Danish in-game leader Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen has left OG today and is looking for an opportunity elsewhere ahead of the release of CS2 this summer.
Niko had been standing in for OG since February after the team’s original captain Nemanja “nexa” Isaković stepped down from the active lineup due to personal reasons. Niko had previously played for OG between 2021 and 2022 as a rifler and came back this year for four months to be their shot-caller.
OG didn’t win anything under niko’s leadership, but they qualified for the BLAST Paris Major in April with a 3-2 record in the Europe RMR. Nobody was expecting them to make the final CS:GO Major after losing nexa, so that was a big accomplishment.
Now that niko’s second stint with OG is over, he’s open to all opportunities. “I am more than ready to get a new home winning trophies,” the captain wrote on Twitter on June 8. Niko’s departure from OG had already been reported after their elimination from the BLAST Paris Major Challengers Stage in May, but it was finally confirmed today.
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Despite being just 25 years old, niko is a veteran in the competitive scene. He has been competing since 2015 and most notably played for Heroic and OpTic Gaming before moving to OG in 2021 and returning in 2023.
It’s unclear if OG will bring nexa back into the active lineup now that it has officially parted ways with niko. The Serbian captain tweeted “break over” after the announcement of CS2 in March and said in an interview with Dexerto on May 25 that he’s currently exploring his options.