YEKINDAR: "We're always joking that FalleN was playing the wrong role for eight years"

"He switched roles, but he's not a player that's going to be trying to double AWP on every occasion," he added.

Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis joined FURIA in a shock double move that also included Danil "⁠molodoy⁠" Golubenko in April, and the organization's new European project is off to a promising start at PGL Astana.

They took The MongolZ to three maps and followed that up with an impressive win over GamerLegion, even though they came into the event with just seven days of practice.

After the win against Erik "⁠ztr⁠" Gustafsson's troops, the Latvian waxed lyrical about Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's adaptation to the rifle as well as molodoy's impact, despite the young AWPer employing YEKINDAR as his translator.

"I'll probably have dreams about him asking me, 'Mareks, translate, please,'" he joked when asked about FURIA's new sniper.

You can watch or read the entire interview below or listen to it on Spotify.

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I'm here with YEKINDAR after he got his first win in the FURIA jersey. How does it feel to be back on the server?

Obviously great. I think it felt great after the MongolZ game as well, not only after this game. I feel like right now I'm not separating the winning and the losing, I think we treat it more as experience. I think against The MongolZ we showed some great CS, we understood what problems we had, some slow starts and whatever. Against GamerLegion, we definitely showed some resilience, there were many rounds where if we lose that round, they get an economic advantage, and just run away with the game, especially on Nuke.

I'm super happy with what everybody showed, especially Danil [molodoy]. Bro, that guy is insane. If you think about it, he's been playing for two years, and the first official experience he had was like a year ago. Now he's playing in FURIA, playing tier-one events, and showing this kind of impact. And he's not a player that just goes for set plays, picks that, picks that, picks that. He's more about this laid-back guy, who's kind of rotating depending on the information, which is even more surprising to me, that he's so smart.

You said you didn't have much time to practice. Are you happy with what you've shown so far? Because the results certainly indicate that.

Yeah, it would be strange if we wouldn't be happy. I think the peak would be that we would have beaten The MongolZ, and I think with some good starts, it would be possible. But at the same time, we also understand our limitations. We practiced for seven days, I think, before this, so we needed to get all the maps ready in seven days and get used to the English language. Not for me, but for molodoy and the Brazilians. And at the same time, get used to the people that we have around us.

In those seven days, I think we've done a great job of actually having a good foundation, and of course, this foundation is sometimes going to break. Like, for example, we saw against The MongolZ on Mirage and here against GamerLegion on Mirage, where we were consistently losing B site on the CT side, having problems on the T side, or whatever. But there are some maps that we're naturals [on]. I think Anubis showed that in both wins against The MongolZ and GamerLegion. On some maps, of course, we're going to need extra work.

You mentioned some difficulties, especially on the B site, where you play with FalleN together. How has that been? He's obviously been an AWPer for his whole life, and now he's a rifling anchor.

Honestly, the thing about FalleN is we're always joking around that he was playing the wrong role for eight years. I think it comes from the experience of an IGL, and maybe learning to play some other roles and teaching people to play those roles. He has a really good understanding of all the roles in the game, and I think his minimum understanding of the role is really good in any role that he plays. He just understands when to move, when to throw something, how to play, and even if a mistake happens, he instantly recognizes that, and he's like, 'Oh, fuck, I should have done differently.'

Then he starts thinking and having conversations, asking players, asking KSCERATO what he would have done here and whatever. This is the most important part. Of course, he switched roles, but he's not a player that's going to be trying to double AWP on every occasion. He actually tries to learn how to play a rifle, and I think his basic foundation is insanely high.

And of course, his T-sides, I'm not sure, but I think that guy was meant to be a space creator, space taker, or whatever you want to call it. Like on Anubis Middle, how he differentiates the utility he throws to set some mind games, while calling on what to do around that at the same time. That's like the perfect thing that you can have.

And I also wanted to ask about his replacement, molodoy, who joined the team with you. Are you kind of a mentor to him on the team, considering you speak the same language?

I'm not sure if you would consider it as a mentor or whatever, but he is young and I'm trying to help him. For example, if you come to events, you need to be drinking a lot of water early, or like drinking vitamin C, because if you get sick, you get sick. I'm trying to kind of share this experience with him. The biggest part, I think, is the translation part. A lot of the time for him, it's hard to choose the right words to explain something, and I'll probably have dreams about him asking me, 'Mareks, translate, please.' And then I start to translate his ideas and everything.

But I think this also created some sort of connection, an inner connection with him. I think that guy is really, really talented, and the more he's going to play in an English-speaking team, the more comfortable he will get with the language. I heard him when we were playing FACEIT together, so I know how he communicates in Russian and how he communicates in English, so there's definitely some room for improvement.

For you personally, this FURIA deal has been announced as a loan until after the Major. How do you look at this period? Is it just about trying to get yourself back on the market, or is this something that you want to make permanent in the future?

My first thoughts were that there were different opportunities that I could have chased before the FURIA offer. But most of the opportunities that I actually wanted to chase would take time, and FURIA came in and did a really good thing.

They're like, 'Hey, here, come for three tournaments. If you're going to like it, you can stay. If we're not going to like you, then sorry.' They're not pushing to instantly sign a contract or whatever, but they're like, 'Hey, come and play for these three tournaments.' For me, that was the greatest option, because I was waiting for offers.

At the same time, what can be better than getting the option to actually play these events, but not kind of pushing myself to be in a team that I don't want to be, for example. But after the practice we had online, and after the start of this tournament, honestly, I'm starting to think maybe this is the place I'm going to stay. So I think time is going to show everything, you know, and obviously, I already started getting some sympathy for all the players and the staff. So I'm not sure, maybe I'm going to stay.