Aliaksandr “1eeR” Nahorny says PRIVATE have been putting in 14 to 16-hour days as the new Counter-Strike 2 roster tries to turn a fast start into a more durable project. Speaking to HLTV after the team’s exit from 1win Private Club Season 2 in Belgrade, the former Nemiga captain said he is handling most of the tactical work himself because the lineup still does not have a coach.
PRIVATE’s event run ended with a loss to The MongolZ in the lower bracket final, but the team still walked away with two eye-catching wins: one over Alliance and another over fnatic. The roster was built around a core that had previously played for RUBY and came together less than two months ago with 1eeR leading the group.
That timing matters because the team was not arriving in Belgrade as a finished product. It had only been working together as an actual roster for about a month and a half, while some of the players were still short on competitive experience. Even so, the results were enough to show that PRIVATE can already trouble established opposition at tier-two level.
1eeR is doing the tactical work himself
1eeR did not soften the workload. He said the team has been spending long hours on practice while he tries to give the players a shared understanding of how they want to play.
“We worked literally like 14 to 16 hours, without exaggeration.”
He said the lack of a coach has pushed that responsibility onto him. That has meant setting the team’s overall style, explaining how he wants rounds to look, and making sure the players react the same way in similar situations.
“We don’t have a coach right now, so I do all the work.”
According to 1eeR, the job has gone beyond basic preparation. He has had to make sure the players share the same ideas on clutches, on standard map situations and on how to recover when a round starts to go wrong. He said he has been trying to install those habits as quickly as possible so the team can keep moving as one unit instead of as a group of players still learning each other’s tendencies.
He also said the Belgrade event was meant to show the team where it stands, not to serve as proof that the roster is already complete. The result was not fully satisfying, but he viewed it as a useful early test against decent opposition rather than a disappointment that changes the bigger picture.
How PRIVATE came together
1eeR said PRIVATE started as a mix. The players first joined up, played a small LAN, won it, and then kept going together. After that, he expected offers from other teams and said he was getting signals that there was some interest elsewhere, but nothing developed into a move.
From there, the group reached out to Igor, the owner of PRIVATE, and discussed the organization’s plans. 1eeR said he liked the conversation because the team’s ambitions and the organization’s view of development lined up.
“We immediately found some common connection, a shared idea, and so we signed.”
He also spoke with Marat, the team’s CEO, about the roster. 1eeR said he wanted H4SAN4TOR brought back because he believed the player fit what the team needed. He added that Nuclear TigeRES decided to bench Timur, z1ka, which opened the door for PRIVATE to pick him up.
That sequence helps explain why the team has moved so quickly. PRIVATE did not spend months building toward this roster; it assembled around a short run of games, one LAN win as a mix, and then a formal signing after the project started to take shape.
Wins over Alliance and fnatic raised the ceiling
PRIVATE’s run in Belgrade gave the team more than just experience. Beating Alliance and fnatic gave 1eeR a first look at how far the group can go when the system is working and the players trust the same ideas.
He said the squad can already compete with teams of that level, but he also made clear that the margins are still thin. The event exposed mistakes that PRIVATE can get away with against weaker sides and cannot get away with against an opponent like The MongolZ. He described the loss as a reminder of how hard a sharper team can punish errors, especially when the mistakes come from nerves or from gaps in individual level.
“This game was very telling because we were told where our place is, so to speak,” he said.
That was especially true in the micro moments. 1eeR said The MongolZ punished every slip, and he credited the opponent’s level of shooting and decision-making for making the match a blunt lesson. He did not frame the defeat as a sign that PRIVATE cannot play at this level. Instead, he treated it as evidence that the roster still has a long list of problems to solve if it wants to keep climbing.
He also said the team’s progress is notable because so many of the players did not have much competitive experience before this project. In his view, going from that starting point to a fourth-place finish at a solid tier-two event shows the group is moving in the right direction, even if it is not yet ready to close out every opportunity.
A coach is still missing
For now, the biggest open question is how PRIVATE fills the coaching role. 1eeR said the team had some options, but there were no concrete talks that led anywhere. He described the current market as short on suitable candidates and said finding the right person has been difficult.
He was clear that the setup cannot stay the same forever. In his view, the team can keep operating with him doing everything for a short stretch, but not for long. He said he can probably keep it going for another month or two, yet after that he will not have enough time or energy to track every mistake across practice and matches.
That is why he wants someone from outside the roster who can understand the game, give each player useful feedback and also offer him advice. The point, as he described it, is not just to add another name to the staff list. It is to bring in someone who can help PRIVATE keep developing once the initial burst of work starts to catch up with the people inside the lineup.
Despite that concern, 1eeR sounded optimistic about the direction of the project. He said he feels pleased with the progress so far and is already comfortable talking about the upcoming summer Major as a target. That confidence comes from the speed of the team’s growth, the wins in Belgrade and the belief that the roster can still get better once the structural issues are addressed.
PRIVATE now has a first result to point to and a short list of wins that show what the team can do when the pieces fit. It also has a clear reminder that the current setup is too demanding to sustain indefinitely without help, which is why the search for a coach has become as important as the next event on the schedule.
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