YEKINDAR claims first HLTV MVP as FURIA lift PGL Masters Bucharest title

Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis collected his first career HLTV MVP award after FURIA won PGL Masters Bucharest, capping what he described to HLTV as the best tournament of his time with the Brazilian roster.

The 27-year-old rifler responded to a previous comment from teammate FalleN by joking, "FalleN said I'm out of my prime, but here I am making an MVP run," after collecting the trophy and MVP medal in Bucharest.

He told HLTV the tournament had gone almost entirely his way, adding, "Everything was going my way, and maybe this is how donk and ZywOo feel."

YEKINDAR said the result carried extra weight for FURIA given changes coming to the roster, noting that FalleN will no longer be part of the team at the end of the year and calling it important that the squad could "go through all of these problems and be victorious."

Asked how he sustains success in an aggressive, space-taking role at this stage of his career, YEKINDAR pointed to a mix of tactical preparation and instinct, telling HLTV that understanding opponents' movements matters but that his best performances often come from simply trusting his feel for the game, even when that means taking unexpected risks.

He was candid about his physical state heading into the event, saying he felt tired and was still recovering from an illness he had during Thunderpick, but suggested the contrast made him feel comparatively sharp: "the comparison of how sick I was in Thunderpick is making my body feel like, 'Oh, I'm actually feeling amazing,' and maybe that's why the performance is better."

Reflecting on his trajectory since leaving Liquid, where his form dipped, YEKINDAR described a period of serious self-doubt. He told HLTV he had doubted himself throughout his career, not only during his Liquid spell, and that overcoming that mindset mattered more than anything else to him.

He pointed to reaching the top 15 in his first year with FURIA despite missing the opening four months as a key marker, alongside the Bucharest MVP and trophy, calling the run potentially inspirational for others who have faced similar lows.

YEKINDAR was blunt about how difficult that period had been, saying he had been at the lowest point of his life during the later stages of his Liquid career and had been visibly out of shape and lacking confidence, crediting both his own mental work and the right people around him for the turnaround.

On FURIA's prospects beyond Bucharest, including this year's Major, YEKINDAR was cautious about looking too far ahead, recalling that the team had felt similarly confident the previous year before what he called their worst quarter-final performance, in Budapest.

He said FURIA are instead taking the schedule match by match, naming upcoming fixtures against Nemiga and FaZe before travel to China and then Hong Kong as the team's immediate focus rather than peaking for a single event.