Liquid have announced that they will be fielding Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis at IEM Cologne, the last Big Event of the season, where the North American squad’s new coach Damian “daps” Steele will also be present.
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Liquid announce daps as new coach
The skipper, who was announced on Monday, will thus dodge the need to stand in as a player, which he had to do in the previous team he coached, Evil Geniuses, with the Latvian rifler momentarily solving Liquid‘s short-term roster woes after they went down to only four players with veteran Richard “shox” Papillon being moved to the bench on Sunday.
YEKINDAR will stand in for the Liquid at the Cathedral of Counter-Strike
Liquid, who have struggled to find form this year with mostly group stage exits at their most important events of the 2022 calendar, will welcome the addition of the eighth best player of 2021, even if just as a stand-in for one event, who comes in rocking a 1.08 rating, a 1.18 opening rating and a 1.21 impact rating on LAN this year.
The single tournament loan was made possible since YEKINDAR was moved to the bench in Outsiders after the PGL Major in Antwerp despite strong individual play, as he was in the tough position of hailing from a European country but playing for a Russian organization with ties to the Kremlin.
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Virtus.pro bench YEKINDAR and buster
IEM Cologne will mark the 22-year-old’s Big Event debut communicating in English after kick starting his professional career in Russian-speaking teams and spending a large part of his amateur career in squads form his home country of Latvia.
Liquid will field the following squad at IEM Cologne:
Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
Keith “NAF” Markovic
Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis (stand-in)
