At long last, mousesports’ lord and saviour Nikola “NiKo” Kovač has put himself first and moved on from the German organisation to sign with FaZe Clan. This move comes after months of merciful speculation surrounding the Bosnian star, as his extraordinary skills failed time and time again to carry his lesser teammates deep into events.
NiKo is without a doubt one of the premier individual talents that Counter-Strike has ever seen, right up there alongside the likes of Natus Vincere’s Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev or Astralis’ Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz. What needs to be said is that these two players have very cohesive and skilled teams around them (see results at ELeague major for reference), whereas NiKo has been forced to navigate tournament waters on his own.
Other players in mousesports have each had their moments; however, the mousesports team formula that required NiKo to be both the brain and the brawn proved to be both unsustainable and unsuccessful.
Happy and proud to announce that I'll be joining @FaZeClan after DH Las Vegas, time will show everything. <3 #FaZeUp
— NiKo (@fazeniko) February 9, 2017
It really is sad that this player transfer is being considered an act of mercy, but there is not a better way to phrase it unfortunately. The muddled results that mousesports were able to achieve, even when NiKo was at his best, don’t even come close to justifying the time that he spent plying his trade in an attempt to make this team consistent and competitive.
Moving forward, FaZe offers him the opportunity to focus on what he became known for – fragging every player in the server. With proven leaders like Finn “karrigan” Andersen and Håvard “rain” Nygaard to help bear the leadership burden, NiKo will have the space he needs to return to top form.
It was originally speculated that FaZe would scoop up Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom from the ruins of the most recent French shuffle to replace Philip “aizy” Aistrup, who fled North to join his Danish colleagues. It wouldn’t have been unreasonable to think that if NiKo hadn’t abandoned ship yet, that he might never do so; however, this transfer is evidently a match made in heaven.
FaZe are known to be a misfits paradise, where some of the most talented players that were left out of regional projects could come together and exact revenge in winning fashion. The addition of NiKo to this mix of players will certainly boost their status, so expect them to become an even more threatening team in the not so distant future.
It’s back to the drawing board for mousesports unfortunately. Most recently opting to reacquire Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný in lieu of Chris “chrisJ” de Jong; the German-based lineup will need to dig deeper than ever here at the beginning of EPL Season 5. The roster have already managed to amass a 3-1 record with wins over Astralis and NiP. It is not clear at this current time who the newest member of mousesports will be, but never has there been a bigger gap left in a lineup following a player transfer in recent history.
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