Nemiga are in the midst of a startling underdog run at PGL Masters Bucharest, having reached the semi-finals after an upset victory over FUT. Not only is this Nemiga's best-ever result at a Big Event by a significant margin, it has also secured their place at PGL Singapore Major.
For Beksultan "khaN" Ospan, the result was not a surprise. "We've been playing a lot of pracs against them as well, against such teams at top-10, top-15," he told HLTV in the wake of his team's victory. "I wouldn't say it was rough pracs for us. We weren't nervous about the result, we know that we are capable of winning such teams."
khaN believes that Nemiga were "putting too much pressure" on themselves in past games against top squads, and that a change in attitude is what allowed them to grab this memorable victory over FUT. "Recently I just started to not give a fuck. I'm trying to just enjoy as much as I can playing, on the stage. Everything feels good."
You can listen to the interview here.
First, congratulations. Were you expecting that kind of result against a team like FUT?
Thank you, first of all, and secondly, I would say yeah, we've been playing a lot of pracs against them as well, against such teams at top-10, top-15. I wouldn't say it was rough pracs for us. We weren't nervous about the result, we know that we are capable of winning such teams. So I would say yes, we were expecting us to win today.
In general it's obviously been a very good tournament for you guys, now in the semi-finals. Before this tournament, what were you expecting from your team? Did you think you could go this far?
I don't know. From my experience, I've been playing some other tier-one tournaments before, and we never reached the playoffs or anything because I think one of the reasons was pressure and nerves, stress and everything. Because we were putting too much pressure on ourselves, like, "We should go playoffs. We should win." Like this.
So recently I just started to not give a fuck. I'm trying to just enjoy as much as I can playing, on the stage. Everything feels good. My team is trying hard. So I'm just expecting my team to just play good CS, and that's all.
You've obviously played for Nemiga for a little while now. Why do you think this version of Nemiga is so successful compared to earlier times?
It should be pretty obvious that we have just more skilled players right now. We're just making everything better than before and handling our nerves much better, I would say. So that should be the main reasons.
Looking forwards, obviously you guys have secured your Major qualification with this run. What are your expectations for the Major? What are your thoughts about that?
First of all, we need to see where we are starting. But for me, first step would be playoffs, and after that we will see.
Anything else is a bonus?
Can I say swear words or no?
Yeah, if you want
Fuck haters, and shout out to everyone who was supporting us all this way. It was really tough at the start of the season, considering how we were losing. But a lot of people were really supporting us, and it means a lot for us. Thank you.
Where do you see the peak for this version of Nemiga? How far do you think you can go in the long term, in the future?
We got a lot of things to fix, as we all know. For example, last game we had very big problems with nades and with communication. I think if we fix these problems, I'm pretty sure we can be a stable top-10 team.
Nemiga
Aleksandr 'KaiR0N-' Anashkin
Kirill 'Xant3r' Kononov
Nikita 'robo' Dushin
Beksultan 'khaN' Ospan
Daniel 'syph0' Ageyev
Anton 'boX' Burko
Beksultan 'khaN' OspanPast 3 months
FUT
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García
Yasin 'xfl0ud' Koç
Dmytro 'dem0n' Myroshnychenko
Aulon 'Krabeni' Fazlija
Džiugas 'dziugss' Steponavičius
András 'coolio' Fercsák