YEKINDAR on whether FURIA will stay Brazilian: "It's something we're still figuring out"
When the legendary FalleN announced his impending retirement, the remainder of 2026 was always going to be up in the air for a FURIA team that ended 2025 as one of the best teams in the world.
Months later, that uncertainty still clouds them, but the team are attempting to address it by trialling the IGL skills of their Latvian star, YEKINDAR.
At BLAST Open Porto, we sat down with YEKINDAR to discuss these trials, his future in the role, and what the future FURIA may look like.
“The preference is finding the best fit for us in terms of roles”
You've had a fairly mixed start to the season, so how are you feeling?
BLAST Bounty was a bit of a hiccup for us, but that happened to many teams. During that game, we wanted to implement Cache, so having it in that BO3 was important for us to understand where we are on the map. It showed us a lot where we can improve.
With EWC, there were many advantageous situations we could've won against FUT, but they were just better on the day, and they deserved the spot. At the same time, it's showing what problems we have and what we have to deal with.
These games have shown us things. They've shown us that Dust2 is a real problem for us, so now that we've experimented with our map pool and brought in Ancient, Dust2 will be what we're focusing on.
At the end of the day, we have the mindset that the stronger we become later in the season, the better it will be for us.
A lot has been said about the end of the year and bringing in trophies before FalleN retires. Is that adding any mental pressure to you or the rest of the team?
I don't think we're necessarily thinking that we have to win trophies because FalleN is retiring; it's more that we consider ourselves title contenders, so being in this third, fourth, or second place isn't enough. We still believe we can win trophies, so we're just putting pressure on ourselves to do better.
We're trying to do that and to fix the problems with our game, but at the same time, the biggest pressure point is the future. We have a plan on how we'll move forward, but we still have to find a player who can replace FalleN. Knowing that this will happen, that it's something coming, you think about it unwillingly, because you need to understand the future.
Have any of those times where you've fallen short added to that pressure you're putting on yourselves?
No, not really. They were just better those days. Right now, in MR12, a very important topic is pistol rounds, and we've lost too many recently, so we're always starting the game as the team that is losing and always trying to play catch-up.
If CS went back to MR15, do you think you would benefit?
I don't think we'd be the only team that would benefit, but it would be good for the professional scene and for top teams; it's a lot more stable.
You've spoken recently about trying out IGLing, and it doesn't seem like something you want to pursue. Are you ruling it out?
I'm still going to be IGLing on a couple of maps, but yeah, the hardest part is overcoming ego, because I still believe that I'm a very good role player, and I know what I can bring doing that and as a secondary voice.
If I become an IGL, we lose that, and there's also uncertainty with me as the IGL. So, dealing with the ego is hard, and maybe this isn't the time for me to do it. But you never know what the future will hold, so we'll see what happens and what decisions are made.
You mentioned you want to have a plan in place for the end of the year. Will the replacement need to be Brazilian for FURIA's sake? Or is the scope wider?
The best case would be that, yes, but it's hard. There's a reason why many of the teams in the top ten are international, so the preference is finding the best fit for us in terms of roles. It's something we're still figuring out.
