Nikola Kovač

Early life Nikola Kovač was born in Bijeljina,but lived in Brčko Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Serbian ethnic parents. His parents were owners of an internet café where Nikola would play the earlier Counter Strike games with his cousin Nemanja aka "huNter-". His team was sometimes dubbed "Nikosports" due to his individual performances, the most notable of them being his Desert Eagle ace on Cache.

2016 NiKo stayed on mousesports for the entirety of 2016. Following a reshuffle of the FaZe roster, bringing in two of the highest-rated players of 2015, Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer Gustafsson and the star AWP player, Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács, FaZe was rejuvenated and managed back-to-back flawless victories at ESL One: New York 2017 and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017. At ESL One: New York 2017, NiKo dropped a 1.70 HLTV rating, a record that was only equaled by donk's legendary Katowice run in 2024. Following this, the team went two months without a win before taking the Esports Championship Series Season 4 trophy over Mousesports at the end of the year. He was ranked #2 in the year-end HLTV top 20 and had a rivalry with SK Gaming's coldzera throughout the year.

2018 Faze Clan fell just short at the finals in ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, choking a 15-11 lead in map 3 to the home region team Cloud9. The Major finals are widely acknowledged as the best professional matches of CS:GO ever played by the community. After choking another grand finals at IEM Katowice 2018 to Fnatic, FaZe entered another lull. However, the team managed to take home Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Sydney with Richard "Xizt" Landström standing in for olofmeister and the ESL One: Belo Horizonte 2018 event with Jørgen "cromen" Robertsen as a stand-in.

In October 2018, FaZe came in first place in the EPICENTER 2018 event in Moscow, Russia, making this his seventh first-place victory at a premier event with FaZe Clan. NiKo was ranked No. 3 at the HLTV top 20, having been in contention for the title of best player of the year at the beginning but exiting the race after his form cooled in the 2nd half.

2019 FaZe went through a number of in-game leaders (IGLs) during this time after the removal of karrigan last year, before settling on NiKo. By the end of 2019 FaZe's trophy count had gone up to ten as they won BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen but didn't finish in the top 4 at either major. Statistically, this was the worst year of NiKo's career thus far, as he had to settle for 11th place on the HLTV top 20 list as a result of his IGL duties, and he finished outside of the top 10 for the first time since 2016 in the HLTV top 20.

2020 2020 marked another victory for FaZe and now IGL Kovač, as they won the European division of IEM New York 2020 Online over OG. On October 28, 2020, after a three-and-a-half-year venture with FaZe Clan, Kovač was acquired by G2 Esports and was united with his cousin huNter.

No longer an IGL, NiKo was back in his old form again this year and was ranked No. 4 in HLTV's top 20.

2021 NiKo led G2 to the grand finals of the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 but lost to a dominant Na'Vi team. The grand finals also featured the infamous NiKo whiff on s1mple at Nuke in map 2, which ultimately Na'Vi won to lift the major trophy.

They had also been runner-up to the same Na'Vi team at the Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Cologne earlier in the year. He went through a career-best run in the second half of 2021 with CS:GO's return to LAN, posting a consecutive 34-map 1+ rating streak, 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.

2022 G2 signed a young prodigy Russian awper, m0NESY leading G2 and Niko to a 2nd place at IEM Katowice. NiKo's G2 fell 3-0 to FaZe Clan in the grand final, with FaZe forced to field jks as a substitute. The match featured the legendary Mirage map, extending to 58 rounds before FaZe clinched victory with a 31-27 scoreline.

Soon the team's form dropped as Blast Premier Spring Finals and ESL Pro League Season 16 were their only top 4 finish till December 2022. G2 did not qualify for the IEM Rio Major, with Niko commenting that these times are his toughest months of his career but reassured that he will never give up. NiKo and G2 bounced back and won the Blast Premier World Final 2022. He finished 5th in the HLTV Top 20.

NiKo's exceptional numbers against the best teams at the biggest events allowed him to achieve second place on HLTV's Top 20 Players of the Year list, behind ZywOo.

2024 2024 began rough for NiKo, who suffered a dip in form compared to his CS:GO performance, averaging a 1.15 rating in the first half of the season in contrast to his usual 1.2+ performances. However, NiKo exhibited more sublime form in the latter half of the season, which earned him the 4th place on HLTV's Top 20 Players of the Year list after another year of overall strong individual play. NiKo also set a new record for most consecutive appearances in the top 20 with 9 consecutive appearances.

NiKo finished in the top 4 of the PGL Copenhagen major. He, however won IEM Dallas 2024 with a stand-in Stewie2K. NiKo struggled against Na'Vi throughout the season, enduring nine consecutive losses before finally securing a victory at the BLAST Premier Fall Final. G2 rebuilt the roster adding malbsMd and veteran Polish player, Snax, in place of the players, Hooxi and Nexa.

The revamped lineup went on to claim the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024, defeating Team Vitality in the semifinals and Na'Vi in the grand finale. During the semifinal clash against Vitality, NiKo made headlines by smashing a hole in the table after failing to convert a 1v5 clutch attempt. However, his struggles continued in the following tournament IEM Rio, where he posted a career-worst 0.51 HLTV rating and exited in 13th–16th place. Despite this setback, G2 rebounded strongly, winning the BLAST Premier World Final with a triumph over Team Spirit in the grand finale. NiKo’s run with G2 ultimately ended in the semifinals of the Perfect World Shanghai Major, where he fell to FaZe Clan.

2025 On 3 January 2025, NiKo departed G2 and joined the Saudi organization Team Falcons, becoming a key part of their efforts to rebuild and assemble a star-studded roster. On February 23 2025, NiKo won his 9th HLTV MVP at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 despite losing the finals to MOUZ.

On 13 April 2025, NiKo and the Falcons won their first trophy together in PGL Bucharest 2025, beating G2 Esports in the Final. Soon, NiKo reunited with G2's star AWPer, m0NESY, in Team Falcons. With m0NESY and NiKo, Falcons immediately showed strong results, finishing second at IEM Melbourne after choking a 12-6 lead in map five (Nuke) to Team Vitality. They then competed at BLAST Rivals, where they once again fell to Team Vitality in a 3-2 series in the finals. The Falcons were eliminated from Blast TV Austin Major in 20-22nd place after suffering upset losses to B8, Lynn Vision and MIBR.

NiKo and Team Falcons finished in 5-8th place in the second major of the year, the StarLadder Budapest Major. The team made it to the playoffs with an opening BO1 loss to B8, wins against Imperial and Passion UA, a BO3 loss to MOUZ and a win against G2 for a 3-2 record, and then got promptly knocked out of the tournament following a loss to Team Spirit in the playoff quarterfinals.

At the end of the year, NiKo was voted for the 18th best player of the year , breaking the record for most amounts of HLTV top 20 appearances since the introduction of the award, this was also NiKo´s worst performing year in HLTV top 20.

2026

In April 2026, Niko reunited with karrigan as karrigan joined Falcon as IGL.

On 21 June 2026, 3067 days since ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, NiKo won the Major title at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, with Team Falcons, defeating FURIA in a 3-0 sweep.

Awards and recognition Was voted the 11th best player of 2016 by HLTV. Was voted the 2nd best player of 2017 by HLTV. Was voted the 3rd best player of 2018 by HLTV. Was voted the 11th best player of 2019 by HLTV. Was voted the 4th best player of 2020 by HLTV. Was voted the 3rd best player of 2021 by HLTV. Was voted the 5th best player of 2022 by HLTV. Was voted the 2nd best player of 2023 by HLTV. Was voted the 4th best player of 2024 by HLTV. Was voted the 18th best player of 2025 by HLTV.

Tournament Results