Since 2026, FURIA has been unable to rediscover the peak form from the end of last year and remains without a title. Despite reaching the grand finals at events such as IEM Krakow and the IEM Cologne Major, amid a packed schedule, the team is currently more focused on identifying its own issues and regaining its previous chemistry.
“Since the start of the year, a lot has happened within the team. Right now we need to focus more on the problems themselves, going through one by one to identify the things that must be fixed,” YEKINDAR told HLTV in an interview on StarSeries Fall media day. “I don't think anyone is thinking, ‘we want the trophy so badly, so we deserve to win it.’”
Meanwhile, FalleN's impending retirement has also loomed over the team. YEKINDAR admitted that no one can be sure to what extent this has affected the team, but FURIA has had several candid conversations about the reality of the situation: "We know FalleN is retiring, and we know we're playing poorly right now, so how do we fix it?"
Q: You just arrived here from China, and your opening match is against MIBR, who also traveled here from China. I watched you while you were setting up your equipment just now and everyone seemed quite relaxed with a good atmosphere. How was the trip from China and preparing for tomorrow's match?
YEKINDAR: Everyone knows we've been playing back-to-back events recently, and that's definitely going to affect you, you're going to get tired, and you're going to feel all kinds of things.
There was a period of time when we complained a bit too much, complaining about everything. But after complaining for a few hours, you eventually realize that you're already in this situation, so you just have to do the job well.
So we just accept it for now. This is one more tournament we need to finish, and then we can finally rest for a while.
Fortunately, this flight was pretty good, we were in business class or something, otherwise I don't know how we would have survived (laughs).
But everyone is in a good mood now. After losing to G2, we went back to the team room in the venue, sat down and talked, with no arguments at all.
Everyone's thinking is simple: there is no point now in trying to figure out who did wrong or who should be held responsible. We have failed as a team as a whole. This is the conclusion we reached after the loss to China.
We're working hard right now to rebuild the team's chemistry. At the start of the season we actually performed pretty well, we had chances against FUT, but as tournament after tournament went on, we put ourselves in worse and worse situations, and then it started to snowball.
So after that tournament in China, the most important thing for us was to refresh our mindset and then focus on the next stop.
Q: You lost to Legacy in China, and tomorrow you have to face MIBR. As an "honorary Brazilian," does this Brazilian derby have any extra significance for you?
YEKINDAR: I don't know how much extra it will be.
Playing Legacy might be more significant because of the VRS system and the South American regional rankings. Of course, MIBR's ranking has been climbing fast as well, so it's equally important.
But I don't think we will view these matches as more important than the others.
It's still really interesting to play against them, because you can learn how to play against these teams. When a new team suddenly hits great form, like Legacy, they've already picked up a lot of impressive wins and shown great potential and form, you should play against them as much as possible to get information on how to beat them.
So the match against Legacy is very important to us. We faced them in the third-place match at EWC, and faced them again a few days ago in China.
Before the Major and the even more important events that follow, we want to face them as many times as possible, especially as FalleN's retirement draws closer.
Q: It's been almost a year since you last won a championship. You had a very strong run at the end of last year — are you particularly eager to get back to that position now? You just mentioned rebuilding chemistry as well.
YEKINDAR: Since the beginning of this year, a lot has happened within the team. Right now we are more focused on the problems, identifying the things that must be fixed, and then dealing with them one by one.
I don't think anyone would think: "We want the championship so badly, so we should win it."
In some tournaments, we were indeed in very good form, and there were probably some competitions where we had a chance to win the title, such as Krakow.
We were crushed in the Major final, but there were some key rounds that, if they had gone our way, we might have had a chance.
These are the positive signals we see, and we will focus on these good things, on what is right in front of us.
And this season has also seen many bad signs, so we are now focused on identifying these issues.
We don't think "we have to win an event." That's not how it works, you can't just think you have to win the title and then the title will suddenly appear out of thin air.
Q: You just mentioned FalleN's retirement yourself. I actually don't want to ask about this every time, because I feel like everyone will ask about it countless times going forward...
YEKINDAR: I should have heard it over a hundred times already (laughs).
Q: Since you brought it up yourself, let me ask from a different angle. This matter may be taking up a lot of the team's energy and attention right now, so when that day actually comes, could it instead become an opportunity for a fresh start?
YEKINDAR: No matter how much you want to say it didn't affect us, you never know what's subconsciously affecting you, right?
So we'll never know whether it was FalleN retiring, his announcing his retirement, or our knowing that this lineup was definitely going to change in the future that was affecting our play.
This question will never have a definitive answer.
We can only be clear about our current situation. We know this is bound to happen, we will consider the future, there will be a lot of rumors out there and many other things to worry about, while we also have to compete in a large number of events.
There are many things that can disrupt your energy and rhythm.
It's really hard, but that's the situation we're in right now. The only thing we can do is focus on the next match, the next tournament, and each of ourselves.
I think this season, everyone is stepping up their commitment in different ways, and we are genuinely working hard to solve the problems.
We've had several meetings to lay everything out on the table:
“Guys, we know FalleN is retiring, and we know we're playing poorly right now. So how do we fix it?”
This is basically our current thinking.
Q: Have you found any specific ways to deal with this? It's also part of being a professional player—there will always be things that disrupt your daily routine. Now that you've laid the issue out in the open, is anything working?
YEKINDAR: There are indeed some things that are working, and sometimes we bring up this topic again.
But most importantly, everyone has their own responsibility to face the competition and the event in the best possible state.
We trust each other.
We won't specifically talk to a counselor or someone like that to deal with this. We trust each other.
Q: I heard FalleN joke before that the lower bracket final and grand final of this tournament will be held on the same day, as a BO3 and a BO5 respectively, and that the PCs on stage will even be set up face-to-face. He also mentioned that old-school LAN feeling of throwing a flash over to the other side to see where people are. Are we going to get a taste of that old-school studio LAN vibe?
YEKINDAR: I think it's pretty cool.
I think anything that's a little out of the ordinary brings a sense of freshness, especially since we've been playing in so many tournaments in a row lately (laughs).
I don't know exactly what it will look like yet, but why not try a different format? I think it's quite interesting.
Especially since this tournament only has eight teams, it's well suited for trying something like this. If it were a large tournament with 16 or 32 teams, there could be some problems.