donk

Danil Kryshkovets, better known by his nickname donk, is a Russian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Team Spirit who is widely recognized for his aggressive playstyle.

Early life Born on January 25, 2007, in Tomsk, Danil started playing Counter-Strike at the age of four when his brother introduced him to the game. Two years later, they switched to a new version, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. He devoted a lot of time to developing his skills, and at the age of 14 he was able to get into the European FPL-C.

Career

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive In 2021, when he was 14, he was scouted by Aleksey "OverDrive" Biryukov, who recommended him to the Team Spirit academy. He played for Team Spirit's youth roster for two years. In the first tournament he played for them, CCT North Europe Series #6, they took first place. At their first LAN tournament, Dunav Party 2023, Spirit also took first place.

Counter-Strike 2 2024 He received his first MVP title from HLTV for winning BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2023, ending his run with an HLTV rating of 1.31, making him the second youngest player in history to receive an HLTV MVP award. After Spirit won the IEM Katowice 2024 tournament, Danil was named the MVP and became the youngest player to be named an HLTV MVP at a Big Event. He also tied the Big Event rating record with a 1.70 rating, previously achieved by NiKo in 2017,

At his first Major, PGL Copenhagen 2024, Team Spirit advanced to the playoffs. In the first match of the playoffs, they lost the series to FaZe Clan. Despite this, Danil finished the tournament with a rating of 1.35.

After the Major, at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024, Danil was awarded the MVP despite his team only taking second place. Spirit took first place in the final tournament of the season, the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024, with Danil being the MVP of the championship. This tournament gave Spirit the first place in both Valve and HLTV team ratings.

In 2024, Team Spirit won the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, making Danil the youngest-ever Major champion, and he was awarded MVP, making him the youngest Major MVP. He became the highest-rated Major MVP with a 1.49 rating, surpassing the previous record of 1.47 by s1mple. He set the record for most aces at a Major, with four, surpassing the previous record of three by Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev, and matched s1mple's record of four at a Big Event. Danil joined coldzera and ZywOo as the only players to be named the HLTV Player of the Year in their first full year as a professional player. Team Spirit struggled to compete against an increasingly dominant Team Vitality in the first half of the year, but were able to score a win at PGL Astana 2025, a Tier 1 tournament which Team Vitality did not attend. This earned Danil yet another HLTV MVP.

Danil completed his fifth consecutive season atop the FACEIT matchmaking leaderboard in July 2025, having placed first globally in each season since the release of Counter-Strike 2; in the fifth season, he finished at 5,283 Elo, over 400 Elo ahead of second place despite continuing to compete at the tier-one professional level.

After getting stopped in the playoffs of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 by MOUZ, Team Spirit would bounce back to win IEM Cologne 2025, taking down rivals MOUZ 3-0 in the grand finals, earning Danil his ninth career HLTV MVP. Danil and Team Spirit followed up their IEM Cologne run with a back to back tournament win, this time defending their title as reigning BLAST Bounty champions against The MongolZ at BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals. This performance earned Danil his tenth career HLTV MVP, tying GeT_RiGhT's record of most HLTV MVPs as a rifler. While Team Spirit finished third at StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, Danil recorded a 1.57 rating across nine maps, setting the record for the highest rating at a Major.

Although Danil posted the highest raw statistical output ever recorded in HLTV’s top 20 rankings, he finished second in 2025 behind ZywOo. HLTV cited ZywOo’s greater number of MVP awards, deeper tournament runs, and stronger playoff performances as the deciding factors. Danil won the HLTV awards for Opener of the Year and Highlight of the Year for 2025.

2026 After nine months of not winning a single Tier 1 event, Danil earned an HLTV MVP after defeating rivals Team Falcons in a 3-0 at the playoffs of PGL Astana 2026. With this award Danil became the most awarded rifler in history with 11 HLTV MVP awards, surpassing the previous joint-record of ten he shared with ⁠GeT_RiGhT and NiKo⁠. Danil also became the youngest player to surpass $1 million in career prize money in the history of Counter-Strike, reaching the milestone at 19 years and six months and surpassing the previous record held by b1t, who reached it at 19 years and ten months.

In August 2026, Danil finished atop the FACEIT matchmaking leaderboard for a sixth season, in which he set an all-time record-high Elo of 5,513 on the platform during Season 8.

Awards and accolades Rankings

HLTV Top 20 Players: 1st (2024) HLTV Top 20 Players: 2nd (2025) BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 BetBoom Dacha Belgrade Season 2 Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 2 Finals PGL Astana 2026 HLTV Opener of the Year 2024 HLTV Highlight of the Year 2024 HLTV Opener of the Year 2025 HLTV Highlight of the Year 2025 Tournament Location Date Award

CCT Online Finals #2 Online August 2 – 10, 2023 — BetBoom Dacha 2023 Dubai, UAE December 5 – 10, 2023 MVP IEM Katowice 2024 Katowice, Poland February 3 – 11, 2024 MVP 5—8 PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Copenhagen, Denmark March 17 – 31, 2024 EVP BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 Belgrade, Serbia May 14 – 19, 2024 MVP IEM Dallas 2024 Dallas, TX, US May 27 – June 2, 2024 — BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 London, United Kingdom June 12 – 16, 2024 MVP 5—8 2024 Esports World Cup Riyadh, Saudi Arabia July 3 – August 25, 2024 — BetBoom Dacha Belgrade Season 2 Belgrade, Serbia August 28 – September 1, 2024 MVP BLAST Premier World Final 2024 Sentosa, Singapore October 30 – November 3, 2024 EVP Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Shanghai, China December 5 – 15, 2024 MVP BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1 Finals Copenhagen, Denmark January 23 – 26, 2025 MVP IEM Katowice 2025 Katowice, Poland February 1 – 9, 2025 EVP ESL Pro League Season 21 Stockholm, Sweden March 1 – 16, 2025 — BLAST Open Spring 2025 Lisbon, Portugal March 19 – 30, 2025 — 7—8 ESL Grand Slam Season 5 Online April 17 – 27, 2025 — BLAST Rivals Spring 2025 Copenhagen, Denmark April 30 – May 4, 2025 — PGL Astana 2025 Astana, Kazakhstan May 10 – 18, 2025 MVP 5—8 BLAST Austin Major 2025 Austin, Texas June 12 – 22, 2025 EVP IEM Cologne 2025 Cologne, Germany July 26 – August 3, 2025 MVP BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 2 Finals BLAST Studio, Malta August 14 – 17, 2025 MVP 9—16 2025 Esports World Cup Riyadh, Saudi Arabia August 20 – 24, 2025 — 7—8 BLAST Open London 2025 Online August 27 – September 1, 2025 — 5—8 ESL Pro League Season 22 Stockholm, Sweden October 4 – 12, 2025 — 7—8 IEM Chengdu 2025 Chengdu, China November 3 – 9, 2025 — 5—6 BLAST Rivals 2025 Season 2 Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong November 12 – 16, 2025 — 3—4 StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 Budapest, Hungary December 4 – 14, 2025 EVP 5—8 BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 Finals Malta January 22 – 25, 2026 — IEM Kraków 2026 Kraków, Poland January 31 – February 8, 2026 EVP 5—8 ESL Pro League Season 23 Finals Stockholm, Sweden March 13 – 15, 2026 — 7—8 BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026 Copenhagen, DenmarkRotterdam, Netherlands March 18 – 29, 2026 — IEM Rio 2026 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil April 13 – 19, 2026 EVP PGL Astana 2026 Astana, Kazakhstan May 9 – 17, 2026 MVP 3—4 IEM Cologne Major 2026 Cologne, Germany June 2 – 21, 2026 EVP BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 Malta July 7 – August 2, 2026 — 2026 Esports World Cup Paris, France August 12 – August 23, 2026 MVP