Coach of Bleed Esports for Counter-Strike 2, Alexander "kassad" Trifunovich, shared his thoughts on why he does not consider Team Spirit's rifler, Danil "donk" Kryshkovets, to be among the top five players of 2024. He discussed his views on the YouTube podcast Hot Take Point Made.
"Right now, donk isn't in the top five players of the year. <...> [Thorin: 'I could undermine this take by asking who’s in your top five.'] No, why? Here’s my top five: NiKo at number one, ZywOo at two, b1t at three, frozen at four. [Thorin: 'So, m0NESY is fifth?'] No. [Thorin: 'Oh my, so donk and m0NESY are both out of the top five? That’s the craziest take in the history of this show.'] Fifth is EliGE, and sixth is jL. [Thorin: 'jL is better than donk? Are you out of your mind?'] Listen! The key words in this hot take are: 'Right now.' In this period, at this point in the season! What are we even discussing? Did you watch the ESL Pro League?
It’s clear that donk is breaking records and all that, but we saw what happened a couple of days ago in the match between Spirit and NAVI. B1t, jL… jL completely outplayed donk! [Thorin: 'Yeah, not donk’s best series.'] Not his best. And we can easily mention several other poor performances from donk this season. [Thorin: 'But we know he entered that match literally as the best player of the tournament with some insane rating like 1.5, right?'] Does that even matter after the match? I don’t think so. <...>
Donk is a unique player, one born once in a generation, don’t get me wrong. But I’ll quote a tweet: 'If donk doesn’t maintain a rating of 1.5, Spirit will miss the Major.' And that’s 100% true. In the NAVI match, he scored what? 0.98? And that matchup could repeat! In a situation where both teams are tied at 2-2, anything can happen.
No matter what people think, the tier-2 scene is no joke. It’s a challenge. Playing against tier-2 teams is tough. Even weaker teams like 9z, MIBR… MIBR beat Team Spirit in a bo3! What are we talking about? After this, can anyone really say that European clubs—sAw or someone like that—can’t replicate those results? I’m sure they can. And it all hinges on donk, because no one else—except perhaps sh1ro to some extent—can make the necessary impact in this team.
Zont1x has gone from the best anchor to the absolute worst among all top-10 teams in just two months. The guy was so good, and now he’s just sitting AFK, not participating at all. Chopper, as IGL, has his limits. Magixx is similar to zont1x, but even worse. That leaves sh1ro, and what are we expecting? That he’ll post a crazy rating of 1.35-1.4? With that playstyle? With teammates who don’t create the conditions for him to achieve those numbers? If donk doesn’t keep delivering standout performances, Spirit will face problems. The entire narrative around this team revolves around donk."
The last tournament for donk's team was ESL Pro League Season 20, which took place in Malta from September 3 to 22. The teams competed for $750,000 and BLAST Premier points, with Kryshkovets achieving a rating of 1.43 at the event.