Team Liquid have brought on former Virtus.Pro ace Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Gaļinskis as a stand-in for its CSGO team during the $1 million IEM Cologne 2022 tourney next month.
This comes on the heels of the American org signing former CSGO and Valorant pro Damian ‘daps’ Steele as head coach on June 19. Only a day removed after benching coach Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag and French legend Richard ‘shox’ Papillon from the active lineup.
With a 2022 filled with middle-of-the-pack finishes, or worse, General Manager Steve ‘jokasteve’ Perino landed on a change ahead of the IEM roster lock deadline on June 21.
The move left TL without someone to helm the squad and gave in-game leader Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella one less player to practice with ahead of the stacked IEM event.
Team Liquid signs YEKINDAR as CSGO stand-in
Team Liquid added YEKINDAR as its CSGO stand-in on July 7 to complete the five-man roster ahead of its IEM Group Stage debut.
The 22-year-old rifler ranked 8th on HLTV’s Top CSGO Players 2021 during the height of Virtus.Pro’s form starting that year. The pro was ecstatic to get back to competition ahead of his debut on the blue-and-white.
“Seemed like a lifetime of not playing tournaments but I’m back and ready to roll with Team Liquid CSGO at IEM Cologne!” he said. “Wish us good luck and lets make the most out of it!”
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Depending on how daps and nitr0 choose to build the roster after IEM, YEKINDAR could be a strong compliment to American talents Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski and Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic.
Seemed like a lifetime of not playing tournaments but im back and ready to roll with @TeamLiquidCS at IEM Cologne!Wish us good luck and lets make the most out of it! https://t.co/XMbBthGzc0
— YEKINDAR (@yek1ndar) June 21, 2022
The addition will give TL plenty of firepower to couple alongside Joshua ‘oSee’ Ohm’s AWP, with at least three more viable options to take the Big Green.
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The Latvian pro will slot in under nitr0 along with oSee, NAF, and EliGE as they look ahead to the $1,000,000 event at the Lanxess Arena.
Team Liquid CSGO roster:
- Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski
- Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic
- Joshua ‘oSee’ Ohm
- Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella (IGL)
- Mareks ‘YEKINDAR‘ Gaļinskis
- Damian ‘daps’ Steele (coach)
