YEKINDAR: FURIA Improving After Thunderpick Win

FURIA reached the PGL Masters Bucharest playoffs with a 3-2 group-stage record after defeating Liquid. Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis said the team is playing better since winning the Thunderpick World Championship.

The majority-Brazilian roster secured its playoff spot after a difficult group stage. YEKINDAR called reaching the knockout stage FURIA’s minimum goal and said the team now wants to reach the final and compete for another title.

“It’s great that we qualified for playoffs. This is the bare minimum for us,” YEKINDAR said. “Of course, it would be nice to go to the final, maybe win this tournament after Thunderpick.”

FURIA came close to defeating Spirit, one of the tournament favorites, during the group stage. YEKINDAR believes that result showed FURIA can compete with the strongest teams at the event, although some factors remain outside the roster’s control.

The win over Liquid included a close Nuke map. FURIA won seven rounds on the T side before losing several situations after the switch. YEKINDAR attributed some of those mistakes to the team becoming too excited while trying to close the map.

He pointed to a round in which Liquid executed an A split while FalleN and molodoy moved out of heaven. Yuurih and KSCERATO were not in a position to react, while the team could have waited and made a plan together.

FURIA recovered through several successful Five-SeveN rounds. “Thankfully, somebody higher up wanted us to win, because the Five-SeveN rounds that we got are something that doesn’t happen too often,” YEKINDAR said.

FURIA prepared for Liquid’s fast and unpredictable style by planning to play quickly and force the opponent to make more decisions. The team wanted Liquid to question whether areas of the map could be left open.

YEKINDAR identified slow starts as FURIA’s main issue at the tournament. The roster has often begun best-of-three series quietly, with unclear or rushed decisions, and then had to recover after losing the first map.

“We have a goal in our mind in terms of what we need to fix: starting the game quiet and sloppy and a little indecisive,” he said. FURIA is working to make every player responsible for arriving on the first map with a plan instead of using the opening stages to warm up.

The Thunderpick title has improved FURIA’s confidence. YEKINDAR described the team’s form before that tournament as worse and excluded the group-stage loss to NaVi from his assessment. He explained that FURIA had identified a problem before the match but failed to fix it.

“I think we’re playing better, definitely better after the win, and everybody got a little more confident,” YEKINDAR said. “But life is like that; there are always things that you want to be better at, and you want to improve, and we are doing that.”

FURIA’s schedule has also affected the players’ fatigue and frustration. YEKINDAR said the team has sometimes played three or four practice matches on the same day as an official match while preparing seven maps and addressing in-game and off-server issues.

He added that the team cannot currently plan breaks to prepare for a peak at the Major. FURIA is instead trying to manage fatigue and frustration during its tournament schedule, with each player taking responsibility for their physical condition and attitude.

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