NiKo is named MVP of IEM Cologne

At every CS:GO event, the MVP award tends to be won by one of the winning team’s players. In this particular case, that player was Nikola “NiKo” Kovac from G2 Esports, who managed to win IEM Cologne without losing a single match.

Their five consecutive victories showed us a greatly improved version of the roster that failed miserably at the previous four tournaments and is only comparable to the one that won IEM Katowice back in February.

As one of G2’s main fraggers and also one of the best CS:GO players in the history of the game, NiKo was offered the MVP award for his contributions and consistency. Arguably, that award could have also been won by his teammate, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, whose stats are comparable to his.

🏆 pic.twitter.com/CO9T1OlWf4

— NiKo (@G2NiKo) August 6, 2023

NiKo’s performance throughout the event

In the first match of IEM Cologne, NiKo’s team encountered Astralis and won 2-1. He was the best player on his team and the second-best player on the server, ending the match with a record of 68-52. The only player who surpassed him was Nicolai “device” Reedtz, who had 74 kills and 57 deaths, with a rating 2.0 of 1.34.

In the second match, G2 crushed FaZe Clan 2-0. NiKo was only the third-best player on his team, but that’s because his teammates didn’t leave him much to do. His 36-24 record speaks for itself.

In the third match, G2 encountered one of the best competitors in the world. Team Vitality won the Paris Major for a good reason, and would have won this match as well. But m0NESY and NiKo played incredibly well.

Once again, NiKo was the second-best player on the server with a record of 63-51. The only person who surpassed him was m0NESY.

With these three victories, G2 advanced to the playoffs, where they played two matches. One against Astralis and another against ENCE.

In the match against the Danish team, NiKo was once again the highest-rated player on the server: 43-26 and a rating 2.0 of 1.41.

Against ENCE, his performance was even more spectacular: 91-53 and a rating 2.0 of 1.49. Once again, he was the best player on the server, although arguably, m0NESY was just as good.

Thanks to these results, NiKo received the MVP award, which should help him get a very high score in this year’s CS:GO player of the year contest. So far, NiKo has been among the top 5 for sure.

Header: ESL