YEKINDAR claims maiden MVP as FURIA retain form with Bucharest title

FURIA won PGL Masters Bucharest, beating Nemiga 3-2 in the grand final, HLTV reported, with map scores of Ancient 2-13, Dust2 13-5, Cache 13-2, Mirage 11-13 and Nuke 13-6.

Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis earned the first MVP award of his career for the performance, Dust2.us reported. He produced a 1.56 rating across the decider and topped the scoreboard on three of the five maps.

Asked by HLTV's James "BanKs" Banks about the performance, YEKINDAR played down the chance of repeating it: "You know the term, life tournament? Don't expect this every tournament."

The win is FURIA's second trophy in quick succession, following their Thunderpick World Championship triumph less than a fortnight earlier. Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's side now travel to Asia for IEM Beijing and BLAST Rivals S2 as part of FalleN's farewell run, with the veteran having three events left before retirement.

YEKINDAR's route to MVP was far from smooth. He averaged just 0.97 across seven maps as FURIA slipped to a 1-2 record through the first three days of the Swiss stage. Esports.gg reported that Spirit, The MongolZ and Legacy were among the surprise eliminations from that stage, opening the bracket to less-fancied sides.

FURIA's turnaround came against TYLOO and Liquid, where YEKINDAR averaged a 1.67 rating across two 2-0 victories to secure the team's playoff berth. He maintained solid form through the quarter-finals and semi-finals before his grand final surge, finishing the five-map series with 22 opening duels won from 10 lost and 82 kills overall.

Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko posted a higher overall rating than YEKINDAR across the full event, but the FURIA rifler was comfortably the standout of the playoff stage specifically, averaging 1.37 across ten maps — his best mark at a big event, with an overall tournament rating of 1.27 over 21 maps.

The MVP arrives more than six years after YEKINDAR broke into tier-one Counter-Strike with Virtus.pro in 2020. He has since featured at over 50 LANs including eight Majors, collected 12 EVP nods and placed in the HLTV Top 20 three times, yet Bucharest marks his first tournament MVP.

The playoff bracket itself ran across a single day for the quarter-finals, with semi-final losers routed into a third-place decider and the title settled over an extended best-of-five.

With FalleN's farewell tour continuing and form clearly building at the right moment, FURIA head into IEM Beijing and BLAST Rivals S2 as one of the form sides heading into the closing stretch of the Brazilian's competitive career.