diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 5b2367d..8a42cf9 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -559,7 +559,7 @@ fn irc_to_discord_processing(
 
     regex! {
         static PING_NICK_1 = r"^([\w+]+)(?::|,)";
-        static PING_RE_2 = r"(?<=\s)@([\w\S]+)";
+        static PING_RE_2 = r"(?<=\s|^)@([\w\S]+)";
         static CONTROL_CHAR_RE = r"\x1f|\x02|\x12|\x0f|\x16|\x03(?:\d{1,2}(?:,\d{1,2})?)?";
         static WHITESPACE_RE = r"^\s";
         static CHANNEL_RE = r"#([A-Za-z-*]+)";