Nemiga's team of Major rookies make Stage 2 in Austin over FlyQuest

The 12th-seeded team in Stage 1 advanced after dominance from khaN on Ancient and a comeback from 5-10 down on Inferno.

Nemiga are through to Stage 2 of the BLAST.tv Austin Major after beating FlyQuest 2-0 (13-9 Ancient, 13-11 Inferno) in the 2-1 pool of Stage 1.

The team of five rookies — six, including coach Anton "⁠boX⁠" Burko — showed resilience throughout their match against the Australian team, recovering from a 5-9 deficit on Ancient and a 5-10 deficit on Inferno to lock in a top-24 berth in Austin.

The comeback on the former was led by Beksultan "⁠khaN⁠" Ospan, who ended the map with a 1.78 rating and was FlyQuest's kryptonite on the CT side, while Ivan "⁠zweih⁠" Gogin's aggressive CT rifling and Aliaksandr "⁠1eeR⁠" Nahorny's entries up Banana allowed Nemiga to emerge victorious from a scrappy battle on Inferno.

Clip: zweih and Riskyb0b open up A with two crisp headshots

The Belarusian organization came into Stage 1 as the 12th-seeded team and 15th-highest-ranked on HLTV, but played far above that level after an early battering from BetBoom in their opener.

Nemiga's early strategies on Ancient left much to be desired, though, alternating between five-man A and B site hits to no avail. FlyQuest were ahead 4-1 before back-to-back clutches from khaN finally gave Nemiga some breathing room, proving just enough to claw back to five rounds at the break.

FlyQuest won the second pistol and conversion to extend their lead, but that was all they managed in a half that was completely dominated by khaN and Maksim "⁠riskyb0b⁠" Churikov. The former's 16-4 K-D and 2.04-rated half was accompanied by several entry kills and multi-frag holds from the latter, allowing Nemiga to win eight straight and romp to a 13-9 victory.

Clip: POV highlights of khaN on Ancient

A hot start to Inferno by Iulian "⁠regali⁠" Harjău set FlyQuest ahead early doors yet again, but their lead soon dissipated thanks to some excellent aggressive rifling by zweih and a triple kill in Banana from khaN. regali and Corey "⁠nettik⁠" Browne ensured their team remained ahead at the break, however, and the Romanian sniper added another pistol quad kill after the swap to push FlyQuest up to double digits.

However, the Australians won just one round after that, falling on A to a pair of crisp entries from zweih and riskyb0b before a pace change and repeated abuse of Banana allowed Nemiga to charge to victory.

khaN: "We had no pressure like before; our mood was one of the key things in this BO3"

"I'm very happy. My team is just incredible, my coach... I'm very happy," khaN said in a post-match interview with James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks with a wide smile on his face.

"Coming into this tournament, we were kinda underdogs, but we all believed in ourselves coming into this event. Maybe in Stage 1 there are not the biggest names, but anyway it is the Major and all teams are worthy to play here and I'm very happy to play at this LAN and in this city. It means a lot to me because it's the Major."

Asked about beating allegations of Nemiga being onliners coming into the Major, khaN was candid.

"I think it was kinda true, like half true, because we weren't that experienced players," he said. "It was a bit tough to play, for example at the Shanghai RMR. I don't really remember [exactly], but I remember that it was not like before, you know? I never felt something like this.

"Coming into this event I think we had more experience, so I think that is why we can show ourselves better individually. Like zweih, monster, and I can show myself better. We had no pressure like before."

The Kazakhstani sniper was also asked about 1eeR's banter and hype in the server, and said it helped keep the mood high in the team.

"He's just acting childish, but in a good way," khaN laughed. "We're just having some fun, and we really enjoy playing when everyone is screaming, playing, vibing. We have a good mood, not like sometimes before, like when we're losing and stuff, 0-2, and you're just [all down].

"Here, even if we lose, our IGL is just hyping us up and it really helped us a lot. Even in both these maps we were losing, 5-10 on Inferno and [5-9] on Ancient, and our mood was one of the key things in this BO3."