NiKo Finally Wins the Major - No Asterisk Needed

Nikola “NiKo” Kovač is finally a Counter-Strike Major champion. After more than a decade at the top level and 17 Major attempts, one of the greatest riflers in CS history lifted the trophy at IEM Cologne Major 2026 with Team Falcons.

Falcons closed the tournament with a dominant 3 - 0 win over FURIA in the grand final, taking Mirage, Anubis and Inferno all by 13 - 8 scorelines. For NiKo, it was more than another title. It ended one of the loudest narratives in Counter-Strike: the idea that his legacy would always be incomplete without a Major.

The criticism around Falcons will not disappear. The organization has been heavily questioned because of its Saudi backing and expensive superteam approach. That discussion is fair. Money clearly helped build this roster. But money does not win rounds by itself.

Falcons still had to survive the server. Their Cologne run included wins over G2, Monte, NAVI, Vitality, Spirit and FURIA. That is not a soft path. That is a title run through elite opposition, with pressure on every map and no room for excuses.

NiKo’s achievement should be judged for what happened in the game. He showed up when it mattered, played a major role in the final, and finally turned years of pain, near-misses and criticism into a trophy.

You can question the project. You can dislike the org. But pretending NiKo did not earn this Major is lazy. Cologne 2026 is now part of history - and NiKo is officially a Major winner.