Aussie squad FlyQuest has finally revealed their new fifth for the season, announcing the return of Alistair "aliStair" Johnston on September 2 ahead of a spate of qualifiers and LAN events in Australia.
The org and squad, which has been silent for the most part since the departure of João "story" Vieira in July and analyst Ricardo "JTR" Júnior earlier this month, confirmed aliStair's return on X (Twitter) just prior to their IEM Beijing qualifier against NEXVOID. However, the move has been all but announced for some time.
Guess who’s back
— FlyQuest CS (@FlyQuestCS) September 2, 2026
Welcome back @aliStair_CS 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/w5KHzGFHTU
"It was an absolute honour to learn, grow and achieve what we did together with this team," aliStair said on his time at TdU. "The trust in one another and everything we built was amazing in such a short timeframe."
The 28-year-old links up with his old team after nearly a year of competition for home-grown project THUNDER dOWNUNDER, during which he claimed two national titles and attended the IEM Cologne Major all in the span of half a year.
He’ll also be taking the IGL reins from Joshua “INS” Potter, following his time as AWP and captain of TdU.
The move isn't without its fair share of criticism from the community after a mixed 2025 and disastrous 2026 campaign for FlyQuest. The team has played just 66 maps across two qualifiers and six LANs in 2026, far below that of the same time period across 2024 and 2025.
In that time, FQ has cycled through two European AWPers in Iulian "regali" Harjău (now at Eternal Fire) and story (reunited with SAW), with neither proving the spark FQ needed.
it is with a heavy heart we announce the departure of @aliStair_CS.
— THUNDERdOWNUNDER (@THUNDERdUNDERcs) August 27, 2026
alistair led TDU as an independent team achieving the prestigious milestone of qualifying for a major in only 5 months.
we are so proud of what we achieved together 💜
thank you and #makeitclap pic.twitter.com/JGU1LZHsY9
A clean run at HyperX Intel Nationals in Brisbane stemmed the bleeding as far as VRS was concerned, but inactivity has now seen the former top-30 squad fall outside invite range for anything outside of Asia.
Coupled with massive delays in the team's move to Europe, and an inability for the whole squad to practice together given they are split across the world, FlyQuest's season thus far has been a write-off — and many are concerned it'll take more than a returning aliStair to rectify it.
There is still time and opportunity for FQ to qualify for the PGL Singapore Major, with today's IEM Beijing Asia Qualifier and three DFRAG-hosted LANs in October to participate in. FlyQuest confirmed on August 27 the squad will be in Australia for all three in the lead-up to the Singapore Major.
The FlyQuest CS2 roster is now:
- Joshua "INS" Potter
- Declan "Vexite" Portelli
- Corey "nettik" Browne
- Justin "jks" Savage
- Alistair "aliStair" Johnston (IGL)
- Aaron "AZR" Ward (coach)
