YEKINDAR, perhaps having seen this coming, posted an amicable response on hix X (formerly Twitter): “As of today, I am officially benched and open to offers. (Contact @samsonem). These two and a half years went past so fast and I can truly say that I have had a chance to play at the best esports organization. I’m insanely thankful for all of my teammates, the staff, and support. This road was not easy but I will use them as a guide in my future. I’m ready to bounce back as an individual and a player.“
YEKINDAR’s track record
YEKINDAR first gaiend prominence on Virtus.pro, averaging a 0.99 rating, 1.09 impact, and 46.6% opening success on LAN. Somewhere along the line, an interesting opportunity came to him, where he stood in for Team Liquid as a substitute, showing great potential, leading to hsi eventual signing.
From there on, the team, thanks to YEKINDAR’s tactical and individual excellence, secured runners-up at BLAST World Final 2022, semi-finalists at IEM Katowice and BLAST Fall Final, and went on to secure playoffs at the BLAST.tv Paris Major. All was going great until YEKINDAR was moved to the role of a full IGL, where, although his tactical prowess blossomed, his individual performance nosedived.
From then onwards, Team Liquid’s showing deteriorated, missing out on Majors one after the other, to the point that YEKINDAR even received much hate online from fans. “I understand everybody needs time individually, and there's obviously a lot of people who don't want to give time because we have the players, so just do it, like win, right? But it's never that easy. I just learned the hard way after IGLing that social media kills your vibe in a way,” he said at the time.
Unfortunately, while he was later moved off from the IGL role, his individual performance never fully recovered, making this benching decision something that was a long time coming.
