Donk is the main threat to the esports scene. Who is he?
One of the main discoveries of last year was the newcomer to Team Spirit. 17-year-old Danil donk Kryshkovets is playing only the second major LAN in his life, but has already been able to impress the entire Counter-Strike community.
Everyone who actively follows the professional scene speaks about the young guy from Tomsk – he is called the «new m0NESY» and compared to Oleksandr s1mple Kostyliev and Mathieu ZywOo Herbaut in his younger years. In this article, we will tell you in more detail about this player, the possibilities in Team Spirit and his prospects for the future.
Where did donk come from: the beginning of a career
Danil donk Kryshkovets’ career on the pro scene began only in 2021 and rapidly went up. The path of the young esports player started with a successful performance on FACEIT. At the age of 14, he managed to pass the FPL-C with insane statistics. After that, donk received an invitation to the Team Spirit Academy.
The success of the youth team with a talented newcomer did not come immediately. In the first months, the team failed to take high places in tournaments, and Danil Kryshkovets did not stand out statistically. But the organization continued to believe in the young man.
Later, donk was able to get into the FPL and become one of the youngest players in the league. The results of Team Spirit Academy also went up: it held high positions in online tournaments with adult teams. The team even managed to win the CCT West Europe Series #1, where they beat BIG and GamerLegion. And at the academy level, the team of young talent has become one of the best in the world. Then all the top clubs began to pay attention to donk, but it was the main team of Team Spirit that he joined in July 2023.
Donk style features
Danil Kryshkovets, at his age, acts as a real star player. The victory of the team often depends on donk’s opening actions, and he copes with his task perfectly. The esportsman plays very aggressively, and the number of rounds with multikills from him amazes not only the community, but also his opponents on the server.
One of the distinguishing features of donk is its excessive emotionality. This is especially evident at LAN events. This was really revealed at IEM Katowice 2024 – the player reacts to each successful round and puts moral pressure on his opponents. At his first big international tournament, he allows himself to shout at the top of his voice and make harsh remarks about opponents, for which the ESL administration threatened to fine Team Spirit. The Counter-Strike community is divided into two parts: some encourage Danil’s shouts because they make matches more emotional and colorful, while others believe that a young talent should «cover his mouth» and respect his opponents.
Danil Kryshkovets is in many ways compared to Ilya m0NESY Osipov. Both talents started their journey from academies and revealed themselves at a young age. Even the tournament in which they showed themselves to the maximum coincides: the path of the Natus Vincere Junior graduate began with IEM Katowice 2022, where G2 managed to take second place. This year, Team Spirit and donk have already reached the championship playoffs and are one of the favorites.
Danil Kryshkovets shyly denies the comparison with Oleksandr s1mple Kostyliev and Mathieu ZywOo Herbaut. He believes that he is far from them in terms of individual results and talent. But the path of donk is just beginning, and Kostyliev and Herbaut are approaching the peak of their careers and, perhaps, the esports player will be able to bypass his experienced opponents.
Team Spirit is the first serious experience for donk
Donk’s path to the esports scene is still too short. Since the beginning of his career, he has represented only one organization – Team Spirit. But over the past time, he has been able to lead both the youth team and the main team to the top. After Danil Kryshkovets moved to the main roster, the team’s results went up sharply. The team won BetBoom Dacha 2023, where they defeated Virtus.pro in the final, and before that they defeated MIBR and FURIA Esports. There, donk received his first MVP in his career.
And Team Spirit strengthened even more after the addition of Dmitry sh1ro Sokolov. The club takes 11th place in the HLTV rating and performs in tournaments on a par with all the favorites. At IEM Katowice 2024, the team has already defeated Natus Vincere and Complexity. On February 6, the team will play against FaZe Clan to reach the semifinals of the championship. And so far there are no prerequisites that Team Spirit is going to stop there: in this form they can claim the title, especially after the departure of the main favorites in the person of Team Vitality.
One of the factors in the rise of the Team Spirit roster is the insane donk statistics. The young man plays all his matches with stunning performance, and in a serious disadvantage, he last played in October 2023 against Virtus.pro with statistics of 8-15. If Danil Kryshkovets continues to perform so brightly, then stopping Team Spirit will be problematic even for the strongest teams.
Donk prospects: what happens next?
Donk is already one of the main stars of the esports scene. At the same time, the Team Spirit roster has not yet even surpassed the top 10 of the HLTV rating and has not won a single significant international LAN tournament. Many top clubs are interested in the player, which means that he will have enough options to continue his career.
It is obvious that so far things are going well for Team Spirit – there can be no talk about the transfer of Danil Kryshkovets. But if the team’s results decline, the player should think about changing the club.
However, donk can achieve great heights as part of an organization. The current roster of Team Spirit is a young team with huge ambitions under the leadership of the experienced Leonid chopper Vishnyakov. The average age of the team is only 21, which means they still have plenty of time to develop both their individual and team potential.
In a fairly short career, donk has already managed to earn more than $87.5 thousand and take part in a dozen tournaments.
The main achievements of donk:
- PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European Qualifier B – 4th place;
- BetBoom Dacha – 1st place ($180,000);
- ESL Challenger League Season 46: Europe – 5th-6th place ($7,500);
- Thunderpick World Championship 2023 – 5th-8th place ($12,500);
- CCT North Europe Series #8 – 2nd place ($10,000);
- Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2 – 1st place ($20,000);
- Dunav Party LAN – 1st place ($30,000);
- CCT Online Finals #2 – 2nd place ($40,000);
- CCT North Europe Series #6 – 1st place ($22,000).