YEKINDAR officially joins Team Liquid

Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gainskis, the Latvian CS:GO sensation who has been playing with the Liquid as a stand-in for the previous four months, has finally secured a position on a permanent basis with the North American organization.

As the organization is unwilling to let go of an efficient entry-fragger, particularly one that fits into their strategy, Liquid has now finally acquired Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gainskis as a permanent player. With the addition of the Latvian player, who recently purchased his player contract from Virtus.pro and became a free agent, Team Liquid has completed its CS:GO lineup right in time for the IEM Rio Major 2022.

How did the European star become a pillar of the North American team?

As a result of ESL and PGL’s sanctions and public outrage on organizations with ties to the Russian government, YEKINDAR stepped down from VP’s active roster in May. However, Team Liquid added YEKINDAR to its CSGO roster as a stand-in on July 7 shortly after the organization parted ways with French veteran Richard “shox” Papillonto. He completed Liquid’s five-man roster ahead of the IEM Cologne 2022, where the team made its way into the playoffs. 

In his first month with Team Liquid, YEKINDAR returned to his old form and started to rack up strong tournament results. Within three months of joining Liquid, YEKINDAR improved the performance of the entire roster, helping the organization achieve better results. With YEKINDAR serving as a stand-in, Team Liquid went on to qualify for the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2022. Furthermore, Team Liquid was able to secure the single available legend seed at the IEM Rio 2022: American RMR, as well as a second-place finish in the ESL Pro League Season 16 thanks to the Latvian phenomenon. Yekindar’s performances over the past three months, which have mesmerized every Liquid fan and garnered him a 1.20 HLTV rating, have proven vital to Liquid’s success in the second half of the season. 

However, due to all the restrictions put in place against Russia, it was challenging for Liquid to sign YEKINDAR as its permanent player because a contract with VP bound him. While he was competing with the NA roster, YEKINDAR was striving to complete the buyout of his own contract with Virtus Pro. This process was completed less than a week ago when YEKINDAR announced that he had bought himself out of his contract with the Russian esports organization. 

The Team Liquid lineup is now as follows:

• Nick “nitr0” Cannella
• Keith “NAF” Markovic
• Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
• Josh “oSee” Ohm
• Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis
• Damian “daps” Steele (coach) 

Header: ESL Gaming