Yekindar Speaks Out After Defeating NAVI at IEM Rio

Mareks “Yekindar” Galinskis stated that the victory over NAVI at the IEM Rio Counter-Strike 2 tournament was no easy feat for Furia.

The player made this statement on Telegram.

"It was definitely something else. We barely won. It’s so hard to play against them... Makazze, who just carries the team, Valera B1t. Everyone there plays really well; it was incredibly difficult.

We found some rhythm toward the end on Nuke as terrorists and managed to stage a comeback. I’m still in a bit of a state of disbelief, because you don’t see comebacks like that very often.

“Thank you all so much for your support.”

Acording to Mareks “Yekindar” Galinskis, NAVI’s oponents demonstrated an extremely high level of preparation, and the esports player found it particularly difficult to play against Drin ‘makazze’ Shakiri and Valery “B1t” Vakhovsky. The esports player also noted that his team managed to turn the game in their favor on the Nuke map.

As a reminder, Duncan “Thorin” Shields previously alleged potential cheating by FURIA Esports players at BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026.