Top 20 players of 2018: NiKo (3)

FaZe superstar Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač returns to the podium as he takes the third spot in our top 20 ranking of 2018, powered by EGB.com.

Top 20 players of 2018: Introduction

NiKo's journey in the Counter-Strike scene began a decade ago with the player competing in a series of 1.6 tournaments that were held in Bosnia and in Serbia. In 2011, he had his first real taste of international competition as Sarajevo hosted Adepto BH Open, which had over $15,000 in prize money. Playing under the tutelage of Nemanja "⁠k1Ng0r⁠" Bošković, one of the most experienced players in the region, NiKo helped the eu4ia mix to reach the quarter-finals, in which they would be crushed by eventual runners-up fnatic.

Not long afterwards, NiKo got a call to play for iNation, the best team in the region at the time, led by Aleksandar "⁠kassad⁠" Trifunović, with whom he would cross paths again several years later in mousesports. With CS:GO already released, that team attended DreamHack Bucharest 2012, one of the last international 1.6 events, once again finishing 5th-8th after losing to fnatic (with a slightly different line-up) in the quarter-finals.

iNation eventually made the switch to CS:GO, strengthening their roster with the addition of Serbian duo Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović and k1Ng0r. The team placed 9th-12th at Mad Catz Vienna and DreamHack Open Bucharest while playing as e-Sports.rs and Refuse, respectively, with NiKo already demonstrating at the time that he was too big to be contained in a regional team. That feeling was reinforced later in the year as he led GamePub to a third-place finish at StarSeries VIII, where the team beat Astana Dragons and played out close matches against AGAiN, who would go on to win a Major the following year under Virtus.pro, and Natus Vincere. For a brief period, it looked like a new international contender had arrived, but the team would come to an end in 2014 following internal issues that were heightened by some lacklustre online results.

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Disheartened by the lack of opportunities in the local scene, NiKo spent several months on the sidelines before returning to action with iNation/aimface towards the end of 2014, playing in several online tournaments. That would not last though, as the Bosnian would jump at the chance to compete at the highest level in March 2015 as he accepted an offer to join MOUZ as a replacement for Michele "⁠zonixx⁠" Köhler.

NiKo quickly put his talent on full display, helping the team to a fourth-place finish at the ESEA Invite Season 18 Global Finals and to a first-place finish at the ESL Frühlingsmeisterschaft 2015 Finals, where he averaged a sensational 1.70 rating. Still, much to everyone’s surprise that was not enough for the Bosnian to keep his spot in the line-up as mousesports landed PENTA’s trio of Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget, Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell and Timo "⁠Spiidi⁠" Richter, switching in-game communication back to German.

"When I was benched, I felt betrayed and very bad. Because, even though they had their reasons, I thought I didn't deserve it as I was ready to give everything to make it work with mousesports - and I think I did just that. I don't think I disappointed anyone since I joined the team. The only one disappointed was me, it was a big personal drop but at the same time I had a lot of motivation to get back into the team and prove my worth to them." - NiKo in his top 20 of 2016 article.

Despite the setback, NiKo refused to lie still and made the most of his time off, playing for Kinguin at the Gaming Paradise LAN qualifier, and helping SK at IEM X Gamescom and in the qualifier for DreamHack London 2015. After a group stage exit at ESL One Cologne, MOUZ, with the Bosnian taking Spiidi’s place in the starting line-up. Before the end of the year, the team placed 5th-6th at Gaming Paradise, 9th-12th at Dreamhack Open Cluj-Napoca and second at the CEVO S8 Finals.

2016 was a difficult year for NiKo, who by now had assumed the in-game leadership role following Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik’s departure. The team struggled to make it out of groups at international events, only twice reaching the semi-finals, at ELEAGUE Season 1 and at the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals. Still, despite mousesports' shortcomings, NiKo was named the 11th best player of 2016 thanks to his impressive 1.15 LAN rating, 1.41 impact rating and 89.5 damage per round.

Things were about to change for NiKo, who attended just two events with mousesports in 2017, including the ELEAGUE Major, where the Bosnian continued his negative Major streak as the team were eliminated in the Swiss stage following defeats to Natus Vincere, fnatic and Liquid. Before jumping ship to FaZe, the Bosnian played one final event for MOUZ, helping the team to a top-eight finish at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas.

NiKo enjoyed immediate success with FaZe, who made the final at their first four events, though only winning the title at StarSeries i-League Season 3, where the Bosnian picked up his first MVP medal. But in the aftermath of a group stage exit at PGL Major Krakow, the team hit the panic button, bringing in Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer and Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács, two players who would take the squad to a new level.

FaZe won ESL One New York and ELEAGUE Premier in such a convincing fashion that it looked like they would establish an era in Counter-Strike. However, NiKo’s troops found themselves on the losing side of an intense rivalry forged with SK, who were reaching new heights with Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass, leading to just one more title for the Europeans, at the ECS Season 4 Finals, before the end of the year. The Brazilians’ resurgence also saw NiKo finish behind Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David in the race for the title of best player of 2018.

"I ended 2017 in second place, both individually and collectively. At that time, our biggest goal was to become the best team in the world. It is hard to set out any different goals when you are second other than being the best next year. I believe that we would have been on the right path if we had won the ELEAGUE Major and IEM Katowice."

FaZe left Boston with a bitter taste in their mouths as they lost the title to Cloud9 in heartbreaking fashion. The European team looked to be en-route to a memorable title after disposing of SK, MOUZ and Natus Vincere, but they lost their grip on the third map of the final at the final hurdle, wasting four championship points as they allowed the North Americans to make one final push and win the match in overtime.

NiKo was fourth in the MVP race in Boston, boasting a 1.45 rating in map wins leading to victories and a 1.21 playoff rating, thanks to his dominant performances against MOUZ (1.52 Rating, +24 KDD and 107 ADR) and Natus Vincere (1.50 Rating, +20 KDD and 99 ADR).

"One thing I will never forget are the emotions we/I had during the game, that is something I had never felt before. There were so many ups and downs in that game, especially on the last map, so many mixed emotions, it is very hard to explain what I felt playing that match. At some point, it was like I could only see my monitor and hear my teammates, I could not notice anything else, I could not hear the crowd, I could not think of anything else but about the round we were playing, it was crazy. It was really a great experience to be part of the match.

"What I think that went wrong is that we picked a wrong map [Overpass], one that, at the time, we were not the most comfortable playing on. Besides that, we had not played Overpass in the New Challengers or the New Legends stages, while we had looked really confident in our Cache during the Major, we had won like three or four games on it pretty convincingly, and we felt really comfortable playing it. But we picked Overpass because we had always beaten C9 on that map and we had that long streak of wins against them.

"Inferno was where we f*cked up the most. That was where we and Finn did not do our jobs. Our heads were not clear enough to make the right call. From 15-11 onwards, C9 played the same way every round and we could not adapt. It was like we wanted to finish it too quickly, we tried forcing stuff instead of taking things easy and really looking at how C9 were playing and adapting to it."

In the grand final against Cloud9, NiKo looked a far cry from the player who had been so dominant earlier in the tournament, so I asked whether it was an off-day for him or he felt the pressure of playing his first Major final:

"I felt super confident the whole event, even before the final. I was 100% sure that I was going to dominate them, I even broke some of my own records in deathmatch and aimbotz the night before the final and I really thought that nothing could go wrong individually. I was so ready, both inside and outside the game, we had spent like 25 days in North America as far as I remember and I was eating pretty healthy food every day and I had been working out every day just to be in the best possible shape throughout the whole event (qualifier and main event).

"It was hard to imagine that I could have a "day off" with my performances up until that point, the only thing that worried me right before the final was the Overpass map. That was the map I felt the least comfortable playing at that time. If you look up the stats, that is one of my worst maps, I have had many poor performances on that map. I don’t think pressure was the issue, I went into the final match just like I had for every match we had played in the playoffs. I have no idea what went wrong, maybe I felt overconfident, maybe it was just a day off, maybe I choked? It’s the biggest regret of my whole life, so I am going to try to make sure it never happens again."

NiKo was out for blood after that crushing loss, and took revenge on Cloud9 in the Swiss stage of StarSeries i-League Season 4 with a team-leading 1.62 Rating and 99.5 damage per round in a clean 2-0 victory. After winning three straight matches in that initial stage, FaZe moved past Renegades in the quarter-finals off the back of a 1.39 rating from NiKo before losing to Natus Vincere in the semi-finals.

The disappointing performance against the Ukrainian team (1.00 rating) brought NiKo's playoff rating down to 1.14, which, coupled with a 1.08 impact rating (a year-low for him), saw the Bosnian ranked seventh among the EVPs for that tournament.

Next up came IEM Katowice, where NiKo produced a masterclass of a performance against ORDER with a 2.70 rating in FaZe's opening match. That set the tone for another impressive tournament from the Bosnian, though in the end he would still return home empty-handed as his team were defeated by fnatic in a thrilling five-map series.

This time around, NiKo sat at the top of the EVP list with a 1.31 rating, 90.5 ADR and a tournament-high 0.87 kills per round, also boasting the highest number of maps with 1.30+ ratings, nine, one more than MVP Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist.

"We had taken six or seven days off after the Major loss so everyone could clear their heads and stay focused for the upcoming events. StarSeries was kind of a warmup for IEM Katowice, since our top priority at that point was the Intel Grand Slam, so the Na`Vi loss did not affect us that much. I believe we played good CS in Katowice but we were not as prepared as we had been for the Major. However, I would not say that was the problem.

"The last map against fnatic, we had a small talk before it and we decided to try to have more fun and freedom playing that map so we would not do the same mistakes that we had done against Cloud9 at the Major. I would not say it was a mental issue, we lost the final just because of those clutches on the last map and flusha going crazy, we lost a 4v2 at 13-11 and a 1v3 at 15-14 to flusha."

The medium-sized V4 Future Sports Festival looked the perfect tournament for FaZe to unwind and finally end their trophyless run. However, the team would not even manage to reach the final as they lost to Virtus.pro in the last-four stage, with NiKo posting a 1.19 rating, just 4% higher than the squad’s average.

"There is not much to talk about that event, it was weird to play from day one and a complete failure from us. Olof already knew at that point that he would be forced to take a break, though he did not mention it to us until after the event was over for us. It was just weird to play, the feeling was off."

An April Fools' Day announcement confirmed Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström as the team's stand-in for an undisclosed period of time as olofmeister had been granted a leave of absence due to personal reasons. In their first event with the former Ninjas in Pyjamas captain, FaZe finished 5th-8th at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, beating Envy twice in the group stage before being crushed by Astralis in the first round of the playoffs. NiKo turned in great showings in the group stage, even in the 0-2 loss to Cloud9, but he would barely see any action in the quarter-final encounter, ending the tournament with a 1.21 rating and outside the EVP places.

FaZe's trophyless run finally came to an end at IEM Sydney, a tournament that had initially looked like a disaster for NiKo's troops as they were sent to the lower bracket by Renegades and had to work hard to fend off Grayhound's challenge. But after reaching the playoffs at Cloud9's expense, FaZe shifted into a higher gear, beating fnatic and TYLOO to book a grand final spot, in which they would take down Astralis 3-0 in a closer match than the scoreline suggests.

NiKo had just two below-average ratings in 17 maps and recorded a tournament-high 12 1.15+ rated maps, excelling on the Terrorist side with a 1.28 rating. Still, he had to settle for an EVP mention as the MVP honour was scooped by GuardiaN following the Slovakian's impressive grand final performance.

"I really thought we were going to be eliminated in the groups after our showing against Renegades. The atmosphere in the team was so bad, we had so many arguments in the rounds against Renegades, there was no team spirit, communication was terrible and everything was just wrong. It really felt that we were done for that event. The day after, RobbaN forced us to have a very serious talk outside right before the Grayhound match and forced us to discuss what was bothering us while we played, why the mood was so bad, etc.

"We started playing slightly better after that, even though we still struggled against Grayhound. It really felt like we were getting better and better after every map and match, which everyone can see from our results. We did not really expect to beat Astralis 3-0, but all three maps had 30+ rounds, so it was still very, very close, but we knew we had a chance to win. Honestly, winning that event felt really great, it really meant a lot to us, especially because it was our first trophy in 2018 and because we won it with a stand-in. That trophy really kept our hopes and goals high. Even though we were playing with a stand-in, it was a big relief. It was also great to see Xizt lift the trophy."

After the event Down Under, FaZe hit a brick wall in the form of Astralis at their next two events, the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals and the ECS Season 5 Finals, losing to the Danes in the semi-finals of both tournaments in one-sided series. NiKo earned an EVP mention in Dallas after producing a series of strong performances, ending the tournament as the best non-Astralis player: 1.35 rating, 24% higher than the team's average, 91.2 ADR, 0.85 KPR and 0.17 opening kills per round.

At the tournament in London, the team's first with Jorgen "⁠cromen⁠" Robertsen, NiKo had his highest ADR of the year, 93.3, and a solid 1.25 rating, but his lacklustre performance against Astralis saw him miss out on a place among the EVPs.

"At EPL we got super wrecked by Astralis. We had high goals for that event since it was just a few days after IEM Sydney, but we already knew then that Xizt was going to join fnatic, so it was a bit different than in Sydney. It is not an excuse, though, Astralis wrecked us. ECS was our first event with cromen, I had never talked to the guy before nor played with him, we did not practice for the event and basically took cromen just two or three days before the tournament. Astralis were already in their prime at that point and were absolutely dominant.

"But yeah, it was frustrating that we could not fight with our starting roster, especially because we had played some pretty good CS at the start of the year. I believe we could have had a good rivalry with Astralis."

FaZe bounced back from those semi-final finishes by claiming the title at ESL One Belo Horizonte, an event skipped by Astralis. Quick 2-0 victories over Ghost and Space Soldiers sent the team through to the semi-finals, in which they bested Liquid in convincing fashion. The grand final against MOUZ, who were attending the event with a stand-in themselves, turned out to be a scrappy affair, with FaZe coming out on top after five maps thanks to a great display by NiKo (1.40 rating, +45 KDD).

The Bosnian player left Belo Horizonte with the MVP medal in the bag after leading nine stats categories, most notably rating (1.39), KDD (+100), kills per round (0.88) and KAST (79.3%).

"Astralis were not attending that event, so we knew we had a higher chance of winning it and getting a third trophy for the Grand Slam, which helped a lot with confidence. We went from London straight to Belo Horizonte without any practice with cromen, but the team clicked somehow and karrigan had a really good way of calling with cromen so it worked out quite well. Everyone was on point individually, which resulted in us lifting the trophy. The crowd was absolutely amazing at that event, the support they gave to MIBR and especially to TACO since we faced him in the semi-finals was absolutely insane. It was a really nice atmosphere in which to play."

Next up was ESL One Cologne, which turned out to be cromen's last event with the team. FaZe beat BOOT-d[S], MIBR and fnatic en route to the semi-finals, in which they were surprised by BIG. Despite finishing all nine maps that he played with above-average ratings, NiKo had just two 1.30+ rated maps and recorded his lowest ADR of the year (78.4), barely making the EVP list.

With olofmeister finally back in contention after a long period on the sidelines, FaZe fans thought that the worst was over and that the team would eventually get back on their feet, but the first times with the Swede were difficult. FaZe crashed out of ELEAGUE Premier after just two matches, and could not make it past the quarter-finals at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, despite NiKo putting in great numbers (1.31 rating, 1.52 impact, 87.5 ADR in Atlanta, 1.36 rating, 90.6 ADR and 0.89 KPR in the Swedish capital).

"We had some rough times after olof's return. But ELEAGUE Premier did not feel so bad since it was our first event with cromen, we lost four close maps to fnatic and mousesports, and everyone was already looking forward to having a vacation because it was the last event of the season. In Stockholm, I believe we had a very wrong approach to practice, I feel like everyone in the team thought that we would be back to the top just because olof had returned, so we had a wrong thought process from the beginning. We had a week-long bootcamp before Stockholm and before the Major, which was not productive at all. That is why we failed at both events, in my opinion."

By the time the Major started, expectations surrounding FaZe were already alarmingly low, but no-one could have predicted what was about to happen. Defeats to BIG and Natus Vincere put NiKo's team on the brink of elimination and forced the Bosnian to take the reins of the squad. With the 21-year-old in command, the team eventually made it through to the playoffs, but a quarter-final encounter with Astralis proved to be too huge a task for the team to handle.

"The only reason why we made the playoffs at the Major (our biggest goal after being down 0-2) was that everyone was fighting until the end, everyone was willing to do everything to keep us alive at that tournament. I would say that it [taking up the in-game leader role] was more of a mental shake-up, even karrigan himself said we had a higher chance of reaching the playoffs if I took over. He was also ready to make that sacrifice so we could stay alive, so it was not like we forced karrigan not to call, we knew that this was the best solution."

Things would still get worse for FaZe before they got better, though, as the team had another group stage exit at ESL One New York following defeats to G2 and NRG, with NiKo once again left to feel that he was a one-man army for the team (1.22 rating, 18% higher than the team's average, 89.3 ADR and 1.30 Impact rating).

"ESL One New York event was probably the lowest point where we could get. We had gone back to karrigan being the in-game leader, and we thought we could go back to our old routine, but it was just too late. We had lost trust in karrigan’s calls, we were doubting his calls too much, I would say, which also led to him losing confidence in calling."

With confidence at all-time low, FaZe surprised everyone as they claimed the title at EPICENTER after a dominant run that included back-to-back victories against hometown favourites Natus Vincere. After ending the group stage with a 1.23 rating, the Bosnian blew everyone away with a tournament-high 1.41 playoff rating, netting his second MVP medal of the year.

"The EPICENTER trophy meant a lot to the team, since we had had some pretty poor results before that. Winning it just gave us more hope and confidence, especially after changing the in-game leader, so everyone thought we were on the right path. I won the MVP but I feel like I did not play out of my mind, I was just happy that I could remain in form while calling. And it felt good to lift a trophy with olof once again. Many more to come this year!"

Having failed to qualify for the offline finals of the ESL Pro League and ECS, FaZe found playing chances very limited in the last two months of the year. NiKo would claim his final EVP of 2018 at IEM Chicago, where he averaged a 1.24 rating, the second-highest overall, in the team's semi-final finish. The Bosnian played a key role in the 2-0 victory over Astralis in the group stage with a 1.60 rating/+21 KDD and posted his highest CT rating of the year (1.51) in this tournament, appearing on the stats leaderboards in seven different categories.

The event in Chicago was sandwiched by two BLAST Pro Series events, where NiKo posted some of his worst numbers of the year: 1.10 Impact and 1.11 Rating in the team's fourth-place finish in Copenhagen, 1.03 rating, 0.72 deaths per round and 59.1% KAST in the fifth-place finish in Lisbon.

Shortly after the Portuguese event, FaZe confirmed the benching of Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, who had appeared to be living on borrowed time since publicly admitting that BLAST Copenhagen could be his last event for the team. When asked if the uncertainty surrounding the Danish player contributed to the team's poor form in the final months of the year, NiKo said:

"karrigan's statement was misleading at that point, it was a bit of misunderstanding for everyone. We did not think about changing anyone until BLAST Pro Series Lisbon."

While in Lisbon, NiKo revealed that he felt 2018 had been a better year individually than the previous one. So I asked him if he still felt the same way upon learning that he had been ranked lower when compared to the 2017 ranking:

"Yes, I still feel the same, I would say that I was slightly more consistent in 2018 than in the previous year, even though we have won fewer events. Obviously, collective success has a big role in your individual form, and I believe that if we have had been more successful, I would be even higher than this."

Why was NiKo the 3rd best player of 2018?

A true elite player, NiKo was remarkably consistent throughout the year, not only finishing every event with above-average ratings, but posting 1.19+ ratings at 15 of his 18 events and 1.00+ ratings in 79% of his Big Event maps (second highest).

He was ranked second overall for kills per round (0.82) and damage per round (86.6), while he rounded out the top five in terms of opening duel success at Big Events (58.8%). All of this contributed to the Bosnian's 1.25 Big Event rating, the second-best in the world.

NiKo claimed two MVP medals, at ESL One Belo Horizonte and EPICENTER, and had seven EVP nods. He topped the EVP list at the IEM stops in Katowice and Sydney, while he was ranked third among the EVPs at the ELEAGUE Major and at the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals.

The Bosnian was in contention for the No.1 spot in this top 20 ranking for the majority of the year, more specifically before the summer break as most of the standout performance took place during the first eight months of the year. After that, he exited the race as his form cooled a bit.

Besides the fact that NiKo did not stand out as much as the two players who finished ahead of him, he was not as good in the playoffs (1.29 rating in Big Event group stages, 1.19 in the playoffs) as the No.1 and No.2 picks in this top 20 selection.

"My personal goal for 2019 is to see my team back at the top and lift trophies more often, which means taking Astralis down at this point. And I will do my best to keep my individual form on point and consistent."

Bold prediction

When asked about a player he expect to break into next year's top 20, NiKo singled out ENCE star Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo, though he did not forget his cousin Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač, his 2018 pick:

Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo

"He showed some promising stuff in 2018. I believe that, with more success, be it in ENCE or some other team, he can appear on this list if he keeps working with the right mentality. I would go for huNter again, but it is not fair to do it two years in a row."

Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2018 ranking powered by EGB.com and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected.