NiKo: "At some point in my career, I should transition into the IGL role"

G2 have shocked everyone after winning IEM Dallas 2024 with Jake "Stewie2k" Yip as a stand-in. Despite facing some difficult opponents in FaZe, MOUZ, and Vitality, the European squad and the NA legend managed to conquer it all, on the back of Nikola "NiKo" Kovač's calling.

Dust2.us' Daniel "Scoobster" Khurgin managed to talk with NiKo, who had his best event since Gamers8, almost a year ago, excluding the RMR. The duo spoke about the atmosphere of the arena, the growth G2 went through during the event due to Stewie2k standing in for Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen, and what the future holds for NiKo as an IGL.

Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

How does it feel to beat Vitality in the Grand Final of IEM Dallas?

Feels great, honestly. Very special moment there right after we won. The crowd made it very special for us. It was definitely unforgettable.

Before this final, Vitality was the only team to beat you throughout this entire event. What went different this time?

First of all, I think that game [G2's loss against Vitality in the group stage] looked way more onesided than it actually was. I think we had some rounds we could have made the game intense and then who knows what would happen but I think we just grew as a team throughout the event. We were a completely different team from the group stage and in playoffs, that's probably the biggest reason. I also think the pressure was on their side a bit. We kept pressuring them, we were not giving up easy rounds at all. We had something special going on at this event, there was some magic, the crowd, Jake [Stewie] playing with his home crowd, we just felt we couldn't lose and we did everything in our power to always stay in it.

You dabbled with IGLing in the past before. Would you consider, now that you've won a big tournament as IGL, is it something that interests you? Later on, perhaps?

100% at some point in my career I will become an IGL. It's not going to happen yet but I've had that on my mind for quite some time. I know how I want to end my career and that's definitely going to be as an IGL because I think that is my strength, even though people didn't like seeing me being an IGL back then, they just couldn't really accept it, even though if I was doing well or not, they just couldn't accept it. While for this event for them was like "comeback, you know being an IGL, you are doing great." It's a bit wild for me, but overall it was a great learning experience and it's good confidence for me, reading the game and everything. Nothing is going to change yet but at some point in my career, I should transition into the IGL role.