YEKINDAR: "If it's possible maybe I'm gonna stick with Liquid" Interview

Team Liquid's stand-in at IEM Cologne 2022 Mareks "YEKINDAR" Galinskis doesn't exclude the possibility of him staying on the team in the future. Even though he joined the squad on a short-term deal, things may have changed after qualifying for the playoffs. He shared his thoughts in the interview with Dust2.us.

It's mostly [that] I just stand-in for this tournament, I just knew that they were changing shox, so they obviously needed the stand-in, and it happened that I had got an agreement with VP that I could stand-in. It wasn't maybe at the start on the radar for me, now, after qualifying for playoffs, I don't know what's gonna happen, maybe if it's possible I'm gonna maybe stick with the team.

It seems that YEKINDAR may have directly impacted Liquid's qualification. As a former Outsiders (Virtus.pro) player he is no stranger to comebacks, and Americans had several enduring games throughout the group stage in Cologne.

I came from a team that has comeback so many games, and we always played super long games, and I just explained, "Don't fucking surrender until the end and everything is possible", and I think it clicked, and everyone started to believe. When one person believes, truly believes, everybody starts believing and every win, they start believing more and more and more. That's what happened that we won the last two overtimes.

YEKINDAR: "Team Liquid members are more friendly with each other. In VP we were robots, teammates who had to win"

Mareks was openly skeptical about Team Liquid's approach, saying it is less professional than in Virtus.pro.

I don't necessarily think there's cultural differences, but we were more professional in VP. We were robots, we needed to work, we worked, and we were working a lot. I think in this team it was a bit more free atmosphere, like "Ah I'm going to chill now." I came, I said "We're gonna play, we're gonna improve, we're gonna practice, we don't want to be losers, and we want to win," and everybody is doing their input, and now it's changing bit by bit. I hope it's going to help them in the future, the things that I'm bringing to the team.

He said Joshua "oSee" Ohm is the one with the most initiative and willingness to learn from YEKINDAR's experience. EliGE is also interested in a different viewpoint.

I don't think he was super motivated before because of NA and how they practice, but as soon as I came to the team he's asking me a lot of questions, always willing to improve, stays late with me, and always listens to me when I say something to him and he tries to understand. Even if he doesn't understand, he always asks. That's a really good quality about him. Obviously EliGE as well, EliGE is the most experienced player on the team, and I think I give him space to improve because of the different viewpoint that I offer. He's the same, super motivated, plays a lot, asks a lot, and if he doesn't understand something he can always come to me and ask something.

Mareks still has a contract with Virtus.pro. According to OG's nexa, his buyout can be reaching a million dollars. With YEKINDAR's help, Team Liquid advanced to IEM Cologne. They will face Movistar Riders in the quarter-final, which is scheduled for July 15.

Aleksib after leaving Cologne: "We're going to have some big discussions. Maybe something is happening, maybe not"