Liquid announces YEKINDAR as stand-in for IEM Cologne

Liquid has announced that Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis will round out their roster for the upcoming IEM Cologne tournament. The 22-year-old Latvian recently announced on Twitter that he had agreed on the terms of his exit from Virtus.pro and that he was ready for talks with other teams. YEKINDAR will be filling in for recently departed Richard "shox" Papillon, who stepped down from the lineup last week.

The announcement of YEKINDAR as a stand-in comes following a Dust2.us report yesterday surrounding rumors of Liquid's interest in Justin "jks" Savage and Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski as the team's temporary fifth for IEM Cologne. The highly touted talent won't be the only new face joining Liquid in Germany next month. The team announced the acquisition of Damian "daps" Steele as the new head coach yesterday following the departure of Eric "adreN" Hoag alongside shox. While the YEKINDAR move is a reason to get excited as a Liquid fan, Dust2us understands that this move is strictly on a stand-in basis and a permanent move is not on the agenda.

YEKINDAR has proven to be one of the most sought-after prospects in the world of Counter-Strike following his benching from Virtus.pro after the conclusion of the PGL Antwerp Major. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, Virtus.pro's ownership company was sanctioned by the European Union and the United States. To prevent any conflict of such sanctions, tournament organizers such as ESL were forced to have Virtus.pro operate under "Outsiders" while the sanctions are in place. Many teams have been rumored to be interested in acquiring last year's eighth-best player's signature, however, for IEM Cologne at least his firepower will be coming to the server on the side of Liquid. Liquid look to face off in IEM Cologne's main event starting July 7th.

Following Yekindar's addition, Liquid's roster is now:

• Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski

• Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic

• Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm

• Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella

• Mareks "YEKINDAR" Galinskis (Stand-in)

• Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele (Coach)

• Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag (Inactive Coach)

• Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon (Inactive)