There’s absolutely no doubt to anyone who knows anything about professional Counter-Strike that NiKo is one of, if not the greatest, rifler to ever touch the game. Unrivaled consistency over a decade, as well as an excellent trophy cabinet, ensured that status a long time ago. Minus a couple of high-profile moments, NiKo has always been a player teams can rely on to deliver in the most significant moments.
However, in recent times, a new issue has plagued NiKo’s game. As one of the two stars on Team Falcons (alongside m0NESY), the team relies on his performances in Grand Finals as a win condition, and he hasn’t been able to deliver the goods. I’m not a believer in the “ChoKo” narrative some try to push, but the numbers certainly back up the idea that he’s struggled in these matches of late.
NiKo’s Final performances have fallen off lately
NiKo’s first Final with Falcons was a losing one: PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025. There, he managed a decent 1.14 by his own lofty standards, although it wasn’t enough to see his team over the line as MOUZ powered to victory back in February. He followed this up with a 1.20 rating in a winning PGL Bucharest 2025 run, delivering the organization their first-ever (and still only) Counter-Strike trophy. A strong start, but it’s been downhill since then.
Falcons have recently appeared in two Grand Finals after the Bucharest run: IEM Melbourne 2025 and BLAST Rivals Spring 2025. NiKo’s numbers don’t make for pretty reading, to say the least. In the Final of IEM Melbourne, NiKo dropped a 0.98 rating as Falcons lost to Vitality by the slimmest of margins. Then, just a week later, he repeated the feat at BLAST Rivals Spring, this time falling to a team-low 0.90 rating in the Final as they once again fell short against the Vitality machine in 3:2 fashion. This includes a 0.68 disasterclass on the decider map, too, after which NiKo took to X to share his disappointment with his own form.
Super disappointed in myself 💔
— Nikola Kovač (@NiKoCS_) May 4, 2025
His BLAST Rivals Spring display is perhaps the most concerning of all. Despite a poor rating, he managed a 74.8 KAST percentage (rounds in which he got a kill, assist, survived, or was traded), which is very similar to his strong performance in Bucharest where he posted a KAST of 74.6%. In the Final of BLAST Spring Rivals, he was involved in three quarters of the rounds, yet just couldn’t find much discernible impact on the server.
The fact that Falcons have pushed Vitality so close in two consecutive Finals without their star rifler online is a testament to this team’s potential. NiKo has won plenty of Finals in his career, and whatever is causing his current tough run of form at the last hurdle, he needs to get over it quickly if Falcons are to make a success of this lineup.
I’d back NiKo’s performances to improve
Although his numbers in Finals lately have made for slightly grim reading, it’s certainly not all doom and gloom. There’s a reason why NiKo’s name is as high as it is in the pantheon of Counter-Strike greats. No matter how low the lows are, he always finds a way to bounce back. Remember the launch of CS2 when we all thought he was washed? It seems a distant memory.
NiKo is largely in very good form individually. It’s not as if he’s in a rut that requires an extensive reworking of his game to fix – he just needs to step it up when it matters most. Anyone who has followed NiKo’s career knows it’s only a matter of time before he’s helping Falcons finally get over that finish line in Grand Finals, and the memories of Melbourne and BLAST Rivals Spring will be long in the past.
