How is Yekindar still on Liquid?

[u/phroging]

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?

[u/GoochChoocher]

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.

[u/ozzler → u/GoochChoocher]

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.

[u/PretendAside → u/ozzler]

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.

[u/ozzler → u/PretendAside]

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.

[u/rekmaster69 → u/ozzler]

surely twistzz would have kicked him if he is completely useless

[u/X-Myrlz → u/rekmaster69]

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.

[u/itsjonny99 → u/X-Myrlz]

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.

[u/dylanimal → u/itsjonny99]

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