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. He was named the HLTV player of the year in 2024, becoming one of only three players, along with coldzera and ZywOo, to be named the HLTV Player of the Year in their first full year as a professional player. Danil is the youngest-ever HLTV Player of the Year, winning the award at 17 years and 352 days old.

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 2023, Danil moved to the main Team Spirit roster. 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, doing so across more maps.

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. In the tournament final against FaZe, Danil recorded a 1.67 rating over the three-map final, the highest rating achieved by a rifler in a Major final. 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.

Following this performance, Danil was nominated for four individual awards at the HLTV Awards 2024: Rookie of the Year, Opener of the Year, Highlight of the Year, and Player of the Year. Danil won all four awards. 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. Danil is also the youngest-ever to be named HLTV Player of the Year at 17 years and 352 days old.

2025 In 2025, Danil and Team Spirit claimed a win at the first Tier 1 event of the year, BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals, earning Danil his 7th career HLTV MVP. 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. He recorded a 1.61 rating, the second best at any CS2 Big Event by an MVP after his rating at IEM Katowice in 2024.

Later that year, Danil earned his 12th HLTV MVP at the 2026 Esports World Cup after defeating FUT Esports 3–1 in the playoffs, recording a 1.50 rating across the event and becoming the joint-fourth-most decorated player in Big Event MVPs with nine, alongside 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. Danil won his 13th HLTV MVP at the BLAST Open Porto 2026, after defeating MOUZ 3–1 in the playoffs, it was also his 10th Big Event MVP, overtaking NiKo with nine. During the tournament, he also became the first player to record 20 aces at HLTV MVP-caliber events in Counter-Strike 2, surpassing ZywOo and NiKo, who had 18 each. In the opening match against DENDELE, he recorded two aces on Cache, one in which he dealt 500 damage without receiving any himself, the fourth recorded instance of such an ace at an HLTV-caliber event.

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)

MVP

BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2023 IEM Katowice 2024 BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 BetBoom Dacha Belgrade Season 2 Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1 Finals PGL Astana 2025 IEM Cologne 2025 BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 2 Finals PGL Astana 2026 Esports World Cup 2026 BLAST Open Porto 2026 Awards

HLTV Rookie of the Year 2024 HLTV Opener of the Year 2024 HLTV Highlight of the Year 2024 HLTV Player of the Year 2024 HLTV Opener of the Year 2025 HLTV Highlight of the Year 2025

Tournament achievements PlacementTournamentLocationDateAwardWith Team SpiritCCT Online Finals #2OnlineAugust 2 – 10, 2023—BetBoom Dacha 2023Dubai, UAEDecember 5 – 10, 2023MVPIEM Katowice 2024Katowice, PolandFebruary 3 – 11, 2024MVP5—8PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024Copenhagen, DenmarkMarch 17 – 31, 2024EVPBetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024Belgrade, SerbiaMay 14 – 19, 2024MVPIEM Dallas 2024Dallas, TX, USMay 27 – June 2, 2024—BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024London, United KingdomJune 12 – 16, 2024MVP5—8Esports World Cup 2024Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaJuly 3 – August 25, 2024—BetBoom Dacha Belgrade Season 2Belgrade, SerbiaAugust 28 – September 1, 2024MVPBLAST Premier World Final 2024Sentosa, SingaporeOctober 30 – November 3, 2024EVPPerfect World Shanghai Major 2024Shanghai, ChinaDecember 5 – 15, 2024MVPBLAST Bounty 2025 Season 1 FinalsCopenhagen, DenmarkJanuary 23 – 26, 2025MVPIEM Katowice 2025Katowice, PolandFebruary 1 – 9, 2025EVPESL Pro League Season 21Stockholm, SwedenMarch 1 – 16, 2025—BLAST Open Spring 2025Lisbon, PortugalMarch 19 – 30, 2025—7—8ESL Grand Slam Season 5OnlineApril 17 – 27, 2025—BLAST Rivals Spring 2025Copenhagen, DenmarkApril 30 – May 4, 2025—PGL Astana 2025Astana, KazakhstanMay 10 – 18, 2025MVP5—8BLAST Austin Major 2025Austin, TexasJune 12 – 22, 2025EVPIEM Cologne 2025Cologne, GermanyJuly 26 – August 3, 2025MVPBLAST Bounty 2025 Season 2 FinalsBLAST Studio, MaltaAugust 14 – 17, 2025MVP9—16Esports World Cup 2025Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaAugust 20 – 24, 2025—7—8BLAST Open London 2025OnlineAugust 27 – September 1, 2025—5—8ESL Pro League Season 22Stockholm, SwedenOctober 4 – 12, 2025—7—8IEM Chengdu 2025Chengdu, ChinaNovember 3 – 9, 2025—5—6BLAST Rivals 2025 Season 2Chek Lap Kok, Hong KongNovember 12 – 16, 2025—3—4StarLadder Budapest Major 2025Budapest, HungaryDecember 4 – 14, 2025EVP5—8BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1 FinalsMaltaJanuary 22 – 25, 2026—IEM Kraków 2026Kraków, PolandJanuary 31 – February 8, 2026EVP5—8ESL Pro League Season 23 FinalsStockholm, SwedenMarch 13 – 15, 2026—7—8BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026Copenhagen, DenmarkRotterdam, NetherlandsMarch 18 – 29, 2026—IEM Rio 2026Rio de Janeiro, BrazilApril 13 – 19, 2026EVPPGL Astana 2026Astana, KazakhstanMay 9 – 17, 2026MVP3—4IEM Cologne Major 2026Cologne, GermanyJune 2 – 21, 2026EVPBLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2MaltaJuly 7 – August 2, 2026—Esports World Cup 2026Paris, FranceAugust 12 – August 23, 2026MVPBLAST Open Porto 2026Copenhagen, Denmark Porto, PortugalAugust 26 – September 6, 2026MVP

Notes

References