NiKo is considered the best rifler in the history of Counter-Strike, even if he's yet to become a Major champion. He believes he can do it with Team Falcons.
Over 16 years into his professional Counter-Strike (CS) career, 
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač boasts a legacy only a few other players can match. The 28-year old Bosnian player has 13 S-Tier tournament wins under his belt with powerhouse teams like 
G2 Esports and 
FaZe Clan, and is already considered by many as the greatest rifler in the history of the game.
However, a Major championship – the most prestigious trophy in all of CS esports – still continues to elude NiKo after all these years. Now at the head of 
Team Falcons, NiKo continues his chase for that Major title that will cement his legacy as one of CS' all-time greats.
With the signing of his first personal brand partnership with Singaporean-American gaming hardware giant Razer, GosuGamers sat down with NiKo to discuss the latest chapter of his illustrious career. And the Bosnian rifler was quick to share his focus: taking another shot at claiming a Major championship in the BLAST.tv Austin Major in May.
“I consider myself one of the best riflers in the game, but still there are some things that I need to achieve in order to consider myself even higher. So, yeah it's all about the work and the results eventually.
We obviously know that [success] is going to take time – it just requires time – but we have a clear goal and a clear plan. And obviously the better results and the sooner they come, the better it is; but our goal is to reach our full potential by the end of the season for the Austin Major that is happening in May.”
So far, Falcons' results to start the year have been a rollercoaster to say the least, though there have been flashes of potential.
Falcons' first outing with NiKo at the BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 Closed Qualifier saw them get knocked out in 9th-16th place, a rough start for a team featuring arguably the greatest rifler in CS history. However, Falcons started to improve in February, bouncing back from a 13th-16th place finish in Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice 2025 by qualifying for IEM Dallas 2025 and finishing second in PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025.
The team then fell back down to earth in March, only managing 9th-12th place finishes in ESL Pro League Season 21 and BLAST Open Spring 2025.
While expectations are certainly high for Falcons, NiKo thinks the team's early results – good or bad – are all just part of the process of building a good team; one he hopes will be able to challenge for a Major championship in Austin.
"We finished second at [PGL Cluj-Napoca], and to be honest, I'm not really sure if we expected to reach such a result already in this short period of time. But the reasons why I joined Falcons is to build a good team that's a title contender.
This is a time frame for us to build our game upon that event and make sure that we have everything established until [the Major]. So, that doesn't mean that bad results are acceptable before that event, but everything that we do until that point is in order to improve our game and make sure that we reach our peak in May and then hope for a good result in Austin."
A new NiKo in Falcons
NiKo was the lone star on his teams in the earlier years of his career. While he put up superstar numbers that put the world on notice, it didn't yield any significant results. But once NiKo joined big teams like FaZe and G2 to get surrounded by other good players, the results started flooding in. Competing with those heavyweight teams also allowed NiKo to grow both as a player and as a person, which he thinks will serve him well in this new project with Falcons.
"Obviously Niko in FaZe is... I was too young. I was very young as a player, and all I had to do is just focus on my game and just play what I like, and then in G2 is where probably I grew up more, where at a certain time I took more responsibilities for myself and the team as well. But I would say the clear difference is probably that in this project right now, I'm probably the main star in [Falcons], that I have to perform very well in this project.
They're putting a lot of resources in my performance, so this is probably the clear difference, but I also do believe that I have the right support around me in Falcons right now as well, which should allow me to perform even better. And I'm happy with how I played [at PGL Cluj-Napoca] and hopefully I can remain on that level and hopefully improve it as well by the time. But yeah, I feel very confident in the team and when the team has confidence in myself as well, it will allow me to play better. So I'm feeling very good right now in the team and hopefully it will remain the same."
While NiKo is the lone star on Falcons, that isn't to say his teammates aren't any good. After acquiring NiKo in early January, Falcons also signed 
René “TeSeS” Madsen, 
Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski, and 
Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov from 
HEROIC. While certainly not superstars, the former HEROIC trio were well-known for punching above their weight – and Falcons apparently see such potential as key elements with which to surround a proven player like NiKo.
Rounding out the Falcons lineup are Emil “Magisk” Reif and coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen. As two of the most decorated figures in CS history and key players in the 
Astralis dynasty that won four Major titles, Magisk and zonic bring invaluable experience to hone the firepower of their younger teammates.
For NiKo, Falcons' roster has what it takes to be a real contender, even if they don't have the sheer firepower that the current top teams like 
Team Vitality or 
Team Spirit have with their respective superstars in 
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Danil “Donk” Kryshkovets. Instead, Falcons has a more well-rounded lineup with NiKo as the tip of the spear, and zonic as the steady hand guiding them.
"We have five very good team players, I would say. Everyone knows that if we want to succeed we need to be good as a team, everyone needs to do the best in order for us to function as a team. We don't really have players for example like ZywOo, Donk, or [G2's
Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov] where we put all the resources in one guy in order for us to perform well. So we need to make sure that we function as a team, that we have the right approach as a team, that we have the right system that everyone believes in, that once you establish these things then the individuals can play better as well.
This is something that we will try to build in Falcons with the support from our coach, who is probably the most successful coach in Counter-Strike, and he has the full trust from the organisation and the players as well, so I believe the results will prove that as well."
Can NiKo lead Falcons to a Major title?
But when all is said and done, Falcons is still very much NiKo's team. He may be far removed from the early days of his career, when he was the lone star of his teams, but things are looking that way again. With all due respect to the rest of Falcons, this isn't G2 anymore, where NiKo had another star in m0NESY by his side. When all is said and done, Falcons can only fly as far as NiKo can take them.
That fact isn't lost on the Bosnian rifler, who admits he needs to improve further in order to lead his team to success. While no one can deny NiKo's world-class map awareness and ability to click heads, he thinks there are aspects of his game that he can still work on.
“One of the things that I need to work on is my consistency, I think I lacked consistency last year, for example, and this is something that I definitely want to improve on throughout this year. I do believe if I do that that I will reach a new level as well, because I have seen times where I played better than the past couple of years, but then at some moment I would play a bit worse than my usual level. So, this is something that I'm trying to improve; my lows to become a bit higher so that I can have less bumps in the road.”
But even as his hunt for that elusive Major trophy continues, NiKo's legacy as one of the best CS players of all time – and arguably the greatest rifler in the game's history – is already set. No matter how this latest project with Falcons pans out, NiKo's body of work is undeniable, even as new challengers rise to challenge his claim.
NiKo has already been through the highs and lows of a player trying to prove his greatness. Now he stands at a height only few could ever hope to reach, and he wants to rise even higher. Amid all the doubts surrounding Falcons and whether they have what it takes to help NiKo claim that Major title or not, NiKo remains confident this will be the year.
“I consider myself one of the best riflers in the game. I think there are others better than me at times – Donk is now here, he's also the rifler and the best player in the world right now. But I do believe that I can reach a new level as well, I think I can do better than what I did last year. This is something that I truly believe I can achieve this year.”
