NiKo

Nikola Kovač (born 16 February 1997), better known by his in-game alias NiKo, is a Bosnian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and former Counter-Strike player, who plays for FaZe Clan[2], serving as the in-game leader and rifler. He is considered by many to be one of the best CSGO players in the world.[3]

NiKo
Nikola Kovač
NiKo competing at an ESL event in 2018
Personal information
Born (1997-02-16) 16 February 1997
Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina
HometownBrčko
NationalitySerbians
Nickname(s)NiKo
Career information
StatusActive
Current teamFaZe Clan
GamesCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
RoleIn-game leader
Rifler (entry fragger)
Career prize money$711,420.69[1]
Career history
2010 – 2013Team Refuse
2012 – 2013iNation
2013 – 2014GamePub
2014 – 2015aimface
2015 – 2015iNation
2015 – 2015mousesports
2015 – 2015mousesports (backup)
2015 – 2017mousesports
2017 – presentFaZe Clan

NiKo first gained notoriety across Europe after being picked up by the team iNation. His impressive performances led to interest from mousesports, who signed him in March 2015.[4] In February 2017, thanks to his impressive performance, he was recruited by FaZe Clan to garner together a star-player team. He is the cousin of another professional CS:GO player, Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač.[5]

Achievements

NiKo's first big tournament win was at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3, followed by a winless period of five months with a near miss at Esports Championship Series Season 3. Following a re-shuffle of the FaZe roster, bringing in the two best players of 2015; Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer Gustafsson and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács,[6][7] FaZe was rejuvenated and managed back-to-back flawless victories at ESL One: New York 2017 and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017. Following this, the team went two months without a win before taking the Esports Championship Series Season 4 trophy over mousesports at the end of the year. Falling just short in ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, the first Major of 2018,[8] the team then entered another lull, this time with Richard "Xizt" Landström standing in for olofmeister, until they managed to take home Intel Extreme Masters XIII - Sydney, and shortly after, managing to win ESL One: Belo Horizonte 2018 trophies at the beginning of the summer with Jørgen "cromen" Robertsen as a stand-in. In October 2018, FaZe came first place in the EPICENTER 2018 event in Moscow, Russia, making this his seventh first place victory at a premier event with FaZe Clan. At the end of 2019, this trophy count had gone up to ten as FaZe had won BLAST Pro Series Moscow.

Awards & Recognition
  • Was voted the 11th best player of 2016 by HLTV.[9]
  • Was voted the 2nd best player of 2017 by HLTV.[10]
  • Was voted the 3rd best player of 2018 by HLTV.[11]
  • Was voted the 11th best player of 2019 by HLTV.[9]
  • Was voted the MVP of 6 different tournaments.[12]

References
  1. "NiKo - Nikola Kovač - CS:GO Player Profile :: Esports Earnings".
  2. "NiKo: "From now on karrigan won't be the in-game leader"".
  3. "Top 20 players of 2018: NiKo (1)". HLTV.org. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  4. "mousesports pick up NiKo". HLTV.org. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  5. "NiKo".
  6. "Olofmeister joins FaZe, replaces kioShiMa".
  7. "GuardiaN replaces allu in FaZe".
  8. "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive".
  9. Švejda, Milan. "Top 20 players of 2019: NiKo (11)". HLTV.org. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  10. "Top 20 players of 2017: NiKo (2)". HLTV.org. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  11. "Top 20 players of 2018: NiKo (3)". HLTV.org. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  12. "Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač".
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