NiKo: "Me and Stewie against karrigan sounds weird but it's going to be hella exciting"

In a grueling series, G2 surpassed Liquid with a 2-1 win to stamp their ticket to the arena at IEM Dallas 2024. While it marked the end of NA's final team's run in the Lone Star State, G2's stand-in, Jake "Stewie2K" Yip, will be proudly carrying the banner as they take on FaZe in the quarterfinals.

G2's road to the playoffs was a struggle, especially for Nikola "NiKo" Kovač, who had to take over IGL duties due to Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen being back in Europe for a wedding. Despite this, NiKo has already accomplished much to be proud of in Dallas. After their win over Dallas, NiKo spoke to Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore about the win over Liquid, offering glowing praise for Stewie2K while discussing his own performance and his upcoming showdown with Finn "karrigan" Andersen.

Super close match versus Liquid, how are you feeling coming out of such a close series?

We are feeling very very happy and we are very excited. It was one of the better games that I've witnessed. We really want to make the arena because we played with a stand-in, so we had this extra will to prove something and get Stewie to the arena.

We are just very happy and now, it's the playoffs and anything can happen. I think we're actually playing pretty good CS. It's not a fluke, it's not anything. We are grinding back the rounds. We are actually playing pretty good as a team. Super happy with how we progressed.

You mentioned feeling like you have something to prove with a stand-in. Can you explain that? Usually people would assume with a stand-in the pressure is off, but from what you're saying, it sounds like maybe the pressure is higher?

I wouldn't call it pressure, but we just want to make it to the playoffs really bad. I think that's mostly because of Stewie, he's an American player and the crowd is gonna love seeing him there and I'm really happy he got a chance to prove himself again. He has been missing for a while.

I don't think Stewie has shown everything he has in his career yet. I'm happy for him that he kinda already bounced back. I wouldn't call it pressure, but we really wanted to make it happen and we did it.

I feel like a lot of kudos has to go to Stewie because there was no expectation he would perform as well as he has. You mentioned how his practice was pretty terrible, playing at 3AM with 140 ping, how are you feeling about Stewie's performance?

I think he is definitely the player I expect him to be. He is very smart, he knows what is going on at any point in the round. He's very good at helping me as well. I was surprised he still kinda has it all. I thought maybe he forgot some things or maybe he just lost some habits, but he is still very active and helping me a lot.

He understands the game fully so he meant a lot to us. That's one of the reasons we picked him up, because he's very versatile. He knows a lot of things and that's probably what we needed the most.

In another comment to HLTV, you said it was mostly a management decision to pick up Stewie. I asked him and he wasn't really sure, but when was the first time you knew from management that you'd be getting Stewie and what was your initial reaction to that?

Players obviously suggested the stand-ins. We suggested a couple of players, then G2 went to a couple of them and asked them if they could play. We asked a couple guys before Stewie that are from Europe so we could get a bit more practice.

I am not shocked that G2 decided to pick up Stewie, it was kind of an easy decision for them since he is from America. Like I said, our goal was to make it to the playoffs, that's going to help our media [team] a lot. We'll be very popular in the arena, the crowd will be on our side, so that was the main reasoning I guess.

You mentioned that Stewie brought a lot of ideas to the table and it looked like he still had a very good knowledge of the game. Were you surprised that he has the confidence to be as assertive as he is under your leadership?

Yeah, I knew how he was before, I talked to a lot of guys, I knew how he sounds, but I didn't expect him to be that way because he hasn't been playing for two years. I thought maybe he might take it a bit easier, but he's very active still and he's bringing ideas.

People are listening to him. He's also listening to us very often. I'm quite positively surprised by him and the way he plays and communicates. I think he is a big reason why we won today.

Looking at your own performance at this event thus far, it has been very impressive with you also acting as IGL. How are you feeling about your performance in Dallas?

Honestly I haven't thought about myself a single time throughout the event. I just focused on the team. Basically it's not easy to just switch to an IGL role all of a sudden especially with a stand-in.

I honestly didn't focus at all on myself and I'm just playing and just seeing what's in front of me. I'm playing ok, I probably would have played better if I was not calling, maybe worse, I don't know. Right now in CS2 I'm a bit up and down, but I'm satisfied with how I played and behaved throughout the games and that's the most important.

Has HooXi been able to help the team at all while away at his sister's wedding?

He's been helping me from the start. Even in practice he was there with us, he was helping me with adding strats, explaining strats, showing Stewie2K what we have and how we do things. For this event he's also been anti-stratting every opponent.

We have always stayed in touch and he's writing down the mistakes that we could've improved and he's been very active. HooXi's basically been our assistant coach right now and he's been staying up very late to help us. His input is a huge thing for us as well, mostly for me because I'm talking to him the most, but he has been a huge help.

Your next match will be against FaZe in a strange NiKo + Stewie2K vs. karrigan matchup. What are your thoughts on this strange, strange matchup?

Yeah, if someone had told me this six years ago I wouldn't have believed anyone. I think it's going to be a very cool experience for both of us. The crowd is going to be crazy and I'm looking forward to the match. There's not much to say, they are one of the best teams in the world, probably second best if not the best, so it's going to be a tough game for sure but with how we are playing we have a good chance of making it entertaining at least.

Me and Stewie against karrigan sounds weird but it's going to be hella exciting.

Is the sky the limit for this team in Dallas? Is there a world in which this G2 squad makes the finals and takes home the trophy?

One game at a time and we have achieved what we wanted. I don't think we're playing badly, I don't think we are lacking too much in order to win against some teams so anything can happen.

G2 will take on FaZe in a strange, strange match for NiKo and Stewie2K on May 31st at 05:15PM.