NiKo: “we're on the right track as a team”

After G2’s win against Heroic in the IEM Katowice 2023 Grand Finals, we sat down with G2’s star man NiKo. We discussed the feelings around winning alongside his cousin, his thoughts on HooXi, and the mental side of the game.

Sebastian “Horizzon” Lalic, BLIX: Congratulations, obviously. How does it feel to win with your cousin by your side?

Nikola “NiKo” Kovač: “Yeah, it's a super nice feeling, we have been in a couple of finals together, and we have lost most of them. I think now we're on the right track as a team, so this means more to us. But yeah, it feels amazing to finally win such a big trophy.“

BLIX: And how has HooXi influenced your game, specifically with his style?

NiKo: “I think HooXi is doing a great job. He's a big part of our success, and he found a way that works for us. I think we have a good foundation within the team, and we have been building on this since he joined the team.

He's doing an amazing job, and on Ancient, he won us the game with his calls on T-side. He remained calm and collected; he knew exactly what he wanted to call, what he wanted to do. For us, it looked like the game was very stressful, but when you look, I think we played well, and we won pretty comfortably. So overall, very good calling.”

BLIX: Final question, has your sports psychologist helped you stay calm in these situations?

“Yeah, as I said before this Grand-Final, I think the only thing that will come down between us and not winning a trophy is our mental side. We have everything in the game that we need to win the trophies, it's just about the mental things we have to work on and I think we stepped up in every possible way.”