YEKINDAR Joins Team Liquid

Former Virtus.pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive superstar, Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis has officially joined Team Liquid. The 23-year-old announced the news on Tuesday, October 18, ahead of the team’s appearance in the IEM Rio Major in November.

Team Liquid announced the signing of YEKINDAR on Tuesday, adding the Latvian CS:GO star to the roster on a permanent basis. The news comes just weeks ahead of the Intel Extreme Masters Rio Major, for which Team Liquid qualified with a Legends status.

Although a huge signing, YEKINDAR’s addition to Liquid’s roster hardly comes as a shock. The 23-year-old has been standing in for Team Liquid since June, filling in the void left behind by Richard “shox” Papillon’s departure.

And even though YEKINDAR initially joined Liquid as a temporary substitute, it quickly became clear that he would likely get offered a permanent contract.

Since joining Liquid as a stand-in, YEKINDAR has proven himself as a perfect fit for the roster. He helped Liquid achieve plenty of success, as his presence helped the entire roster step up and show the heights they were capable of achieving.

YEKINDAR started his journey with Team Liquid with a solid fifth-sixth place finish at IEM Cologne, carrying the strong form into the second half of the season. Team Liquid later added another strong showing with a runner-up finish at ESL Pro League Season 16, marking Liquid’s best LAN placement since the BLAST Pro Series Global Final in 2019.

With the help of YEKINDAR, Liquid enjoyed one of the best stretches since 2019, when the North American squad won the Intel Grand Slam Season 2. Currently ranked as no.3 team in the world, Liquid also reclaimed a top-three position in the global CS:GO rankings for the first time since January 2020.

Since joining Liquid in January, YEKINDAR has been averaging a solid 1.16 performance rating and has played a key role in the team’s success.

YEKINDAR started his professional CS:GO career in November 2007, when he joined Elements Pro Gaming, where he remained for seven months before the Latvian rifler got benched. Then, after a two-month break from competitive CS:GO, YEKINDAR returned to pro play with pro100, where he remained for over 1.5 years, building a name for himself as one of the most talented young players in the region.

His recognition eventually earned him a spot at Virtus.pro, who YEKINDAR joined in May 2020 and remained with the organization until May 2022, when VP was forced to exit the CS:GO scene due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Despite the unfortunate ending to his stay at Virtus.pro, YEKINDAR has achieved a lot with the Russian esports organization. Most notably, he won Flashpoint Season 2, DreamHack Open December 2020, Pinnacle Fall Series #1, and ESL Challenger #48.

After stepping down from Virtus.pro’s active lineup in March, YEKINDAR competed with his VP teammates under the Outsiders banner and has achieved limited success. Of the three tournaments, the Russian squad attended, they’ve not won much, placing 17th-20th at ESL Pro League Season 15, eighth at PGL Major Antwerp 2022: European RMR A, and 12th-14th at PGL Major Antwerp 2022.

Since he joined Team Liquid, YEKINDAR found his old form and started racking in strong tournament showings. In just three months with the team, YEKINDAR helped the whole Liquid roster improve, leading the organization to its strongest tournament finishes in years.

Even though Liquid have yet to win a tournament title with YEKINDAR, they’ve come close a couple of times. And now, they’ll have another chance at competing for a big trophy in November when Team Liquid attend IEM Rio Major in Brazil.