Well, this was an interesting turn of events today; Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač (not the Quake Kovaak, mind you) has left FaZe Clan (Global Seed #8) after a three and a half year stint where the player amassed 10 trophies from his time beginning on February of 2017 and ending today.
The player has been picked up by the dominantly French team G2 (GS#13), taking his stance next to famed players such as Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub and the in-game leadership of François ‘AmaNEk’ Delauney.
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It has not yet been announced as to who NiKo will be replacing within the roster.
Welcome @G2NiKo
📰: https://t.co/7OJIFaWiJ1 pic.twitter.com/fA7CjdZN3d
— G2 Esports (@G2esports) October 28, 2020
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G2 themselves have been a bit unlucky in recent matches during both the DreamHack Open Fall 2020, where they managed to win two matches out of seven against Heroic (GS#1) and Endpoint(GS#31), after promptly dropping out of the IEM New York 2020 against fnatic and a full-strength Complexity.
Now the battle for France will be a bit more closely contested as both Vitality (GS#3) and G2 have promising rosters, albeit one more proven than the other; if you aren’t a fan of G2, however, you may be wondering precisely how your favored organizations will prevail.
Now, FaZe is left without a critical rifler in the server, and the coach has stepped down today as well; some are predicting that many currently on the roster are similarly looking to transfer over as well from the team that is suddenly understrength to compete.
Stepping down from FaZe
Read: https://t.co/k2fsLAXvMh
— Janko Paunovic (@YNk) October 28, 2020
There’s still some firepower left in the tank of FaZe in terms of Håvard ‘Rain’ Nygaard and Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjærbye, and the legendary Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer has stepped back into the team after a heft of an absence, but it isn’t obscene to theorize that some of the other players that are currently firing on all cylinders could be bid for at the moment; perhaps by Apeks.
Mousesports currently needs a heft of firepower to help replace Woxic (who has been picked up by Cloud9), Apeks still needs to add beef to their roster, and the entire scene is still topsy-turvy after the massive cheating scandal that rocked the competitive scene.
FaZe is unlikely going anywhere either, however, and there’s still a good chunk of power within the roster if NiKo can readily be replaced; a fantastical statement as players like Nikola don’t readily grow on trees within the competitive scene, but FaZe shouldn’t be counted out of the running for the top ten just yet.
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We’ll see soon enough if the signing is enough to turn around the recent rash of difficult losses the French team has taken.