very upsetting losses at the time maybe don't look quite as bad now?

Yeah, the teams we lost to, GamerLegion and Complexity, are showing very good CS at this event, but I do not think that makes up for the way we played against them. No matter how good they play, the game needs to be close and competitive. We really did not play up to our standards at all in those two games, but props to them because they're really stepping up this event.

It's really cool to see Complexity's improvement this season. Nobody really expected this roster to show such CS very early, so props to them for doing the work, and I think that when it comes to GamerLegion, it was just a matter of time before they made playoffs.

But yeah, we definitely didn't have the best start to the tournament and everything that has been going around has maybe shaken us a bit, but I'm glad that we're managing to bounce back.

We've seen a lot of upsets at this event. Why do you think that is? Do you think the bigger teams are like, 'The super elite teams aren't here, so we don't have to come in with so much intensity,' whereas some of the smaller teams come in thinking, 'Oh, this is our chance'?

Yeah, I mean, I think the fact that this event doesn't really count for [this Major's] VRS points maybe makes it a bit lighter for some other teams. But I don't think that was the case for us. We're not taking this event as just trying to play and get some practice in. We really tried to use the practice as good as possible before this event because we dropped out of BLAST very early and we had a couple of extra days, as well.

We really wanted to do good at this event and I don't really know the exact reason why we showed such bad CS in the first two days. But yeah, it can be that those lower teams... These are the kind of events where you want to get as many points as you can because there are no top dogs, I would say. People could have seen what Cluj did for us, for example, in February, it helped us a lot when it comes to the points.

So yeah, everyone is just chasing those points. Even if it doesn't really matter for this Major, the Cologne invites are going to be happening soon, so every event is just super important and I think that from what we've seen at this event, losing the games against a bit lower-ranked teams hurt us a lot and it's something we have to address when we're entering these kinds of events.

Maybe [we need to] be a bit wiser in the future where we choose to perform and stuff like this because it wasn't optimal. We've played every event of the season so far, so we didn't have too much preparation and time to progress. But yeah, again, I still believe we can do much better at this event than what we have shown so far.

You mention all of the noise around the team right now. There have been two reports, the first one about m0NESY coming and then a second about some interest in kyousuke, as well. Can you speak about those reports and how it has been affecting you guys?

When it comes to reports, it's not my place to talk too much about it, but I think... I'll just say this, kind of in general: When players like m0NESY are available, or when they show a desire to join, it's very different than any other normal player that shows a desire to join. It's a tough situation we're in right now.

There's a lot of uncertainty within the team, and how players feel within the team, but it's something we have addressed and we've really tried to isolate the noise from outside because we still have a lot of events to play together and we really want to try and do as good as possible with the lineup that we have because despite whatever changes are happening, it's important for everyone that we perform.

It doesn't matter what happens next event, it's just important for us that we show our progress. We need to do better than what we have done so far, so I don't want to put all of the blame on the noise. We just have to do better, and I'm happy that we started showing better results.

As I said, I can't really speak too much about the rumors that are out there, I think it's not my place to do so, but we're trying to just do as good as possible even though everyone wants to see us fail. Everyone wants to see us being bad. Everyone is trashing on us. So this also gives extra hunger to win, and to prove [ourselves], so it hasn't been easy these past couple of months, but we're doing our best.

Speaking personally, you and m0NESY had what seemed like a pretty special relationship in G2. Is it something you wish to have again?

I would be pretty stupid if I said that I don't want to play with Ilya again, right? As you said, we had been really close and I would like to play with him again. I said that to everyone on the team the first moment we created this roster. So yeah, we have a very cool relationship, and it's not only because we have a cool relationship; he's one of the best players in the world right now, and I also want the best for him. So yeah, who knows? Maybe we team up again.

What about kyousuke. Not the rumor itself, but have you followed him? There's so much noise about him becoming the next up-and-comer. Have you had the chance to check him out a bit?

I think that when it comes to kyousuke it caught us off-guard a little bit. I'm 100% sure that Falcons are not the only organization trying to talk to him or get him out of the Spirit Academy. I'm not entirely sure what's happening when it comes to Falcons' side and Spirit. I'm not involved in this. Their job is to try and put the best possible roster that we can have. I don't think it has been too advanced when it comes to this. I can't really speak much about it, I just know that nothing is going to happen regarding kyousuke anytime soon.

And have you had a chance to follow him a little bit, learn about the player himself?

Yeah, definitely. I kept an eye on him. I try to see how he's doing, what roles he's playing, just in general how he's moving as a player. I mean, I think there's no doubt that he's the hottest prospect right now on the scene. I don't want to say that he'll be the next donk, there's a lot to prove and to get to that point... donk has set some insane standards. So we'll see, but I think he has a great future ahead of him.

Wherever he finishes, I think he'll land on a top team. In a way, he reminds me a bit of myself — the way he shoots, he likes to go for these flashy plays, one taps. That's cool to see, and just the fact that he's young and already good with such a game sense. When I watch him, it's like those young players are so advanced already that you feel like you don't even need to do much to help him.

Maybe they're just doing a good job at Spirit Academy when it comes to teaching their players how to play proper CS, and that's why they have success in this roster. Props to Spirit Academy, and also to him for just learning the game so fast. It's impressive to see and I'm looking forward to seeing him in tier one.

When you joined Falcons, the first thing you did was to praise zonic as a coach who has it and knows what he's doing, but there's continually people questioning and doubting him. Maybe it has to do with the roster changing and the team struggling... What do you have to say about that? Especially now after that BLAST clip.

When it comes to that clip it's complete bullshit. I'm pretty sure that I was the one who put him in a bad spot by commenting, 'Should I call something or not?' Because I'm 100% sure he would make a call, as well. It was just very tense, people were very stressed, that's why people started asking questions. I think us players put him in a bad spot by asking those things, and obviously BLAST put that part of a timeout, but they don't know what happened beforehand or afterwad.

So yeah, I don't want to go too much into this timeout, but one thing I want to just state is that these clips that events are posting are getting a bit out of control since there's no Louvre Agreement anymore and now they can do whatever they want when it comes to posting these things. People can't really approve or disapprove those things, so they just go out without even asking the management.

I'm not saying there should be no content. I just think there should be a limit on what should be put and what should not be put when it comes to this. It's something we really need to take care of when it comes to the players, the coaches, but also the teams' organization. We need to protect each other as much as we can, and this is something we lack right now in this environment without these agreements. So definitely something needs to be done around it.

I went a bit off-topic, but when it comes to Danny, I really see good qualities in him. In how to build a team. I also do think that he gave me maybe a bit too much space when it comes to the CT sides, and now I'm requiring a bit more help from him.

We actually started now, when we were 0-2 down. He was not taking too much space because I wanted to call on the CT side, and we just needed time to learn each other and get on the same page to see... It's kind of a give-and-take situation, so I do believe that he has a great mind when it comes to CS.

I have not worked with too many coaches that we get aligned with how we want to play and how we see certain situations in the game, so this makes me really happy, that we see the game in the same way. And just him, as a person, he's super nice, and he's very good at talking to players. He's very transparent with everyone. So far, I really enjoy working with him, and I would say all of the noise that has been out there is justified because they really don't know what's happening in the team.

They did not have success last year, which was really terrible. Then, this year, again, it's not the best. Not the worst. It could have been way worse. But I also don't think a lot of it is down to him. I think us, as players, we're not performing to the level we're supposed to perform. At least at most of the events we've played so far, so to put the blame on Danny is just really stupid when the players are not playing the way we're required to play if we want to beat those teams.

There's not much he can do, he's trying to embrace us. He's trying to bring the confidence together. We're having talks all of the time. We're trying to find solutions. But when you get to this point where you start questioning yourself too much, when people are taking duels in a way, there's only so much you can do as a coach. But, as I said, we're addressing those things. He's not wasting time when we're at an event.

We're losing those games, and it looks really bad, but we kept talking, we kept fighting, we kept trying to find the solutions, and he's probably the biggest reason why we found our groove again and started winning at this event. So yeah, for me, he's definitely the best coach I've worked with. But again, as I said, I think what has been going on outside has been justified from the results. I'm just hoping we start getting good results.

It's so insane to see that you go from being the best coach in the world to everyone now trashing you. It's just ridiculous. He has to have qualities if he was the best coach in the world for several years. To think that... I also heard a couple of podcasts with people saying that he's only a moral coach and stuff like that. It's nonsense. He's doing way more than that. He's also patient, and we all believe in him. That's important.

You're now 2-2; the possibility is there. How do you reset and leave the bad days behind to focus on trying to get into the playoffs?

Yesterday was a big relief after we won Train, and also after we won Inferno. It was really not looking good, and even playing, it was so tense. I don't think I've ever experienced this bad of a level of CS at an event, so it was very hard to play. But winning those two maps against paiN, it was super important for us to get a confident win against Rare Atom. That should help us tomorrow.

It seems like we're heading in the right direction when it comes to this tournament. We're showing progress. The things we've addressed are improving slowly, obviously we can't go from being super shit to being insane. There's obviously steps, and I feel like we've improved step by step from yesterday to today, and hopefully from today to tomorrow it will be better, as well, and it might be enough to get to the playoffs. Or it might not.

All I want to see is us doing these things that we have addressed, and who knows, maybe we have to face FaZe or Aurora [Editor's note: The interview was conducted before the end of Aurora's 2-0 victory over Apogee] and it can be a very hard game to get to playoffs, but I really like to see us with the same fighting spirit we had in the last two days.