NiKo: “This is the biggest trophy that I’ve won”

After a straightforward run through Group A of IEM Katowice, seeing G2 take down BIG, FaZe, and NAVI with relative ease, the European combine were labeled as the heavy favorites to secure the prestigious Polish trophy. After moving past Liquid in the semifinals and besting Heroic in the grand final 3-1, G2 have fulfilled these lofty expectations to claim one of the most important events of the year for themselves.

Following G2's win over Heroic, Dust2.us' Liam "Slevo" Slevin spoke with Nikola "NiKo" Kovač to discuss his emotions following the victory, the value of his teammates, and how G2 plan to maintain their dominance as 2023 goes on.

NiKo, IEM Katowice, you've finally closed it out in a BO5 final in a fairly comfortable fashion. Tell me the kinds of emotions you're going through after this win.

After we won, I was obviously super happy, one of the best moments in my career for sure. This is probably the biggest trophy that I have won as well, so really happy about how we played. The final was... every final that you play cannot be really easy, it's very hectic and stressful, so you can't really relax or say that it was easy or comfortable. It was a big fight, I think we came back on both Nuke and Mirage so it took a lot of effort for us to come back, and obviously, Inferno was kinda messy and they played really good. I'm really proud of the guys that we managed to bounce back on Ancient, we showed really good mental. We couldn't keep the [map] streak alive, but the most important part is that the trophy is in our hands, and that's the only thing that matters. But we also broke the [map] record as well, so that's also a good thing.

When talking about big trophies in your career, it felt like there was a bit of a curse on you in that regard. Do you feel that the curse has been lifted and you can go on to win more trophies?

I mean, I wouldn't call it a curse. Obviously, I think that many finals that I have played we should have won, I think we just fell short in most of them and that's just life. Hopefully this year things are going to turn around. It was a learning experience, and I never give up or stop believing. I was patient, and I knew at some point things would go differently. It sucks that I've been losing so many finals, but if everything is going to be worth it then it's fine.

Heading into the final it looked like just about anyone could get the MVP; jks secured the DHL MVP and huNter- received the HLTV MVP. How dangerous does that make you guys as a team when you have four players that can pop off and produce MVP performances?

I think we are definitely the strongest team individually in the scene right now, I don't think anyone can match our individual skill. As you said, huNter- got the HLTV and jks got the DHL, and tomorrow it could be m0nesy or me, so we are all very confident and happy with each other. We really created something good in this team, and we just need to keep on building. It was very hard to get to the top position, but it's gonna be even harder to stay there, so we just have to take a day off, look back on what we achieved, and find a way of improving and staying at the top.

While four of you are very dangerous mechanically, HooXi is very dangerous strategically. Tell me what it's been like having him call for you and how he utilizes the players that he has.

Ever since we got HooXi we started to create a system. We knew that once we signed him we wanted to go on a longer period together, to commit to a lineup and build on it all the time. Things maybe didn't look great from the start, but it was getting better and better. After we failed at the RMR we had a big talk on what we want to change, how we want to approach things, and I think everything clicked after that failure. It was very cool to see that we managed to bounce back as a team. HooXi is doing a great job, he is utilizing every player on the team, he is sacrificing himself a lot as well, and honestly, he is a big part of our success, probably the majority of it. Now it's only up to him and the coach to find a way to develop our game, to keep improving, because if we stay in one place someone is going to take over, so we need to keep building on our game and keep improving it.

Swani is probably someone that doesn't get that much recognition from the community, but tell me what it's been like working with him as the coach for this team.

I think the most important thing is that he has worked well with me and huNter- from the start. He has been the coach of huNter- for like three and a half years, for me two and a half, so he really knows everything about us and the team as well. He has been here from the start, and he knows what we need to be the best versions of ourselves. He's doing everything he can, he and HooXi are on the same page when it comes to preparation and how we want to play the game and so on, so that's probably one of the most important things as well. He also has a deep understanding of the game, he's watching it all the time. Obviously, it's hard to go from assistant to head coach, but he's gaining authority still within the team, and he's doing a great job so far.

Alongside this win, you also topped your group at BLAST. With the high level you guys are setting early on, what do you think is gonna be the key to staying consistent throughout this year?

Definitely the key is that our individuals need to stay sharp, we need to keep working on ourselves individually, and we just need to keep refreshing our game. I think we created a good foundation, a very good system that's very hard to break, and now we just need to change small things so that people don't counter us on our strats and our setups. But everything outside of the game we have everything that we need, it's just those small things in the server that we have to be aware of, what our tendencies are, and what we like to do on the maps. Those things are, I wouldn't say easy to improve, but I think as long as we acknowledge what we need to improve it should be fine.

NiKo and the rest of G2 will now be preparing for their next outing in ESL Pro League Season 17, with the squad set to start their run in Group A later this month.