YEKINDAR returns to the HLTV Top 20

FURIA's aggressive entry entry-fragger Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis is the latest addition to HLTV's Top 20 of the year, coming at #15. YEKINDAR's first notable tournament run came back in 2019 at the StarLadder Berlin 2019 Major. The Latvian, alongside jame made an incredible grand-final appearance with Avangar before getting shutdown by prime Astralis. YEKINDAR was also a part of Liquid's transition away from an American lineup towards an International core.

Even while playing a difficult role, YEKINDAR maintained impressive numbers throughout 2025. YEKINDAR holds an impressive round conversion rate in 2025 with 76.3% round win rate after a kill (#2) and 84% round win rate after a multi-kill (#4). After getting benched by Liquid towards the end of 2024, YEKINDAR started 2025 with a couple of showmatches and local qualifier appearances before FURIA picked him up. In YEKINDAR's debut with FURIA, the Brazilian core made a semi-final run at PGL Astana 2025.

In my opinion, if people click, you can instantly notice it. We had the right players. We just needed to readjust a couple of things, do a couple of things differently.
YEKINDAR on maiden FURIA outing

Barring a couple of playoffs appearances, the first half of 2025 was not very eventful for YEKINDAR, it was the latter half where FURIA slowly found their footing. After a semi-final exit at BLAST Open Fall 2025, FURIA went the distance at FISSURE Playground #2, taking down The MongolZ to win their first event of the year and YEKINDAR's contribution was significant. In the semi-final he topped the charts against Falcons in the deciding map and then almost put up 100 frags in the best-of-five grand-final against The MongolZ. YEKINDAR dropped ratings of 1.79 on Nuke and brushed The MongolZ out of the grand-final with a 1.96 rating, 119 ADR showing on Dust2.

His standout performance however, came against Falcons in the grand-final of BLAST Rivals Season 2. FURIA got stomped in the opening map and YEKINDAR answered back in the second with a 2.21 rating game on Nuke, going 27-13 to disarm the dangerous NiKo-m0NESY-kyousuke trio. The stellar Latvian also topped the charts in the last map of the series on Train, dropping 30 frags to fetch FURIA yet another title win.

I'm gonna focus on being the version of myself for the whole team, and to enjoy the most out of FalleN and everybody around me.
YEKINDAR

YEKINDAR made playoffs appearances at both Majors in 2025 with FURIA but crashed out in the quarter-finals on both occasions. However, YEKINDER helped FURIA bag four event wins in 2025 while securing three EVP awards and was a consistent performer under pressure. He was the top performer across all deciding maps in grand-finals. In 2025, YEKINDAR bagged three EVP nods- one each at FISSURE Playground #2 and BLAST Rivals Season 2 and one at the super-elite IEM Chengdu.

YEKINDAR picked PARIVISION's rifler xiELO as his bold prediction for making a HLTV Top 20 entry sometime in the near future. YEKINDAR praised his situational awareness, pre-aim and grounded but quick thinking.

HLTV Top 20 (2025) so far

• #15 YEKINDAR

• #16 xertioN

• #17 torzsi

• #18 NiKo

• #19 iM

• #20 b1t