YEKINDAR: "It feels nice to not underperform as heavily as I did before"

"I've played tier-one for four years, I've always sat this close to my monitor," the Latvian said, bemused at reactions to his setup. "I feel I'm more in the game."

Liquid marched into the playoffs of the Perfect World Shanghai Major after beating MIBR in a three-map series, capping off a run through the tournament's two group stages where they only lost a matchup to Natus Vincere.

The result marks a return to the Major playoffs for Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis after he last reached the top-eight with an almost entirely different Liquid lineup at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, and notably failed to qualify for PGL Major Copenhagen with the Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller iteration of the roster at the start of 2024.

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Liquid through to Shanghai Major playoffs

It also adds to the continued upward trajectory of the team since Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken took over leadership duties and they added Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak, Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage, and Torbjørn "⁠mithR⁠" Nyborg in the summer off-season, with nearly a month-and-a-half spent in Asia in the lead-up to the Major bearing fruit when it matters most.

YEKINDAR's patchy form played a part in Liquid's struggles throughout the year but he has stabilized somewhat in Shanghai, averaging a 1.11 rating across six maps in the Elimination Stage.

"It"s been a hard period," the 25-year-old admitted to HLTV after Liquid qualified. "I did a lot of self-reflection, and mithR and Twistzz helped me a lot. I've changed roles on many maps, and this role change gave me a little bit of a fresher outlook on the game and in the team."

YEKINDAR also admitted that his team didn't face the stiffest opposition in their run to the playoffs as, outside of their Elimination Stage opener against Natus Vincere, Liquid avoided the top-six-ranked teams in the world who have regularly played spoiler to their tournament runs.

"The draw allowed us not to meet struggles early," he said. "Yes of course, the NAVI game was hard, but after that we got GamerLegion, then FURIA, now we got MIBR. No offense to these teams, but at the same time it's also not G2, FaZe, MOUZ, or any of the teams that we previously have struggled against."

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Congratulations, through to the playoffs. Tell me how you're feeling after that.

Amazing. After missing the last Major and now being back to playoffs — we were in playoffs in Paris, I was in playoffs in Stockholm — we truly believed that we are one of the top eight teams in the world.

We had bumps, we had a honeymoon period finish where you start recognizing your weak spots and struggles, and we've addressed that a lot throughout this last two-month period. We were in Singapore, we stayed there after BLAST World Final for another week for a bootcamp, then we came to China and now we've been in China for a month already.

The practice in Asia can be rough sometimes, but we've been using all our spare time to theorize and understand what our flaws are and everything. It just feels amazing that the work we did actually paid off.

It's been a long road, you went 3-1 through the RMR, 3-0 through the first stage here. Coming off of that and into this, how did it feel to get to the playoffs without too much trouble in the end?

The draw allowed us not to meet struggles early. Yes of course, the NAVI game was hard, but we had a heavy advantage, a seven-T-round half on Nuke, and we even lost Nuke today. It's definitely something we're going to be working on.

With the draw, after NAVI we got GamerLegion, then FURIA, now we got MIBR. No offense to these teams, but at the same time it's also not G2, FaZe, MOUZ, or any of the teams that we previously have struggled against.

GGs to all the teams that we played obviously, if they were in a situation where we needed to play against them, then obviously they made quite some good upsets, right? So it is what it is, but we're happy to reach playoffs.

Something that was talked about a lot on broadcast and social media during the match was just how close you are sitting to your monitor, can you just comment on that?

The thing is, I've been playing at tier-one for four years, I've always sat this close, and suddenly after four years people are like, 'Oh, he's sitting so close to the monitor.' Guys, you're saying this every year, every month, every day, every official I play. It's okay, like I just feel I'm more... as funny as it's going to sound, in the game.

Of course, I had a lot of troubles this last year and I've been trying different postures, different ways of sitting, different distances from the monitor, and this is something that I came to after a lot of testing and a lot of practicing.

On the topic of that performance, it has been a rough period for you. Better this tournament at least, how do you feel individually, coming back into form a little bit and making the playoffs with this result?

I'm super happy. We said it from the start of this team, that these are the pieces that could be title contenders together. It feels nice to go to playoffs and it feels nice to actually not underperform as heavily as I did before.

It's been a hard period, I've been off social media for a long while now because the community just eats you alive. Social media is good when you're winning and playing well, but when you're playing badly it's something that is going to break you.

Of course, there were hard periods of life but I did a lot of self-reflection, and mithR and Twistzz helped me a lot. I've changed roles on many maps, and this role change gave me a little bit of a fresher outlook on the game and in the team. I'm happy that I had some good games and it's a great start for me to come back for the next season as well.

At the last RMR [for Copenhagen], you told me something similar, that you weren't on social media, you were ignoring it. I remember reading some comments after where people said, 'Oh, is he just ignoring the criticism,' and I'm wondering what you have to say about that.

The thing is, there is rarely criticism that is actually viable from the fanbase or from the community, most of them are just hating. There is no criticism when somebody says, 'Go fuck yourself,' or 'I'm going to kill all your family,' or anything like that.

I'm listening to criticism obviously, but I'm listening to criticism from people closer to my team, from my team, those close to me that actually understand what the problem could be and people who actually understand the game.

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YEKINDAR: "I learned the hard way after IGLing that social media kills your vibe in a way"

Making the playoffs here, Twistzz has been in-game leading for a while. It's been up-and-down a bit, a couple of T sides that have been questionable, even in this series the second map was rough before you came back with a better T side on Anubis. What's it been like seeing him take over those reins?

Russ is a natural IGL. At the start, he of course needed time to understand what specific direction he would want to play and how he would want to feel in a team. Three months into the team he understood it and started developing the right habits and right direction inside of the team, and he is super comfortable in calling now.

Of course we sometimes have these rough halves — not only T halves, we have had some rough CT halves as well — and it's not on Russ [Twistzz] that he called badly or something, it's more about the whole team; how we usually play and how we feel during that specific moment.

He is calling really... like if you would compare how I called before, maybe I would not call like that, but he has a lot more freedom between his players and a lot more allowance to go for certain plays, but take responsibility for it.

I would get mad (smiles). Like if we had a good call or whatever and somebody just went for a play, of course not always, but when it happens for the fourth or fifth time. For us, when it happens for the fourth or fifth time, yeah, Russ can get a little bit [mad], but he brushes it off really easily.

Lastly, heading into the playoffs, it'll be a much bigger crowd, a lot more pressure. Everything has led up to this end of the year. How are you feeling about that and going into this last stage of the Major to end the year?

Obviously there is going to be pressure and there is going to be nervousness, that is part of the playoff and arena games. I honestly think that we came here for the arena and for these feelings, and as nervous or as stressed as you can be before the start of the match, when you're actually playing the game, eventually you're calming down and becoming the best version of yourself, and that feeling is amazing.