YEKINDAR: "The matches were very close. This gives us faith."

After FURIA fell to Falcons in the third-place decider at IEM Rio 2026, a series that came down to a single 1-on-1 in the final round, Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis reflected on the tournament. On playing for a Brazilian team in front of a Brazilian crowd, on the margins that separated FURIA from a Grand Final appearance, and on what it has meant to share a roster with Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo in the final chapter of his competitive career.

I have two questions. First, you played a very good tournament, a very, very good run. Unfortunately it came down to the 1-on-1 in the last round, and it didn't go your way. I want your take on the whole run here, because the first part looked spectacular. You guys showed a very good game. And then by the end, something happened. I want to know what that something was.

I think there was a lot of development coming in before this tournament, and during this tournament. In the start of the year we had some trouble, we were trying to reinvent ourselves and find ourselves a bit more. Coming into this event, it's a home soil event for the Brazilians, and for us too since we're playing in FURIA. Having the opportunity to play in front of a crowd like this is something you only wish for in dreams.

We could have won these games. But at least for me, I'm happy we're performing, because one thing is coming in and losing 13-2 or 13-5, and a completely different thing is what we did. Yeah, we didn't get to the third map or whatever, but the games were very close. Very winnable. And this is something we need to think about. We were playing against the best team in the world, maybe in history. And the team that also beat that best team in the world at this tournament. Both of these teams are very strong and very good, and the matches were very close. This is something that gives us faith.

YEKINDAR, a more personal and structural question. You played on home soil as you said, you're not Brazilian, but you played as the Brazilian team. You were part of the FalleN announcement. You and him are very different people, right? I want your opinion on this end of FalleN's era. What do you think you've learned from him, and what would you like to keep as his legacy?

FalleN has so much experience from all these years, not only as a player, but also as a person. Even when he's not talking to you or trying to teach you something, you just notice what he's doing, how he's acting, what he's thinking in-game, outside of the game, whatever. Unwillingly, you're going to learn. You're going to start thinking, "oh, he's doing it like that because of this," and so on.

So I'm very thankful to FalleN for the chance to play with him. There are still around 260 days, however many days, of playing with him, and hopefully we're going to get him a trophy. But truly, CS is going to be very sad, very sad, with such an inspirational person and player leaving.

Final Read: The Margins and the Weight of a Farewell

FURIA's IEM Rio was a tournament of two stories told at the same time. On one side was the competitive one, an undefeated group stage, a dismantling of MOUZ, a direct ticket to the semifinals, and then two playoff series that came down to margins so thin they could be measured in a single duel. On the other side was the one nobody in the Farmasi Arena could fully separate themselves from, FalleN announcing his final competitive season on Brazilian soil, in front of the crowd that shaped him and that he shaped in return.

YEKINDAR's answer on the run is the one that deserves to be heard over the noise of the result. Losing a 1-on-1 in the final round of a third-place decider is the kind of ending that can easily be framed as a collapse. His framing is different. FURIA played Vitality close. They played Falcons close. They took two of the best sides in the world to the edge of a series win and lost the coin-flip rounds. That is not the same thing as being outclassed. It is the difference between a team that has arrived and a team that still has to learn how to close.

The second answer is the one that lingers. YEKINDAR is right that you learn from FalleN whether he's teaching or not. That has been the quiet engine of his career for more than a decade, the way his presence on a roster leaves a mark on everyone who shares a server with him. For YEKINDAR, a player who has built his own identity on a completely different kind of intensity, to say that he's learned by watching is its own kind of tribute. And the line that closes his answer, the hope of getting FalleN one more trophy in the time that's left, is the one that frames the rest of 2026 for this roster. FURIA leave Rio without the Grand Final appearance the crowd came for. They also leave with a clearer picture of the gap between where they are and where they want to be. YEKINDAR called it faith. The next few months will tell us whether it was faith in what this team can become, or faith in what they were already close to doing here.