YEKINDAR is feeling happy at FURIA: "FalleN instantly recognized my strengths"

Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis is having a resurgence in FURIA after some rough months at the end of his Liquid stint last year. The Latvian helped FURIA to finish top four at PGL Astana 2025, their first tournament with him and Danil "molodoy" Golubenko, and they're still alive in IEM Dallas 2025.

Dust2.us' Editor-in-Chief got a hold of YEKINDAR after FURIA survived their first elimination game against Lynn Vision to discuss the communication hardships FURIA are going through, his role inside the team both as a player and sort of a translator between molodoy and the Brazilians, and how come him and FalleN became close so quickly.

The full interview can be found below on YouTube, with key snippets underneath. All questions and answers below have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

You mentioned there's some negativity [after losing at the PGL Astana semis and 3rd place decider]. Where's that negativity coming from? Do you think it's misplaced?

I don't think it's coming from the fans. I think it's more frustrations inside the team, during a round or whatever, there could be situations where somebody doesn't trust someone. The problem right now is that there are natural maps that are kind of universal between the different philosophies of the game.

I kind of play in both ways [because] I played in a Western team, I played in a CIS team, and I kind of understand both ways because of my experience. But, molodoy, was playing 'CIS-style' or whatever you want to call it, and he has different ideas, or different opinions about things, while KSCERATO, yuurih, and FalleN maybe have a completely different perspective on how to play out the round.

And, because of the lack of time spent together and actually talking about those things, there could be a misconception during a round between the two sides, and then a mistake happens. And because of the mistake, suddenly, there's frustration happening. We know that we can beat stronger teams. These mistakes maybe [lead to] people getting a little bit frustrated because of the expectations, that's what I'm trying to say.

Do you think that a part of that at all is the communication? You don't speak Portuguese, and molodoy doesn't speak Portuguese. You speak fantastic English because of all your experience, whereas molodoy is still learning English, and you're the bridge between the two sides. Do you think that the communication will naturally improve over time?

Yeah, definitely. I think molodoy's English is FACEIT-level English. And even though he has great ideas and a great understanding, during the heat of the moment, when you have to explain something in five seconds because you haven't talked about this preemptively, it's obviously something where he tries to change something, but he can't explain why something needs to be changed.

Then he tries to communicate to me in Russian, and I need to translate it or whatever, and obviously that slows us down to some degree. It's hard because molodoy is a young talented player, definitely with great and bright ideas. I understand his perspective on the game and I also understand that KSCERATO and FalleN have also experienced many different situations, and they found different situations and solutions for the same problems that could happen in the game.

That's why there's no 100% connection of understanding that we are believing in the same thing during a round or during a game. That's why you need to talk about it and you need to discuss it, especially because of the communication. I wouldn't call it issues, but the hard part is communicating on the fly about [stuff] and successfully finding a decision [...] The problem right now is that we didn't have physically enough time to talk about all the things we need to talk like the maps, CT sides, T sides, and we can counter something. This is something that only will come with time.

It's no secret that things on Liquid ended up in a bad state. There were a lot of role changes for you, and I feel your confidence may have been shaken by what happened on Liquid. Was it a good confidence booster to play well on PGL Astana with a new team, a new culture? How are you feeling about your confidence right now?

My confidence isn't at the highest it's ever been, but it's definitely higher than it was at the later iteration of Liquid. During the break, I kind of understood what I wanted and what I needed to feel confident in the team and to feel confident individually.

When I first joined FURIA, I wasn't necessarily expecting that people would be listening to me, but FalleN instantly kind of recognized my strengths and what I could bring to the team. He allowed me to set up those things and help my team with my stronger sides. That's what I'm kind of happy about, honestly.

Reaching semis in the first tournament after a week of practice is, for me, a really good result. Unless you have some hero [performances] by some players, you can't beat this higher-level team that has been together for one and a half years instantly. We definitely could have won, I believe we could have won, but at the same time, I also understand that it was a good result and a good tournament.

We understood what we need to work on, what maps we need to work on, what philosophies we need to work on, and what needs to be done for us to become better and be able to beat those stronger teams.

You spoke very highly of FalleN and his willingness to let you come to the team and bring your own ideas. It seems he's a pretty sacrificial figure on this team, having given up the AWP to molodoy, the space on the team's strategies to you. Do you think this is a unique skill of his at all?

For me, the stronger side of him is how he is able to connect the dots by understanding what players he has. He's not necessarily forcing an issue like: 'Hey, we need to play this way and that's the only way I want to play.' He is open to ideas, open to understanding his players, and open to systematizing around that.

That's definitely unique and a great skill that only a couple IGLs in the world have. I have huge respect for him because he's trusting a player who could be gone after three events. Maybe this is the place that I'm going to stay because I'm satisfied at the moment. Of course, there's some turbulence, maybe some small mistakes and miscommunications, but nothing is unfixable.

Has there been any discussion between you and FURIA for after the Major? Like, what needs to happen or what conditions need to be met? Is there a world in which we see this really unique Eastern European-Brazilian roster continue beyond the player break?

Well, maybe it's a little bit of a misconception because it's both sides, right? Maybe something is going to happen and FURIA won't want me or maybe [it's the other way around]. I took some fast decisions when I was younger, and in this case, I know I have three events to make up my mind and decide if this is the place I want to stay.

Right now I'm happy, and maybe later I'm going to be even happier or maybe not [chuckles].