YEKINDAR : "I hope we stay as a four and find a good player to replace FalleN"

YEKINDAR : "I hope we stay as a four and find a good player to replace FalleN"

FURIA Esports advanced to the semifinals of the Esports World Cup 2026 after a decisive 2:0 victory over G2. The Brazilian team played Ancient for the second time in a row, a map that was once a permanent ban for them, and secured another win.

After the match, Mareks " YEKINDAR " Gaļinskis spoke with HLTV about the changes in FURIA Esports 's map pool, experiments with his leadership on specific maps, and the team's future following Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's retirement.

FURIA Esports had to change its map pool

Ancient unexpectedly became one of the maps FURIA Esports began experimenting with after Overpass was removed from the active map pool.

According to YEKINDAR , the team was forced to explore new options since Overpass was one of their strongest maps last season.

We knew we had to experiment with the map pool. Simply removing Overpass and playing the same maps would make our map pool not strong enough.
Mareks " YEKINDAR " Gaļinskis

FURIA Esports has yet to decide on a new permanent ban and continues to adapt their map choices based on their opponents.

Right now, we're trying to understand which map might work against a specific team. We currently don't have a permanent ban.
Mareks " YEKINDAR " Gaļinskis

YEKINDAR experiments with the IGL role

On Ancient against G2, YEKINDAR was responsible for making calls on the attacking side. He mentioned that the team started testing this option at the beginning of the season, wanting to understand what their future might look like after FalleN's departure.

It made sense to try having me as the IGL on certain maps. We wanted to test different perspectives.
Mareks " YEKINDAR " Gaļinskis

However, YEKINDAR himself is not sure if he wants to fully transition to the captain role.

I don't know if this is my future or FURIA Esports 's future. Being an IGL is a very thankless job. It's just too much cortisol.
Mareks " YEKINDAR " Gaļinskis

The team continues to test different options to determine their structure after FalleN's career ends.

"I hope we stay four"

FalleN's departure will be a significant change for FURIA Esports . According to YEKINDAR , the Brazilian captain cannot simply be replaced by one player, as the team will lose a vast amount of experience, voice, and influence with him.

FalleN leaves a huge space that someone has to fill. It's impossible to replace him one-to-one, so we need to understand which direction to move in.
Mareks " YEKINDAR " Gaļinskis

YEKINDAR hopes that the core of the current roster will stay together and that the team will find a suitable replacement for FalleN.