Nikita "robo" Dushin stopped for a quick chat with HLTV after his team's memorable upset victory over Vitality:
Were you expecting to be able to beat Vitality when you came into this game?
Not really. Everyone on our team said it's a good result for us already, Vitality too good, so don't worry if you lose.
Do you think that lack of pressure helped you play so well?
Yeah, I think so.
You've not been on Nemiga for that long. Why do you think you've been able to do so well so quickly, both you and as a team?
I don't know. We just played good as a team. We practiced a lot and everyone started feeling each other. We have good synergy in team. But still, I don't know how do we do it.
Last question. Grand final tomorrow, do you think you can win it and go all the way?
Obviously, we still think the teams which are left are really good. So we don't have that much pressure that we must win this final. We just play and enjoy the game.
Nemiga made good on their map pick, and took Cache convincingly,13-8, to lead the semi-final series 1-0.
William "mezii" Merriman, taking leadership while Dan "apEX" Madesclaire is out on paternity leave, struggled mightily on the map with just three kills and 49.6 ADR.
Vitality, widely considered the team to beat on Cache at the moment despite a big loss on it to Natus Vincere in the quarters, have given up the first round on the map — picked by Nemiga — as Shahar "flameZ" Shushan and Justinas "jL" Lekavicius brought a 2v4 down to a 2v2, but Nikita "robo" Dushin got the two final kills in an A afterplant situation to get his team ahead early on.
Only four teams are left at PGL Masters in Bucharest: Vitality, Nemiga, MOUZ, and FURIA. The second-to-last day of play will kick off with the Dan "apEX" Madesclaire-less Vitality facing off against the final four's big underdogs, Nemiga.
The second series, featuring MOUZ and FURIA, will be the third time these teams are clashing for this month after the European squad cleared the Brazilian-majority side 2-0 twice at ESL Pro League.
MOUZ
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Oldřich 'PR' Nový
Adrian 'xelex' Vincze
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen
Nikita 'robo' DushinPast 3 months
Kirill 'Xant3r' KononovPast 3 months
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanPast 3 months
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautPast 3 months
Vitality
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam
Justinas 'jL' LekaviciusPast 3 months
Natus Vincere
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Mihai 'iM' Ivan
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov
Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri
Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy
Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePast 3 months
William 'mezii' MerrimanPast 3 months
FURIA
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Danil 'molodoy' Golubenko
Sid 'sidde' Macedo
Nemiga
Aleksandr 'KaiR0N-' Anashkin
Kirill 'Xant3r' Kononov
Nikita 'robo' Dushin
Beksultan 'khaN' Ospan
Daniel 'syph0' Ageyev
Anton 'boX' Burko