Nikola Kovač, also known as NiKo, is a professional Counter-Strike 2 player from Bosnia who plays for Team Falcons. Many experts and players say he is one of the greatest Counter-Strike players ever and the best rifler in the history of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. He has been listed as a Top 20 Player Of The Year by HLTV ten times, which is the most Top 20 appearances in Counter-Strike history.
Many people believe NiKo is one of the most skilled players in Counter-Strike. He has competed for the title of the best player in the world during different times in his career.
Early life
Nikola Kovač was born in Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina. His parents owned an internet café. At this café, Nikola played earlier versions of the game Counter Strike with his cousin, Nemanja, who was also known as "huNter-."
Career
NiKo started his career playing Counter-Strike 1.6. His first professional team was FullProof. He also played for teams such as eu4ia, neWave, maksnet, and DEFUSE.maksnet.
His first team in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was iNation. He played for several other teams, including myDGB, e-Sports.rs, Team Refuse, GamePub, and aimface, while taking breaks from iNation.
His success with iNation helped him gain more recognition in Europe. In March 2015, he joined mousesports. During his early time with the team, he was known for strong individual performances. His team was sometimes called "Nikosports" because of his standout play, especially when he scored a perfect round with the desert eagle on the Cache map.
NiKo stayed with mousesports for the entire year of 2016. During this time, the team won Acer Predator Masters Season 2 and finished in the top 3-4 in ELEAGUE Season 1, ESL One: New York 2016 European Qualifier, ESL Pro League Season 4 – Europe, and ESL Pro League Season 4 – Finals.
In February 2017, NiKo joined FaZe Clan as part of a new team of top players. His first major tournament win was at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3. However, the team had a five-month period without a win, missing a chance to win Esports Championship Series Season 3. After changes to the team, including adding two highly rated players from 2015—Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer Gustafsson and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács—FaZe won back-to-back tournaments at ESL One: New York 2017 and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017. At ESL One: New York 2017, NiKo had a rating of 1.70, a record that was later matched by donk in 2024. Later that year, the team won Esports Championship Series Season 4 after two months without a win. NiKo finished second in the year-end HLTV top 20 and had a rivalry with SK Gaming’s coldzera throughout the year.
FaZe Clan nearly won the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 but lost to Cloud9, a team from the home region, after leading 15-11 in the third map. This match is widely considered one of the best in CS:GO history. After another loss in the IEM Katowice 2018 finals to Fnatic, FaZe had a period of poor performance. However, they won Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Sydney with Richard "Xizt" Landström replacing olofmeister and ESL One: Belo Horizonte 2018 with Jørgen "cromen" Robertsen as a substitute.
In October 2018, FaZe won EPICENTER 2018 in Moscow, Russia, giving NiKo his seventh first-place victory with the team. He was ranked No. 3 in the HLTV top 20 but dropped out of the race for best player of the year after his performance slowed in the second half of the year.
FaZe changed their in-game leader (IGL) several times after karrigan left the team, eventually settling on NiKo. By the end of 2019, FaZe had won ten tournaments, including BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, but did not finish in the top 4 at any major events. Statistically, this was the worst year of NiKo’s career so far, as he finished 11th in the HLTV top 20 and was outside the top 10 for the first time since 2016.
In 2020, FaZe and NiKo, now the IGL, won the European division of IEM New York 2020 Online against OG. On October 28, 2020, after three and a half years with FaZe Clan, NiKo joined G2 Esports, where he reunited with his cousin, huNter.
No longer the IGL, NiKo returned to his best form and was ranked No. 4 in the HLTV top 20.
NiKo led G2 to the grand finals of the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 but lost to Na'Vi. The match included a famous moment when NiKo missed a shot against s1mple on Nuke. G2 also finished second to Na'Vi at Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Cologne earlier in the year. In the second half of 2021, NiKo had his best performance of his career, with a 34-map streak of 1+ ratings, the highest of his career and of any top 20 players that year. He finished third in the HLTV top 20, behind ZywOo and S1mple.
G2 signed a young Russian player, m0NESY, who helped G2 reach the grand finals of IEM Katowice. However, G2 lost to FaZe Clan in the grand final, with FaZe using jks as a substitute. The match on Mirage lasted 58 rounds before FaZe won 31-27.
Later in 2022, G2 struggled, finishing only in the top 4 at Blast Premier Spring Finals and ESL Pro League Season 16. They did not qualify for the IEM Rio Major, and NiKo said these were his toughest months. However, G2 won the PGL Major in 2022, and NiKo was named MVP.
In 2023, G2 won the PGL Major in Stockholm, and NiKo was named MVP again. In 2024, G2 won the PGL Major in Shanghai, and NiKo was named MVP for the third time.
On January 3, 2025, NiKo left G2 and joined Team Falcons in Saudi Arabia. On February 23, 2025, NiKo won his ninth HLTV MVP at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 despite losing the finals to MOUZ.
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