huNter- at IEM Krakow 2026: “We are just trying to enjoy the game more…. we are all humans and sometimes you cannot control everything”

Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač is relishing his role as in-game leader of G2. He has been in the captain hotseat of the team for around seven months now, and led his team to their first trophy together at the tail end of 2025. Now, huNter- has led his team to the Playoffs of IEM Krakow 2026, where G2 are set to face MOUZ in the Quarter-Finals. We had the opportunity to speak to huNter- ahead of the match to get his thoughts on G2’s start to 2026 in Krakow.

huNter-: “My goal is to be a bit more consistent individually…”

Sophie McCarthy: First question I wanted to ask you was, how is your experience in Krakow comparing to Katowice so far?

Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač: Yeah, we’ve been here for about 10 days. I see Krakow is a beautiful city. It’s all good for now. Katowice, a lot of memories, a lot of times played there. So it’s a different experience for both. But I like Katowice and Krakow both.

Sophie: So this is your first tournament since the Major at the end of last year. So far you’ve beaten MongolZ, Liquid, Passion UA. So how is the team feeling coming into 2026?

huNter-: It feels good. We skipped this first event. That was the BLAST event and we were focused on good preparation, good boot camp and that’s what we did. And one of our goals was to go to Playoffs in this event. That’s what we accomplished. And now looking forward to play in front of the crowd and to play on stage.

Sophie: So now that you’ve got to Playoffs, are you just vibing it or are we heading straight to the Final?

huNter-: I mean, we need to go step by step. We started here from Stage 1 and we knew that we need to go step by step to qualify for Stage 2. When we qualify for Stage 2, our goal was to qualify for Playoffs. We did that even though last night we had a chance to go to Playoffs instantly. But I would say we trolled the game against Spirit and yeah, they punished all our mistakes and they won that game. But yeah, we have one more chance and I hope we’ll use it and get into the Semi-Final spot.

Sophie: As we say, the team does seem to be gelling really well. We’ve had some really strong individual performances. So what has changed between the Major and now to bring you all together?

huNter-: Yeah, I mean last season we were kind of really new team with me having a new role, new coach. Everything was new. So we needed some time to get used to each other and to see what works, what doesn’t work for us. And I think that’s what we did. And our goal is this year to be a bit more consistent, because last year we had a lot of ups and downs and, yeah, started good. Hope we’ll continue that way. No matter if you win or lose. I just want us to give it all like we did last night against Spirit and just looking forward to play more and see what the future will give us.

Sophie: I don’t know if you remember, but the last time we spoke was in Lisbon.

huNter-: Yes, I remember.

Sophie: And I think you’d only really just taken over as IGL at that point, right?

huNter-: No, I didn’t after that. Like, summer break, three months after that.

Sophie: Okay, cool! So can you talk me through how that period of time has taught you to grow as an IGL and a player individually?

huNter-: I mean, I have a lot of experience being a player, but being an IGL is a different experience. So I need definitely a bit more experience as an IGL. I had, like, I have six months of that experience being an IGL, but still, there’s a lot more that I need to work on. But my goal as well is to be a bit more consistent individually and to try to be as best IGL and captain towards my team. That’s all.

Sophie: Your next matchups, first you’re facing MOUZ, and then if that goes well, it’ll be Vitality, which is obviously one of the biggest opponents at this tournament. So can you just talk me through these matchups? How are you feeling about facing each of these teams?

huNter-: Yeah, to be honest, I don’t think about Vitality at all. MOUZ are in front of us, and I think they’re really good team, and if you want to win them, we need to give it all. So I’m just focused on MOUZ for now. And if you win MOUZ, we can talk about Vitality, but we all know what vitality is, and they showed last year everything. So, yeah, it’s just a pleasure to play against those kind of teams, especially in front of the crowd. So looking forward to play more. Hopefully we’ll play Vitality.

Sophie: I just had one last question for you. You’ve dropped maps in four out of five matchups that you’ve had so far. So what’s the secret to finding that win on the decider map? What keeps you in the game under that much pressure?

huNter-: I mean, we just believe in our preparation. We just trust the process, the work that we put on all together, like during that boot camp and during this online period and everything that we worked on. We don’t overthink it. We don’t try to put even more pressure on ourselves because playing this game and playing over all the games, it’s already enough pressure. So we are just trying to enjoy the game more. Comparing to last season. It doesn’t matter what happens if you lose the first map, if you lose the second map, let’s play the third map. If you can, you know, let’s try to enjoy it. Don’t put even more pressure on ourselves. I think we didn’t handle it well yesterday against Spirit. Comparing to other games, it could have been better. But, yeah, this is how it is. We are all humans and sometimes you cannot control everything.