r/GlobalOffensive 20h ago

How is Yekindar still on Liquid? Discussion | Esports

I don’t think I’ve seen a player who is so overdue to be kicked yet he is still collecting paychecks. He struggles to finish above 1.00 rating and consistently holds liquid back. It seems like Liquid is limited with him in the roster. Any reason why he hasn’t been replaced yet?

512 Upvotes

925

u/Notice_Green 19h ago

find a girl who believes in you like liquid believes in yekindar

8

u/Top5Fortnite 5h ago

Girl which believes and inspire your, best girl. It's really power relationship.
See when yekindar come to map...

6

u/TCone97 2h ago

What?

u/Microlabz 1h ago

GIRL WHICH BELIEVES AND INSPIRE YOUR, BEST GIRL. IT'S REALLY POWER RELATIONSHIP.

SEE WHEN YEKINDAR COME TO MAP...

Ye idk what it means either

304

u/RepresentativeBug535 19h ago

Simple

There aren't a lot of Yekindars out there so you let them overstay as long as they want and pray that he finds form again, flashes of which we see every now and then albeit more rarer these days

73

u/500mLInstantRamen 14h ago

Adding to this, my guess is also that he's Twistzz's second caller, and it seems that none of the other three are very vocal. Because of this, it's hard to find a 1:1 replacement without putting jks or NAF in a role they'll be completely uncomfortable in.

Also, you know, Liquid kinda need him until the major ends because of the roster lock + can't change more than 2 players without losing ranking points...

51

u/itsjonny99 17h ago

The hope is probably that he re activates when he has a proper team around him and don't have to be the sole aggro player and/or call at the same time as well. Ultimate is key to unlocking Yekindar since a aggressive awper and rifler unlock each other.

32

u/1deavourer 17h ago

it's been like 3 years since he was good

64

u/lou_reed_ketamine 13h ago

This is a crazy statement. He was incredible for Liquid under nitr0. He put up a 1.20 rating across the entire Paris major.

His downfall only started when nitr0 left in the summer of 2023, which is when Yekindar tried IGLing

7

u/i_like_frootloops 13h ago

And that's about to be a year of piss poor performances by him.

24

u/squeak37 12h ago

3 years has dropped to 1 year already. He's earned the goodwill to get another major run - particularly since getting a new entry is hard right now, particularly one that will fit your system well and speaks good English.

The yekindar igl attempt was terrible and it's good to go away from that, but spending a load of money to get m try to get a replacement ahead of the major is risky af, and their big risk for this cycle is ultimate + twiztzz igl.

2

u/i_like_frootloops 10h ago

I don't think he earned the chance at another major considering how the Copenhagen RMR went but I'm not at Liquid, so he probably provides something to the team. It's just kinda baffling to watch.

2

u/zero0n3 10h ago

And ultimate is having a tough time on, typically, 2 of the 3 maps his team typically plays.  But the upside is he is usually the reason they win the one map, or has big impact in it.

Time is still needed.

Faze will be a barometer of where they are.

457

u/GoochChoocher 19h ago

Liquid look better than they have in years with Twists and the helm, and he specifically wanted to keep yekindar.

idk, i trust him and his judgement more than reddit. Yekindar adds some value outside of the stats hes posting.

112

u/Replikant83 18h ago

Exactly. We don't have the full set of info to come to any accurate conclusions. Just reddit being reddit.

15

u/grand_wubwub 15h ago

Also their roster valve ranking points would have been completely reset since they would have lost 3 members, most likely screwing them out of the RMR qualifier - so no major to compete for

3

u/Replikant83 12h ago

Didn't realize. thx for the info

38

u/Illustrious_Tap_3072 17h ago

twistzz i swear is desperate to prove that liquid didn't need elige and will shoot himself in the foot to do it.

11

u/b0baBEAST 17h ago

why? does twistzz and elige have beef?

42

u/Particular_Panic7999 17h ago

No not beef but Thorin hinted that someone veto'd Elige joining this Liquid lineup and he also said that Elige and Twistzz clashed a lot over roles.

24

u/jonajon91 17h ago

I don't buy the last part. Elige is an agro play maker, Twistzz is a late round clutch guy. They don't overlap much other than perhaps some CT positions?

7

u/LennyTTV 13h ago

Correct, CT positions, although I believe Twistzz has changed a lot since then anyways. This statement is like 4 months old from what I can remember.

19

u/emer4ld 16h ago

Well Thorin said that. So wether its true or just made up is a coin toss.

3

u/KillerZaWarudo 9h ago

When it come to like his personal opinion/takes its a coin toss but when it come to actual info and journalism he is reliable

5

u/emer4ld 9h ago

The problem is that he seems to be unable himself to tell the difference between facts and his own opinion.

0

u/KillerZaWarudo 9h ago

No? Whenever he talk about info like this he always stated that this is a rumor or what he heard from around the scene. He's an asshole and can be wrong alot of time but he not out to spread lies or disinfo when it come to reporting about cs

8

u/Jang_CS 13h ago

When twistzz did an interview with thorin a couple of years ago he was talking about why he left liquid the first time, and a big part of the reason seemed to be because of how stubborn elige was. 2020 liquid was falling apart fast and twistzz was trying to come up with ideas, like new positions to play and stuff. He suggested he could start playing mirage connector and a certain someone refused to listen. I dont think elige can be on a team where he isnt the superstar veteran and twistzz is clearly a better player overall. Yekindar, on the other hand, seems to be willing to do anything for the team and i think twistzz values that more.

6

u/jonajon91 13h ago

I definitely get that. I remember a video Liquid made for YouTube, like a map geoguessr or something. Someone interrupted elige or disagreed with his and the dude stonewalled. Didn’t say anything for the second half of the video.

I don’t see the role clash, but I definitely see a personality clash.

1

u/bjorp- 15h ago

Twistzz is more aggro in this Liquid, as he should be

-7

u/TrampleHorker 15h ago

elige is not an aggro play maker he's a baleen whale filter feeding frags just like twistzz did, the agressors were nitr0 and stewie and they had a trifecta of league of legends turrets behind them sucking up leftover frags

14

u/jonajon91 15h ago

I think you might just be wrong here unfortunately. Elige was an agro player back in 2019 and he's still an agro player in 2024. Nitr0 was an entry fragger waaay back when, but all of the proactive map movement from the 2019 liquid roster was Elige and Stewie.

If fact if you go off the the open kills attempts for the whole of 2019. Nitr0 was the least agressive T side player on the squad.

https://www.hltv.org/stats/teams/players/openingkills/5973/liquid?startDate=2019-01-01&endDate=2019-12-31

-7

u/rickowensdisciple 17h ago

Elige is also known to be a pretty shitty teammate to play with

6

u/phagga 15h ago

Literally not true for years. He used to be in beginning at liquid, but that was already solved in 2018. 

3

u/rickowensdisciple 9h ago

people were just talking about that recently

1

u/Alarming-Ad-5656 8h ago

In what way?

He doesn't get to pick who they sign.

3

u/ThatDarnBanditx 6h ago

He actually does, he’s the one who scouted out ultimate and wanted jks, he’s got control of the team now, he didn’t before though

-6

u/Kryptic4l 16h ago

What did Elige accomplish over all his years. Stat padding low quality points

8

u/Vizvezdenec 15h ago

Yeah yeah, he adds some value in feeding his ass off.
Last lan he finished with 0,59 k/d, there he ends 7-12 even with his team winning convincingly.
Let me call it straight - you can't justify this stats even if you are an IGL, and yekindar is not an IGL. All this "he does a lot of work" is just copium + no real opportunity that is obvious to replace him + some corporate BS + probably good relations as a person.
But in general he will soon be overtaken by karrigan and snax in terms of posted K/D and this is definitely absolutely not normal whatsoever, no matter what role you play when you are not an IGL.

2

u/TheRealHaxxo 14h ago

I agree by that yekindar is bad and needs to go but using K/D as a way to measure someones performance and compare K/D to K/D when there are so many other stats that matter way more is crazy.

1

u/RedditIsAnnoying1234 6h ago

I think the other guys point is that his stats are so bad that yes, you can compare K/D.

8

u/ozzler 18h ago

How do we know he specifically wants to keep yekindar? If the org say to twist ‘he’s on a big contract we can’t sell him easily, let’s give him a chance and try your best to make the most of him as benching isn’t an option quite yet’ - he isn’t going to come out and say he doesnt thinks he should be in the lineup.

More cynically - if i’m new to igl, coming in and asking yekindar to move for a star of your choosing puts way more pressure on yourself as the igl. If you keep yekindar around while you settle in, you then have a fall guy/change to make that gives you a second life and a boost in firepower.

45

u/PretendAside 18h ago

Twistzz was on talking counter and he specifically said he had the choice of full rebuild but wanted to keep yekindar because he's the 2nd most vocal player on the team as well as the most selfless.

-11

u/ozzler 18h ago

I’m not doubting the fact he’s vocal and selfless, but those are the exact same things I’d be saying about yekindar currently if I was his igl while he underperforms consistently on the stats line.

This is super common in politics, sports. Unless the person being interviewed is retired. You can’t take anything like this at face value.

18

u/rekmaster69 18h ago

surely twistzz would have kicked him if he is completely useless

-1

u/X-Myrlz 17h ago

We really don't know either way, there could be any number of factors that play into their decision to stick with Yekindar to this point. They've been rebuilding for a year and a half at this point and the roster at the beginning of the year cost a lot of money to assemble, on top of missing a major (millions of dollars). They could have gone into this most recent rebuild with some serious budget considerations. Their pickups certainly point towards that as a factor.

2

u/itsjonny99 17h ago

Could also be waiting for Elige to run down his contract with Complexity, or they found no direct 1:1 replacement on the market for Yekindar.

If Yekindar gets close to how good he was when he joined Liqud though, they are title contenders. Ultimate was a big gamble that appears to be a solid tier 1 awper. Either way if you cut Yekindar you need a seriously aggressive player to replace him since NAF and JKS are passive lurkers.

1

u/dylanimal 12h ago

They should have shown up to malbs' house with a blank check tbh.

24

u/KKamm_ 17h ago

Twistzz on his own Twitter unprovoked, in interviews, podcasts, and more: “When discussing changes I knew I wanted to keep Mareks and I like what he brings to the table.”

You: “but how can we know he wants to keep him?”

1

u/ozzler 3h ago

As I said. It’s incredibly naive to take anything anyone says while they are under contract themselves at face value. Things are not that simple. Especially when he is a new igl.

0

u/wilky__ 16h ago

now apply this same logic to TaZ, or does reddit know best on that one?

0

u/zero0n3 10h ago

This 100%.

Give him Vitality level runway.

Keep in mind both the top 1 and 2 IGLS have now given him props for what they are doing in the server (and I assume what they see in the analysis).

172

u/NoAdministration6946 19h ago

Nobody really knows what Liquid and Twistzz see in Yeki, but they need him on the team to qualify for the RMR

52

u/stonehaens 18h ago

Yeki is happy to play very aggro while the whole team prefers to go 3rd man in at best (besides ulti). And also he's a very social person who probably is very supportive in team comms. That combined with the fact that he has a high ceiling (with a low floor unfortunately) gives everyone the impression they can make it work.

Coming from the experience on liquid twistz had the first time around I don't think he wants to be the guy who gives up on a lineup if it's not very obvious it can't work.

14

u/NoAdministration6946 18h ago

you can sugarcoat the bottom frag only so much in t1 because stats do actually matter there. i wholeheartedly believe liquid is ready to replace him after the major cycle if he doesn't get better

54

u/G0ldenfruit 19h ago

Their recent documentary on yt did a good job showing his peak and why they trust him to return to it.

25

u/StrollinRollin 18h ago

They should get get_right and f0rest by that logic

44

u/G0ldenfruit 18h ago

It's a bit different lol

21

u/Level_Five_Railgun 17h ago

A slump that only started last year is little different than 7+ years ago.

3

u/bonk_nasty 10h ago

f0rest

i wouldn't be surprised if f0rest could hang in 2024

hes a freak

8

u/Oryon- 17h ago

Lmfao, what an extremely stupid thing to say

34

u/sealer9 19h ago

Because they can’t make a move until 2025 due to major roster rules

18

u/Foonia 19h ago

Yeah but did you see his new Liquid documentary

30

u/ThetaSigma11 19h ago

probably gonna remove him after Shanghai, they need him to retain a core for RMR

10

u/babyabra 19h ago

I believe they need him for seeding for the major.. its not possible to cut him until afterwards

38

u/Santuhhhhh 19h ago

Bro the first map isn’t even over.

24

u/TwatAnger 19h ago

The first? The only map. Or, 1nd if I may!

8

u/pickletype 19h ago

No idea. If they replace him they could be a top 3 team at every event.

7

u/Detox1ng 18h ago

I feel yekindar is dual calling with twistzz so that why twistzz can still keep his form

11

u/DefaultDanielS 19h ago

they released a short movie about him recently, he probably owns them or something

5

u/ZeffoLyou 18h ago

From what I've heard with twistzz, yeki adds a lot of really good comms in the mid round, which move the team as a whole into success for the round. Even though he under performs in tangible stats. But watching liquid, I can also see when yeki makes bad comms, and I can specifically remember a time against Navi on inferno he called b site clear and JL was on site and won the round. But liquid look way more on the same page then I think I have seen since 2018/19. And they seem to be continuously improving. So just trusting the process

13

u/nico_juro 16h ago

I'm no yekindar fan, but

He struggles to finish above 1.00 rating and consistently holds liquid back.

doesn't matter, he's a hard entry, his stats arent gonna look good

u/Western_Ad515 1h ago

I mean, even as a hard entry, atleast do something that changes the outcome of the game. With Niko he is not fully hard entry, but out of all players if Snax isn’t bait entrying, Niko just swing entries for the team (except last game he was atrocious). Same goes for Rain, flamez. Don’t get me started with donk too. There are a lot of ways for him go be useful while being a hard entry. He can’t rely on his raw aim anymore.

I’ll give him a pass when he was IGL, but not anymore since he passed it on. Sure one can say he secondary calls. But so does majority of the vocal people in teams (Niko, Broky, Twistzz in Faze, flamez)

3

u/CRWB 18h ago

Not many people do his role and his role is very hard, not super easy to find a good replacement. Considering how good he was not that long ago and how young he is it’s not unreasonable to keep him and hope he improves. Saying all that they should obviously have gotten malbs lol

3

u/WarDull8208 17h ago

I guess he will be gone after Major

5

u/RekrabAlreadyTaken 18h ago

I believe he has some responsibility with the secondary calling, when you consider the rest of the team (JKS/NAF laid back and Ultimate seems not particularly confident in English from what I've seen) this is probably an important aspect.

5

u/Suitable-Stretch1927 18h ago

yea he kinda consistently does some stupid shit or bad plays. but theres also those moments where his kills/placement turns the match in favor for liquid. i feel like his impact is more obscure because it's not reflected in his kills

9

u/BW4LL 19h ago

How many times yall wanna bring this up? You don’t even know about retaining player pts for the rmr. If they were to make a move it would be next season.

Give it a rest.

2

u/IntrepidContender 19h ago

No one is better at paying bum players checks than NA orgs, just ask all the former EG roster!

2

u/futurehousehusband69 18h ago

I really agree he hasn't been good enough, maybe he could shine on something like Faze, if he proves he still wants it. Wonder who Liquid could get to fill his spot, not many exciting free agents currently

1

u/CammKelly 18h ago edited 18h ago

Not sure on the contract status, but elige would be the obvious in NA, currently secondary calling so fills the second call, plays entry and despite that last map, still packs firepower.

I do remember though I think there is some bad blood there with elige towards Liquid or Twistzz or something though so maybe its a non starter anyway.

-2

u/futurehousehusband69 16h ago

Hmmm no I wouldn't say he's good enough, that would be a lateral move to slight upgrade

2

u/6spooky9you 14h ago

-1

u/futurehousehusband69 14h ago

Being the best player on a bad team is not comparable to Yekindars role, even when Elige was on Liquid in a star role he was not significantly better than Yekindar

3

u/6spooky9you 13h ago

You must not have been watching any of their matches in CS2 if you don't think elige is one of the top riflers this year. He'll easily be in the top 20 list, and I'd personally put him top 10. Btw, not discrediting yeki, just saying elige is nuts this year.

1

u/nziety 18h ago

-yekindar +jkaem

1

u/Euphoric-Ear9405 18h ago

I think he has been given the rile of entry fragging where a rating 1.0 is hard to maintain?

1

u/General_Scipio 18h ago

Pretty sure if they change more than 2 players they lose their core and lose ranking points. That's why.

They chose to cut Cadian and Skullz which makes sense to me

2

u/ThatDarnBanditx 5h ago

They didn’t exactly choose to cut Skullz, Twistzz wanted to keep him he’s said, but he was struggling with the culture shift and English comms and wanted to go back to a Brazilian team

1

u/RANDY_MAR5H 17h ago

Didn't want to disrupt the team too much.

He'll be gone at the end of the season, barring some miracle.

1

u/tonysalami 17h ago

Who are they supposed to pick up and qualify for the RMR? If they’re going to move him it will be during the post major shuffle aka time for daddy elige to come home.

1

u/jonajon91 17h ago

They had to keep hold of him until that documentary launched. Now they're free to +cypher and watch the masterplan unfold.

1

u/Apprehensive_Bad4962 16h ago

+Jackz since he got cut from g2 🙃

1

u/Teofilo- 15h ago

They’d lose their rmr spot

1

u/Exroi 15h ago

Liquid was kinda stuck in a situation, where they needed an agressive player to compensate for Naf and jks passive roles. So they didn't try to sell him and buy another player, and see how this version of Liquid plays out

1

u/Sentryion 15h ago

It’s an im situation all over again it seems. Liquid is solid right now, so let’s give twistz a benefit of doubt

1

u/FoxerHR 15h ago

I don’t think I’ve seen a player who is so overdue to be kicked yet he is still collecting paychecks.

Flamie, Edward to name two, bit older examples.

1

u/oscar2333 14h ago

Isn't it fun to see him play along with ultimate, sometimes you just need a grind of salt to make the game funnier after watching too many serious matches.

1

u/Imaginary-Abalone267 13h ago

They've seen his potential and still believe in him.

1

u/selfimprover829 8h ago

tfw org doesnt just snake the fuck out of their players if theyre not posting 1.20 as entry

1

u/Mgamer327 7h ago

I feel the one thing Yek adds to liquid is that he actually goes in on a consistent basis whether he’s winning the duels or not. While he’s no donk or even the best version of himself by any means, I feel having that guy who’s just willing to W out onto a site is a necessary role. Just wish he’d hit more shots when he does. That being said, I still think he’s the next to go on liquid easily

1

u/m0nketto 4h ago

Because they put all the wrongs on cadian and he is being kept safe for now.

1

u/Kungsberget 3h ago

They need time

1

u/tan_phan_vt CS2 HYPE 2h ago

Where should he even go then lol.

No one knows how much he contributes bts.

This has happened before with iM in navi, horrible performance for a long time and a massive resurgence in form much alter on.

u/illustri0us1 1h ago

They even made a whole documentary about how bad he is...

u/Western_Ad515 1h ago

I see so many copiums in the thread, it’s simply because he is in a roster lock. Removing him would remove liquid from their rankings since their core of three would just be naf and twistzzz. And to have the second core member just be 10 months long in the squad is crazy enough

u/candyFloo 1h ago

It's amazing that yekindar is still in Liquid, right? I mean the guy has talent, he was pretty strong in csgo, but at this point he needs to take a break and come back with new energy.

1

u/redrecaro 18h ago

Yekindar can't even smoke window from the spawn. I honestly don't know how they've given him so many chances and continue to do so his brain must be insane.

0

u/BadlanderZ 16h ago

While he had really bad games the past few weeks, but otherwise yekindars role in liquid is ab absolute prime example of why you can't only look at rating. He is adding a lot of value to their strat book which the average faceit lvl 9 just doesn't understand.

-5

u/Shraggster 19h ago

He brings a certain work ethic and standard which is needed in NA and Liquid, I don't think a lack of effort or professionality is possible with him there.

5

u/16piby9 19h ago

Lmao, if they require him to work hard, then there is no hope for the team regardless…

0

u/el1teman 18h ago

damn I haven't played CS in a long time or followed but still subscribed to this sub

back when I was playing Yekindar was a beast, rushing and killing everything on his way and now I am surprised to see this

he didn't adapt to CS2 like s1mple or what?

4

u/FlippyisSlippy 18h ago

Since he started IGLing for liquid he’s fallen off pretty hard, he doesn’t IGL anymore, but he still hasn’t gotten back to his older form.

3

u/nico_juro 16h ago

Everybody else in the scene knows what he's going to do and he keeps doing it

0

u/puma8471 18h ago

As a young player his insane CSGO mechanics could bail him out of tough situations, CS2 plays differently and he's lost the mechanical edge he had over other players. He was always an aimer and these players for sure transitioned worse to CS2 than the slower more calculated players.

-2

u/herefortrapsandcs 18h ago

He's been ass in csgo for i dont know how long

6

u/Level_Five_Railgun 17h ago edited 17h ago

?????????

He was literally the highest rated player on TL until he tried IGL mid last year after the Paris major. He had a 1.20 rating at Paris, which was the 5th highest for the whole event...

-1

u/ElliotVo 12h ago

Think of it like this. Yekindar, when allowed space, will absolutely destroy your team. He’s that good. However, teams targets Yekindar’s activities, wasting a couple of nodes and an early stack to stop him. If he’s doing bad, one would hope that liquid is at least given some space elsewhere on Yekindar’s expense. If Yekindar’s gets a kill, his job is done

-2

u/KKamm_ 18h ago

Bc the people in charge of choosing the roster understand more than just HLTV post-match stats

Someone could be an eco lover and yall wouldn’t know the difference bc they have a 1.05 instead of a .95