(GotFrag) - Let's face it - unless you follow the east coast LAN scene you probably have absolutely no clue who Fadil "Nepo-" Canovic is. So when "EG.usa" announced that he would be replacing long time star Scott "evolution" Cavallero, you probably scratched your head and wondered who the hell he was. Seeing some people call him a scrub in the news post comment section probably led you to believe he is the worst pick-up in the history of organized CS. But you would be wrong for one very compelling reason. Canovic has been trained and tailored to fit in perfectly with EG from the very first time he loaded up CS.

Canovic started playing Counter-Strike during his last year in junior high school. He heard about the game from Nazar "steno" Vynnytsky, a local friend and current team "EG" captain. He started off slowly. Playing in public servers and working on the basics. Once his family switched from 56k to cable internet, he formed his first competitive team, "Albanian Boys Inc." Comprised of his brother, cousins, and a few friends, the team gave Canovic his first competitive action in CAL-open.

At that time, Vynnytsky was playing for "fear factor," who were slowly starting to make their way to the top of the local NY LAN scene. Canovic decided to rename "ABI" to "Endurance," replacing a few players and making a stronger squad. Eventually the team worked their way to CAL-main. While Canovic was getting better through his experience with endurance, he still was far from the level of his friend.

"He was just getting better faster, so it was kind of hard for me to end up on the same team as him by just playing. I knew that I’d have to do some extra work and really understand what I needed to be doing to win."

Canovic eventually proved that he was getting better in a scrimmage against Vynnytsky's team. His performance did much more than earn him some respect from a friend. Vynnytsky helped him get some opportunities playing with some of the better local players from teams such as "h5m" and "fear factor." Eventually he was able to bring some of those players on to "endurance" to go to local tournaments with. After some lackluster results, Canovic left "endurance" and moved on to yet another local team, "MindScape."

"MindScape" showed up to a summer event at web2zone. There they shocked both "fear factor" and "Confederacy" to win the tournament. This was the first taste of LAN victory for Canovic. Unfortunately, it would be his last time competing for some time.

"Unfortunately my father decided to turn my internet off after that event. So after four months of having no internet, I came back and didn't know what was going on in the community."

Four months away from a community who is more forgetful than "10 second Tom," left Canovic fearing that his chance at making it onto a top team had fallen to the wayside. Still he found some of his old teammates and joined their team.

"I was still pretty good, and I joined a team called 'eboL,' full of players that I used to help when I was on 'MindScape,' since they were all local."

After playing a season in CEVO-main with "eboL," and proving that he still had skills, he was able to join "j1n" along with some players from "eboL" and local club "eastinvite." While j1n never attended any LAN tournaments, Canovic would receive an opportunity to show up and represent himself.


Fadil "Nepo-" Canovic
"I was asked to ring at a local LAN and 'EG' (at the time, 'eMg') was attending, so I was down to go. The team I went with was an 'iPlay' pug and we happened to win the LAN and beat 'eMg' in a best of three series."

While that performance helped to give Canovic some more respect within the local east coast community, it did little more than keep people from calling him a cheater online. He remained with "j1n," playing online and eventually placing third in CEVO-main. Despite "j1n" seemingly taking an online only approach, it would not keep Canovic from finding his way onto pug lineups and ringing for teams.

"I was asked to ring for 'iPlay' again, but this time to go to an x3o qualifier (#3) that 'EG' was attending. We made it to Day 2 and ended up playing 'EG' on dust2 and going in overtime and almost beating them."

With so much success playing with the members of "iPlay," and a growing desire to play local events, it was a natural progression for Canovic to leave behind "j1n" and join the squad, then playing as "focaL." The team attended the fourth x3o qualifier, where they beat "EG" on train, and went into triple overtime with "MoB." It had become clear that Canovic was able to hang with the big boys. When the time came that "EG" needed to pick up a player, he was the obvious choice.

That is not to say that his addition has not sparked some grumbling from fans. The majority of the comments on the GotFrag news post concerning the roster change were negative. But Canovic understands why the community has reacted the way they have.

"I don’t blame people for questioning EG picking me up in place of evolution. I as 'Nepo-' haven’t accomplished anything internationally yet, especially compared to Scott. I think it’s perfectly normal for them to react the way they have."

While Canovic sees the negativity from some of "EG's" fans and the community at large, he says that he does not allow it to affect him in any way.

"I feel no pressure, really, since our team has complete trust in one another and that’s all that matters. I haven't had to make any adjustments at all after joining EG, since the way I was brought up in this game is to think and play fast."

With "EG" seemingly making a roster change after each major event, one can only wonder what kind of job security the newly added Canovic can have. As far as he is concerned, his job security will depend on the results that "EG" has at the next few upcoming events, and not necessarily on how the community bases his play.

"As long as we are performing the way we should be and getting the W’s, everything should be fine. Usually only some players on a team get the credit in the eyes of the audience, and it’s usually the top fragger(s), but that won't have any effect on me or the people around me. We all trust one another and understand what we’re doing to win the rounds."

You can watch Canovic in his first tournament with "EG" at this weekend's upcoming x3o finals event. Stay tuned to GotFrag for live comprehensive coverage of the x3o Grand Finals August 15th-17th.

Photos courtesy of x3o Gaming