Benched by Liquid in December 2024, the Latvian went 41-23 against his former side, while JT finished the series with seven kills.
FURIA will play the quarter-finals of PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 after sweeping Team Liquid 13-11 on Nuke and 13-5 on Inferno in Wednesday’s last Swiss round. FURIA finish the Swiss stage 3-2. Liquid’s event ends at 2-3.
The player who hurt Liquid most knew them better than anyone else on the server. Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis was in Liquid’s starting lineup from October 2022, was moved to the bench in December 2024 and joined FURIA in April 2025. Against his old team he went 41-23 with 100.5 ADR, the best K-D in the series, and 21-8 on Inferno alone.
FURIA2-0
LiquidStatsNuke 13-11, Inferno 13-5
JTBanana belonged to YEKINDAR
Inferno was Liquid’s map pick and, on paper, their safest ground. They had won nine of their last 10 maps there. FURIA took it apart by contesting banana again and again from the CT side, and YEKINDAR was the one doing the fighting: 19 of his 21 kills on the map came around banana and the B site. He had six kills in the first five rounds, almost as many as JT managed over both maps.
Liquid hung on for a half. NAF won a 1v1 to level the map at 3-3, and malbsMd found the opening kill in a clean A-site execute straight out of a tactical timeout, but Liquid still went in 5-7. FURIA then won the second pistol round, their fourth from four in the series, with YEKINDAR clearing the B site on his own. Liquid did not win another round.
A long afternoon for JT
Liquid’s trouble was on their own half of the scoreboard. NAF finished 36-28 and top-fragged Nuke at 21-16 with 99.7 ADR, and EliGE and malbsMd were only a few deaths short of even. In-game leader Johnny “JT” Theodosiou ended 7-33 with 30.2 ADR, and Jorko went 3-15 on Inferno. Over five series in Bucharest, JT finished 138-187.
It ends a mixed week for the North Americans. They opened with an upset of MOUZ and beat Legacy, but lost to FUT and then went down 10-13 on the Cache decider against Aurora on Tuesday, a map that would have sent them through. The cost goes beyond this event. Before the series, HLTV’s VRS forecast put Liquid’s chance of an invite to PGL Cluj-Napoca 2027 at 91.3% with a win and 4.2% with a loss, five days before Valve’s 2 November snapshot.
FalleN glad to be carried
FURIA got through without their captain anywhere near his best. Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo went 16-30 and was 8-17 on Nuke, FURIA’s own pick, which they only closed out 13-11. He did not dress it up in the post-match interview on PGL’s broadcast.
I felt like I literally played very bad today compared to the other days, like, Nuke was my worst map in the last 20 I played. […] I’m happy that the team was able to carry me in there.
FalleN said FURIA had expected a messy game because “Liquid is just playing so risky”, with new setups in every demo they watched. He also defended KSCERATO, who came into the day with one of the quietest events of his career. The Brazilian answered with 33-21, 90.6 ADR and 88.1% KAST. “I think he played superb today,” FalleN said.
Less than two weeks after beating BetBoom 3-2 in the Thunderpick World Championship final, a run YEKINDAR played through while ill, FURIA needed wins over TYLOO and Liquid on the last two days to survive the Swiss stage. Bucharest is the first of four events on FalleN’s farewell tour before he retires at the end of 2026, and that tour now reaches a knockout stage. The quarter-finals are played on 29 and 30 October, and the bracket is on our PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 page.
