Esports journalist Duncan "Thorin" Shields has assessed the current form of G2 Esports' rifler Nikola "NiKo" Kovač in CS2. He shared his thoughts on the Last Free Nation Counter-Strike podcast.
"Do you know NiKo? He’s the best player in the world right now. That’s why you [the viewers] need this show! Without us, the discussion about the best player in the world looks like this: 'Is it donk? Or m0NESY? Or maybe ZywOo?' But none of them come close. NiKo has been simply incredible over the past month. He’s played 26 maps on LAN with a rating of 1.35. He has 0.58 deaths per round—which, by the way, is an impossible stat for a rifler. 0.83 kills per round is on par with prime s1mple with an AWP. If we look only at matches against the top-5 teams in the world, his rating remains at 1.35 over 8 maps. Against the top-10 teams in the world, it’s 1.42 over 16 maps.
At the start of CS2, everyone was shouting, 'Well, this is no longer his game.' Oh? Well, now it’s his game, mate. I don’t know what will happen next—maybe ZywOo will return to top form, or sh1ro and donk will turn things around in Spirit. m0NESY is still incredible, no doubt about it. But NiKo is the best player on the planet right now. I’m not joking, if I had to pick just one player right now, I wouldn’t hesitate. It’s hard to believe how good NiKo is; he’s a bloody genius again."
Earlier, Thorin shared his opinion on the performance of NiKo’s teammate Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov after Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski took over as captain of G2. Shields believes the Russian sniper has been less spectacular since the IGL change.