YEKINDAR on Liquid role: "I build the game; I don't always make calls in-game, though"

The Latvian rifler spoke about his transition to an international team and his increased responsibilities in Liquid.

Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis joined Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali for a conversation on the Russian AWPer's Youtube channel JAME TIME. The duo reunited in Katowice to talk about several different topics before their respective IEM Katowice quarter-final appearances, ranging from CS-based subjects about their teams to several other out-of-server matters.

Jame started their talk by asking YEKINDAR about the difference in communication between Outsiders and Liquid, the Latvian's first English-speaking team. "It's a matter of habit, I think. But I think in Russian there are much more words for some micro things, you know?"

"When I first joined them, their info was like twice as weak. They didn't name angles. You know, at A site on Overpass, Banana, and there's a corner on the left, behind the flowerbed. They named it 'close left.' And I was like, man, what the fuck do you mean 'close left'? Let's name this angle, because it's much easier to say 'stand at Dupreeh, and I'll stay here.'"

Considering Liquid is YEKINDAR's first non-CIS team, the Latvian also had to adapt some things about in-team communication and the way he brought up his teammates' mistakes. "There is some kind of cultural shock. They are not used to... like, this sort of criticism. They start losing self-confidence. They start being insecure because they made this decision, and I tell them that this decision is wrong, they're like, yeah, you're right, but then they start overthinking about the right options."

The duo then continued their talk about the general state of North American Counter-Strike, with Jame asking whether YEKINDAR is raising the entire scene. "I mean, that's kind of the case, they didn't understand much, because the CS developed a lot during the pandemic and they didn't fly to tournaments. It's understandable they'd lose track of what's happening in the meta, the development was unreal — everyone was sitting at their homes, having nothing to do, thus they were developing."

"So when I joined them, my mind was fucking blown - people are still playing 'default, call, default, call.' And I was like, no, you can't play like that, you'll just get shut with nades and stacked. So I was explaining all these things to them. They also had their individual shape dropping due to it all."

With Liquid's playstyle needing a revamp, YEKINDAR took on a more active role in the team, something new for the 23-year-old. "I build the [Liquid] game. I don't always make calls in-game, though. I made a mistake on the Rio Major, when I forced myself too much to call. Because of that I was playing subpar on my roles, and wasn't making kills. And that's very important to do in my role."

"So I came to the conclusion, when I feel the game individually… For instance, we were playing Mirage, against FaZe on the T-side. I understood completely what they were doing and I was focused and that's why it was easy for me to call. And when you understand you're getting fucked, you gotta focus more, and then nitr0, who is experienced, calls everything for me to focus."

Jame then touched on the fact that he found a lot of their old rounds and strategies from their time together in Virtus.pro, but that Liquid's playstyle has evolved a lot since. YEKINDAR shared the sentiment, saying: "I tried to come to it [the Outsiders system]. But because they are different players, with different personalities, you can't come to the same system, but you're adapting the system to the given players. The system is different from the one we had, right? But the roots of the system are the same."

YEKINDAR also mentioned the mentality of the Liquid camp, saying they are all still incredibly hungry to win. "You know, the thing is they've been winning before. They know what it feels like. And they want to feel it again. Winning is the very reason why we are playing in the first place."

"The material component matters too, just to feel comfortable in life, but we are working and playing hard to win in the first place. When you are getting paid a lot for playing, and then you suck at the game getting last places, you don't feel good. Like, you just get tons of money while you're not winning anything."

To view the entire episode, available with English and Portuguese subtitles, you can watch the video on Jame's YouTube channel.