How the Kovac’s made it to the top

Leaders bring out the best in us. They push us beyond our limits. Isolate our strengths. And refine our weaknesses. Leaders show up when the odds aren’t in our favor. When it feels like all hope is lost. They redefine what loyalty means. They stick it out while their surroundings grow, and they understand what it means to play as a team. This is the story of leadership. The story of perseverance and eventual dominance. The story of becoming the best in the world at what you do. This, is the story of the Kovac’s. 

Nikola “NiKo” Kovac 
Born: 16 February 1997 (age 23) 
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina 
Current team: G2 Esports 
Career history: iNation 2010-2013, GamePub 2013-2014, aimface 2014-2015, iNation 2015, mousesports 2015-2017, FaZe Clan 2017-2020, G2 Esports 2020. 

Nemanja “huNter-“ Kovac
Born: 3 January 1996 (age 24) 
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Current team: G2 Esports 
Career history: Jake Bube 2015, GamePub 2015, Gaming.rs.GamePub 2015-2016, iNation 2016-2017, Binary Dragons 2017, Valiance 2017-2019, CR4ZY 2019, G2 Esports 2019-2020.

Childhood

”We came to one of the first tournaments and the opponents' team were like: Are you insane, how you took these kids to play? They thought the job would be easy for them. However, when the game started, they could not believe that kids were playing against them. They came to us to make sure they really played and not someone else. When they were convinced that kids were playing, they instantly were delighted and gave a handshake to congratulate.” This was what Nemanja “huNter-“ Kovac’s dad told in an interview with CR4ZY, explaining how it was back in the days when they took NiKo and huNter- to some of the first tournaments when they were young. 

The two Bosnian cousins started playing for fun after being introduced to the gaming world at their parent's Internet Café. NiKo and huNter’s parents both had a small Internet Café with around five PC’s and a couple of Sony Playstations. At an age of 9 years both started to play with their local friends and always made a little competition out of it, which still hasn’t changed to this day for the two cousins, who both still wants to be the best and always win no matter who is on the other side. 

Being young in the Balkans can be difficult because there are a lot of economic and political issues that prevent people from having a normal life, but huNter- and NiKo were always strong-minded and focused on their strengths to make their way. Gaming was not something people looked positive on locally and it was basically not accepted, so their parents found it very hard to take the two around for tournaments at 4-5 am. They wondered if they were normal parents and felt sorry asking themselves “What are we doing to a child, why? Are we normal parents?”. The most important thing is their parents supported them from the beginning and it finally paid off.

The breakthrough to the international scene began on March 4, 2015, when mousesports picked up NiKo permanently for the roster after having been a stand-in. The next year and a half NiKo was stuck in his personal growth as a player and it became more clear that the rest of the team simply wasn’t on the same level as him, which was straining his relationship with the rest of the team. 

Nikola “NiKo” Kovac always continued to shine bright as the game’s most feared player in his time with mousesports, even when the team couldn’t break through the big tournaments. The whole community agreed that it was time for the world’s best player to add some much-deserved hardware to his trophy case. If NiKo could fight it out, mouz had a chance. But not even the best in the game could carry his team out of the hole they dug him into. It was clear that the Bosnian superstar needed to make a change to live up to his immense potential, and on February 9, 2017, NiKo left mousesports. Despite his desire to stick it out with mousesports,

NiKo packed his bags and left for FaZe clan in a $500,000 transfer buyout that broke the record. FaZe already had its star power in Karrigan and mixing superstars in pro CS was and still is a big risk. But as we know now, FaZe and NiKo was the perfect match. NiKo began his journey together with players like KioShima allu, Karrigan, and rain making their presence felt immediately at the first tournament as a new roster where they made it to the finals. Their first big splash with NiKo on the roster and they managed to beat Astralis in the final at Starladder. 

NiKo had finally landed somewhere the supporting cast wasn’t blinded by him being the game’s biggest star, which is one of the reasons NiKo has won six MVP medals, multiple LAN tournament titles, and top-three finishes in the player ranking. You could say NiKo’s time with the superstar team paid very well off. 

huNter- 

huNter- never considered Counter-Strike as a career choice, but when NiKo was in mousesports he told him to keep playing and that he will be very good in the future. “Start playing you are good, you will be good.” NiKo said after the first tournament huNter- played with him, adding “You must play, don’t play football, don’t go to university, just play CS.” So that’s what huNter- did.

The 24-year-old had a much different journey to the top than his cousin. Despite being a year older he had a later start in the pro scene of CS and with no doubt been living in the shadow of NiKo. It’s clear that huNter- could stand on his own legs and walk his own path. 

Back in 2017 when NiKo was breaking records for the highest buyouts, huNter- made his way into high tier Counter-Strike, becoming known because of his talent shined through. His rankings kept climbing and he delivered good stats. After two years on the Valiance roster, the older cousin was honing his skills waiting for the mousesports lifeline equivalent to come his way. Valiance was so close to knocking Vitality out of the IEM Minor which proved he was a worthy pickup for any team.

The worst-case scenario came into fruition as huNter- not only didn’t make it into the major, but bigger teams like FaZe Clan and mousesports had inquired about him but backed out because of the large amount a buyout from a freshly signed contract was. 

His team rebranded as CR4ZY and was ranked the 17th spot on the world ranking. The team qualified for the Starladder Belin 2019 Major and actually faced FaZe Clan and NiKo in round three of the stage. A clash of the Kovac’s occurred and it was the older cousin who came out on top with a 16-9 win. 

A transfer to a bigger brand finally came and huNter- joined G2 with his long-time partner Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic. Since moving to the international squad, G2 has climbed up the rankings and huNter’s performances have just gotten better. 

The dream of playing together

The two Kovac’s are definitely a force to be reckoned with, each in their own right and they have never hidden the fact that they dreamed of playing together one day. On 28th October 2020, the Bosnian duo finally became a reality, and huNter- was the first to express his happiness on NiKo joining G2, “The dreams finally became true. After many years of hard work, I will finally play with my brother in the same team.” huNter- wrote on Twitter. “That was my first goal, my biggest goal since I started playing CS:GO. Welcome to my brother and let’s lift some trophies together!” 

NiKo returned to his roots with the move to G2, joining a Balkan-majority squad for the first time since he left iNation for mousesports in early 2015. NiKo would already have his debut with the G2 roster just a couple of days after, at BLAST Premier Fall Series Group C where G2 won the group against Astralis in the final. The addition of NiKo seemed to be the missing piece that G2 Esports needed. 

The Kovac’s proved that they are unstoppable together, especially after winning a remarkable 2v4 clutch against FURIA which was the first clutch situation for the two cousins alone. They were without a doubt, the two that delivered the best performances throughout all the series combined and showed what a dangerous team G2 is, but also an outstanding combination they are. 

G2 and the Kovac’s made a return to the Top 10 World Ranking on November 9th, 2020, and they hope to maintain their good performances and take the world by storm, but most importantly they want to be the guys that make Esports a lot bigger than what it is in their country and forever stick in Esports.