CS 2
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač is considered one of the most toxic pro players. This trend has existed since the MOUZ – FlipSid3 match at ELEAGUE Season 1 when NiKo yelled "Shut up!" at Chris "chrisJ" de Jong after the lost round. The Bosnian later explained the situation: "Was saying "shut up shut up" because they were fighting/discussing at the start of the next round." But this case is already etched in the memory of the CS:GO community. As a result, people connected NiKo's arrogance and impact to all kicks of IGLs.
During his period in MOUZ, Nikola played under the leadership of Fatih "gob b" Dayik, who was released from the squad after his teammates decided against continuing to play with him. Yet the broadcast analyst and ex-MOUZ coach Serhii "lmbt" Bezhanov recently announced that NiKo loved working with the German and fully respected him as IGL. So we shouldn't blame Kovač for the team's decision to get rid of gob b.
In his next team, FaZe, for almost two years, NiKo played with Finn "karrigan" Andersen, who was also removed from the roster due to the players' decision. His move to the sidelines was a result FaZe anticipated as the squad slid into mediocrity in the second part of the season. FaZe has lost in the group stage of four of the last seven international competitions since their victory at ESL One Belo Horizonte in June 2018.
Here is what Nikola said about the people blaming him for karrigan's removal:
"I can't believe that most of community thinks that I'm the one who was/is in the charge of all the changes happened in our team, even though karrigan was/supposed to be removed from the lineup back in 2018 before I decided to stay within FaZe."
karrigan's significance to the squad was severely diminished when NiKo assumed the IGL role at the end of September, transforming the Dane into more dedicated support for the team.
The next IGL for the Bosnian was Nemanja "nexa" Isaković, who built simple gameplay tied to the personal performance of the Kovač brothers. This worked well, so G2 could reach some notable results, including the PGL Major Stockholm 2021, counting on the fantastic shape of NiKo and Nemanja "huNter" Kovač, who came third and 12th respectively in the Top 20 players of 2021 ranking. According to the rumors, the nexa's departure was more coach than the players’ decision. Also, G2 seemed to have a more media IGL to attract more attention to the team. Thus, Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen didn't take long to be "allowed to explore options outside of G2". This roster change wasn't connected to NiKo as well. The Bosnian might not be satisfied with the personal shape of Aleksib, which was very low even for the IGL.
Sometimes NiKo suffers from his superconfidence and determination; when anything goes wrong, he believes he can fix it on his own: IGLing in FaZe or AWPing in G2. Society dislikes confident people since it's simple to despise them when anything goes wrong. Niko, who believes he is always right, robs his teammates of all agency, saps all of their potentials, and utterly ruins any environment.
On the other hand, Nikola always motivated himself and set a higher and higher bar to reach – this was his way to reach a new level. Also, most of his teammates and coaches singled out NiKo's self-motivation as a positive side that even helped the whole team to take a step forward.
