NiKo on possible top 1 in 2023: "I'll do my best. I think it's harder now, with m0NESY on the team" Interview
2023-01-20 12:19:00G2 Esports superstar rifler Nikola "NiKo" Kovac spoke about his placement in HLTV's top 20 best players of 2022. He thinks that even getting the 5th position was an overachievement for him, but desires to become the best next year. In an interview with Pley.gg, Kovac claimed that his teammate Ilya "m0NESY" Osipiv might become the obstacle on his path to the top.
Considering the year, I'm definitely satisfied with the top 5 I had. I even think that it was too much to get there, but I'll take it. I will also do my best to keep the record [next year]. So yeah, I was happy with it but not sure that I fully deserve it.
On a possible top 1 for NiKo
I'll do my best. I think it's harder now, with m0NESY on the team. We're giving him a lot of space, he needs to shine. He is definitely a star player and deserves all the space he gets. So it will be much harder for me to perform as I did in 2020 with the old lineup. I think that I can do much better than the last year, but I'm not sure that it's enough to become number one.
2022 was NiKo's seventh appearance in the top 20 with five top-5 placements and the title of the second-best in 2017. M0NESY placed 7th in the top 20, while NiKo was two positions above him. Nobody before the young player has finished a year that high at this age.
