“If you are worthy, everything will work out,” YEKINDAR expressed confidence

Team Liquid CS2 player Marek "YEKINDAR" Galinskis reflected on a decline in his performance level in a discussion with blogger Eric "Shoke" Shokov.

"For me, if I play poorly, I understand it. I get why fans get upset with my form, and why I might not live up to my team's expectations, the organisation's, and my own. There's been a lot of introspection, searching for issues in my mindset, confidence, and so on. One major thing I realised, firstly, is the transition to CS2. It's a different game; maybe my focus wasn't quite right on micro-developments. I started captaining more during that time, and because of that, it took me a while to get into form in CS2, as my focus was on developing the team and players. Secondly, team stability is crucial. We changed players after the Paris Major, then again six months later, and now we're looking at more changes. Lack of stability affects your game perception, especially in roles requiring zoning and more.

You can look for excuses endlessly; I'm being sincere about my feelings. You try everything. I started playing more FACEIT. I thought, 'M0NESY plays a lot of FACEIT, donk plays a lot, so I'll start playing more too.' I used to play a lot of FACEIT in my time, but it waned due to captaining. I began to regain form through FACEIT. It feels great on FACEIT, but then you enter a tournament, and doubt creeps in. You've had a long period of struggle, and you start to doubt yourself a bit. These micro-moments, 'should I go or not?', especially in my roles, they decide <...>. In my roles, I have to go. But because of second-guessing, you start losing confidence and playing even worse. It's an endless cycle of self-doubt.

In recent tournaments, I've started taking things easier. In terms of it just being a game. I understand there's a lot of stress from captaining, from fans. Many are sceptical now about me staying in the team and how I play, but in the end, I've come to realise I just need to enjoy it. Enjoy it and do not worry too much about it. If you're worthy, it'll work out. I'm confident I'll return to my previous level."

YEKINDAR has been with Team Liquid since October 2022, briefly captaining the team. With Galinskis, the club roster became silver medallists at the BLAST Premier: World Final 2022 and CCT Season 1 Global Finals, but the team did not qualify for the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 or the Esports World Cup 2024 in CS2.