YEKINDAR on the pressure of FalleN’s retirement: Everyone has a responsibility to become the best version of themselves

Since the start of 2026, FURIA have still been unable to rediscover the peak form they showed at the end of last year, and they have yet to win a title. Although they have reached grand finals at events such as IEM Kraków and the IEM Cologne Major, under a packed schedule, the team’s current focus is more on identifying their own issues and rebuilding the chemistry they had before.

“A lot has happened within the team since the start of the year. Right now, we need to focus more on the problems themselves and go through them one by one to identify what has to be fixed.”YEKINDAR said in an interview with HLTV during the StarSeries Fall media day. “I don’t think anyone is thinking, ‘We want the title so badly, so we deserve to win it.’”

At the same time, FalleN's impending retirement has continued to hang over the team. YEKINDAR admitted that no one can be sure exactly how much it has affected the team, but FURIA have had several honest conversations about the reality of the situation: “We know FalleN is going to retire, and we know we're not playing well right now, so how do we fix it?”

Q: You’ve just arrived here from China, and your first match will be against MIBR, who also came over from China. When I saw you setting up your gear just now, everyone looked pretty relaxed and the mood seemed good. How has the trip from China been, and how has preparation for tomorrow’s match gone?

YEKINDAR: Everyone knows we've been playing one event after another lately, and that definitely affects you — you get tired, and you go through all kinds of feelings.

For a while before that, we were complaining a bit too much — about everything, really. But after a few hours of complaining, you eventually realize that this is the situation you're in, and all you can do is make the best of it.

So for now, we’re just accepting that. This is one more event we still have to play, and after that we can finally take a break for a while.

Luckily, the flight this time was pretty good—we were in business class and all that. Otherwise, I don't know how we would've survived (laughs).

But everyone is in a good place right now. After losing to G2, we went back to the team room at the venue and sat down to talk it through, and there was no arguing at all.

The thinking was simple: there was no point in trying to figure out who made mistakes or who should take the blame. Right now, we failed as a team. That was the conclusion we came to after that loss in China.

Right now, we're working hard to rebuild the team's chemistry. We actually looked pretty good at the start of the season, and we had our chances against FUT, but as one event after another went by, we kept putting ourselves in worse and worse spots, and it started to snowball.

So after that event in China ended, the most important thing for us was to reset mentally and then focus on the next stop.

Q: You lost to Legacy in China and now have to face MIBR tomorrow. As an "honorary Brazilian," does this all-Brazilian matchup carry any extra meaning for you?

YEKINDAR: I don't know how much extra there will be.

Playing Legacy might matter a bit more because of the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) system and the South American regional rankings. Of course, MIBR have also been climbing the rankings quickly lately, so that match is just as important.

But I don't think we'll treat these tournaments as any more important than the others.

It's always interesting to play against them, because you can learn how to approach these kinds of teams. When a new team suddenly hits strong form, like Legacy, and they have already picked up a lot of good wins while showing plenty of potential and strong form, you should play them as much as possible so you can gather information on how to beat them.

So the match against Legacy was very important for us. We had already faced them in the third-place match at EWC, and then we ran into them again in China a few days ago.

Before the Major and the even bigger events that come after it, we want to play them as much as possible, especially with FalleN getting closer and closer to retirement.

Q: It's been close to a year since you last won a title. You had a really strong stretch at the end of last year — are you especially eager to get back to that level? You also just mentioned rebuilding the team's chemistry.

YEKINDAR: A lot has happened within the team since the start of this year. Right now, we're more focused on the issues, figuring out what has to be fixed, and dealing with them one by one.

I don't think anyone is thinking, "We want to win the title so badly, so we should win it."

At some events, we were genuinely in very good form, and there were probably also a few tournaments where we had a real shot at winning the title, like Kraków.

We got battered in the Major final, but there were a few key rounds that, if they had gone our way, might have given us a chance.

These are the positive signs we’ve been seeing, and we’ll keep our focus on those good things and on what’s right in front of us.

There have also been a lot of worrying signs this season, so right now we're focused on identifying those issues.

We are not thinking, "We have to win an event." That is not how it works — you cannot just tell yourself you have to win a title and then have one suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Q: You just brought up FalleN's retirement yourself. I don't really want to ask about it every time, because it feels like everyone's going to ask it countless times from here on out...

YEKINDAR: I must have heard that over a hundred times already (laughs).

Q: Since you brought it up yourself, let me ask it from another angle. It may be taking up quite a bit of the team's energy and attention right now, but once that day actually comes, could it instead become a chance for a fresh start?

YEKINDAR: No matter how much you want to say it hasn't affected us, you never really know what's affecting you subconsciously, right?

So we'll never really know whether it was FalleN's retirement itself, his announcement of it, or simply the fact that we knew this lineup was bound to change down the line that has been affecting our matches.

There will never be a clear answer to this question.

We can only be clear about where we stand right now. We know this is going to happen, and we will think about the future. There will also be a lot of rumors from the outside and plenty of other things to worry about, while at the same time we still have a packed event schedule ahead of us.

There are a lot of things that can throw off your energy and your rhythm in a match.

It’s definitely tough, but that’s the situation we’re in right now. The only thing we can do is focus on the next match, the next event, and on ourselves as individuals.

I think this season everyone has been trying different ways to raise their level of commitment, and we really have been working hard to fix our issues.

We've had a few meetings and laid everything out on the table:

“Guys, we know FalleN is going to retire, and we know we haven't been playing well. So how do we fix it?”

That's basically our thinking right now.

Q: Have you found any specific ways to deal with that? It’s part of being a pro player — there will always be things that disrupt your routine. Now that you’ve put the issue on the table, is anything starting to work?

YEKINDAR: There are definitely some things that are working, and sometimes we still come back to that topic.

But above all, everyone has their own responsibilities, and each player has to make sure they come into matches and tournaments in the best possible shape.

We trust each other.

We’re not going to specifically bring in a psychologist or anyone like that just to deal with this. We trust each other.

Q: I heard FalleN joking earlier that the lower-bracket final and the grand final at this event will be played on the same day, as a BO3 and a BO5 respectively, and that the PCs on site are still set up facing each other. He also talked about that old-school offline feel of throwing a flashbang across and watching where the other players are. Are we going to get a bit of that old-school studio LAN vibe?

YEKINDAR: I think it's pretty cool.

As long as it’s something a little out of the ordinary, I think it brings a bit of freshness, especially since we’ve already played so many events in a row lately (laughs).

I still don't know exactly what it'll look like, but why not try a different format? I think it's pretty interesting.

Especially with this event only featuring eight teams, it’s a good setting to try something like this. If it were a bigger tournament with 16 or 32 teams, though, it could create some problems.