Danil “donk” Kryshkovets was one of the names on everybody’s lips here in London for the BLAST Spring Final, and he didn’t disappoint putting in a 1.33 HLTV rated MVP performance.
The 17 year old Russian rifling prodigy has quickly taken the Counter-Strike world by storm. His emergence into tier one CS began with his promotion to Spirit’s senior team from the academy roster in July of 2023, but it wasn’t until the release of CS2 that donk became a household name in Counter-Strike.
Coming into the new game, donk‘s aggressive rifling style meshed perfectly with CS2’s mechanics propelling him and his team to titles at Dacha Dubai 2023 and IEM Katowice 2024. Even a mid-event patch that nerfed peaker’s advantage was not enough to stifle donk at IEM Katowice as he ran through all before him in a demonstrative display of his rifling prowess.
Despite continued strong performances from the teenager, Spirit’s season had stalled somewhat after missing out on the Major trophy, skipping events, and disappointing losses at Dacha Belgrade and at IEM Dallas. The BLAST Spring Final London then became a vital event for both Spirit and donk, to assert themselves as a team at the very top of Counter-Strike and reassert that frightening aura they established in Katowice.
With the Russian star still new to arena events, donk chatted to UKCSGO about his experience of the London crowd at the BLAST Spring Final, and how that compared to his experiences elsewhere.
Congratulations on the win, how did you find playing in-front of the UK crowd?
It feels good, but I hope next time, when we are going to play on this stage, the crowd is going to cheer for us.
Did you find the crowd was loud compared to others?
It was definitely loud. Even compared to Katowice, the Major, and Dallas still it was very loud.
