The best CS:GO players of 2022 – YEKINDAR

Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis has just been listed by hltv as the 15^th best CS:GO player of 2022. His rise to prominence was fascinating to watch. In just a few years, he went from being just another tier-2 player to competing for Virtus.pro. And then, from VP, he started playing for Team Liquid as a stand-in.

In October 2022, Liquid decided to offer him a long-term contract and he was glad to accept it. At the age of just 23, YEKINDAR is now a superstar in the making and has the potential to shape the global rankings in 2023.

YEKINDAR’s 2022 season

YEKINDAR started 2022 as a Virtus.pro player and had multiple decent results. He finished fifth-sixth at IEM Katowice and 12^th-14^th at PGL Major Antwerp. Then we started playing for Liquid and in July he got his first important result: fifth-sixth place at IEM Cologne.

For the rest of 2022, YEKINDAR obtained a lot of good results with Liquid and what is even more impressive is that he was constantly one of the best members of the team.

At ESL Pro League Season 16, he finished second. In the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, he finished first. At IEM Rio Major, he finished 9^th-11^th. At BLAST Premier Fall Finals, he finished third-fourth. Then, at BLAST Premier World Final, he finished second after a tough Grand Final against G2 Esports.

At this final tournament, YEKINDAR’s team encountered Natus Vincere in the quarterfinals and he was the best player on the server with 73 kills and 52 deaths. His stats were even better than Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s. The Ukrainian player had 63 kills and 50 deaths.

Throughout the tournament, YEKINDAR seemed excited to show what he can do, which is exactly what you want from a young player. This attitude demonstrates self-confidence and a strong drive to win. If he can maintain this level of motivation in 2023, he will be Liquid’s MVP.

YEKINDAR’s first test in 2023 is BLAST Premier Spring Groups. There, he will encounter 11 strong opponents who are certainly there to win. And almost every single one of them is a world-class team.

Even the participants that seem weaker than the rest might prove to be strong. The two examples that come to mind are Complexity and Evil Geniuses.

YEKINDAR probably plays a lot against both of these teams because they’re from North America. Teams from the same region regularly stream against each other, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he played multiple matches against EG each month.

Header: ESL