Nikola “Niko” Kova? has showed time and time again that he is if not already a superstar in terms of pure skill and fragging ability, he has the potential to be in the near future. You would think that somebody with his skill would have been taken by somebody as a full time player but for the young Bosnian this isn’t the case despite formally being a part of the mouz lineup for a shot time, stepping in for Kinguin at the Gaming Paradise Qualifier of which he contributed massively at especially in the final where they faced FlipSid3 in a BO3 with a 1-0 advantage with Niko finishing top of the leaderboards leading Kinguin to victory. The Bosnian has also made a brief comeback to the top of the scene as he has most recently stepped in for SK Gaming due to the absence of the Danish awper Michael “Friis” Jørgensen.
Niko before Mouz
Kova? has been involved in the top of the Balkan CS:GO scene where him and the rest of “e-sports.rs” shocked everybody by defeating Lemondogs and 3DMAX to secure a place in the second group stage at Mad Catz Vienna in 2013 after making the quarter-finals of DreamHack Bucharest. Ever since then the public has realise how much individual skill Niko actually has due to his major participation in helping his team in getting these results in both on LAN and online events. After playing in purely Balkan teams for so long where at times he managed to single handily carry his team to wins against teams for example former G-Play, now E-Frag and all the public attention for both his rifling and awping ability he get his chance and landed himself a place in the mouz lineup, replacing “zonixx”.
Niko as a part of Mouz
During is time with the mixed team Kova? took part in a total of 8 events both online and on LAN including the “ESEA Invite Season 18 Global Finals” where he played a massive part in securing then a 4th place finish at the event. Constantly throughout these events the Balkan teen showed us time and time again he was a player to be feared with only 1 below par rating at any event with Mouz where he had a 0.88 rating at the “ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1” even though he only played 1 map with the Germans at during this event.
Niko “Benched”
On the 4th of May 2015 mouz announced that they had made 3 roster changes which included the Kova? and him fellow Balkan counterpart Nikola “LEGIJA” Nini? who apparently was Niko’s “translator” as it was also announced that the main reason these roster changes came about was because the team wanted to speak exclusively in German of which Niko couldn’t fluently speak and he revealed his unwillingness to learn so on his twitch stream.
Niko as a sub
Because of his ability to speak English, ever since he was benched my mouz he has been given the opportunity to play for both Kinguin and SK at 2 LAN’s as a standin with him finishing with a very respectable 1.28 rating Kinguin in 7 maps but currently not doing as well with the Danes in SK Gaming but still putting up good performances as of this article being written.
The future for the Balkan
Purely down to his current location and native language finding a permanent spot in a team could be harder for Niko that people would think as CS:GO is a team based game that requires quality communication so having somebody that won’t be able to speak the same language as you will really hinder your play in the long run. For me there are only 2 real possibilities for Kova?, either the same situation happens with Mouz where a team takes a change with Niko for his unreal skill but sacrificing that critical communication. The other option for the superstar would be another “international team”. This would be the better option as he has already shown that with Kinguin (an international team) that he is capable to perform in an English speaking team along with players whose first language also isn’t English
Niko’s highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAYGiC1rdXs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC7AiXhvLR0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62Q-o71honQ
