donk: "It's hard to find positives after such a humbling defeat"

19-5-2024 22:12

The young Russian superstar believes Spirit's loss to MOUZ was a result of Spirit "being terrible."

donk secures his third MVP in a span of just six months

Entering the grand finals of BetBoom Dacha 2024 hoping to secure their second consecutive BetBoom Dacha trophy, Spirit ultimately succumbed to MOUZ in an unfortunate 0-3 fashion, giving more depth to what could be a blossoming rivalry between the two young teams.

While no doubt displeased with their results in what Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev described as a "warmup tournament," Spirit will now need to shift their gaze towards two important upcoming events, IEM Dallas and BLAST Premier Spring Finals.

Although his team was unable to secure another BetBoom Dacha trophy, Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets exits Belgrade with another MVP medal under his belt, his third in his incredibly short playing career. After Spirit's defeat at the hands of MOUZ, the star rifler spoke to HLTV about the matchup versus the European side and the value of earning the MVP despite the loss, among other topics.

Editor's note: Questions were asked via a translator, and donk's answers were translated by Russian-speaking HLTV staff.

Commiserations on the loss. magixx told me you guys are taking this as a warmup tournament, so are there any positives to take from this event?

It’s hard to find any positive moments. As Boris [magixx] said, this is our first warmup tournament after the break, but… what can I say? We are getting used to playing officials, we played eight maps on LAN, maybe nine, and it will have a positive impact on the team’s form. That’s it, it’s hard to find positives after such a humbling defeat.

Only two teams beat you on LAN. MOUZ is one of them, is there anything special they do against you?

They are a strong team, and they are in good form. It’s tough to say they are doing anything special because we failed to show our game twice. We didn’t play our game, and we played badly. Hence it’s hard to highlight what they were doing because we didn’t play them when we were at our best yet.

The first time at the RMR, we had some problems, and we couldn’t change that, but this time we were just awful. It’s rather about us being terrible, not them doing anything special.

It's rather about us being terrible, not them doing anything special

Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets on the loss to MOUZ

Despite all this, you won the MVP award. It's your third MVP, and you are not even 18. Did you think you could reach the top so quickly?

No, I never thought about it. Of course, I wanted to win an MVP at some event, but I never focused on that. Team results and trophies are my priority.

You are the highest-rated player on LAN during 2024, even higher than ZywOo. Is this battle for the number-player something you are focusing on?

No, I don’t care. I don’t chase it, I just want us to win and show a good game.

You have two events left, Dallas and BLAST. What do you want to achieve there?

Obviously, to win. Show our game and try to win.

GGWP Mouz

2024-05-19 22:12

#whaddaguy

2024-05-19 22:13

12 replies

Awesome to see how humble he is given his age and all the hype

2024-05-19 23:54

11 replies

I'd not say its humble to say that mouz did nothing special they just played awful. Mouz did something special. Perfect counter team for spirit. Spirit will have a hard time beating mouz if mouz dont have a very very bad day.

2024-05-20 09:20

3 replies

Exactly what I thought!

2024-05-20 17:00

I mean iirc siuhy said in an interview that it's not exactly like they're trying to counter spirit, but rather that it was more about how they play as a team and that they just try to not overcomplicate it. Mouz has been my favorite team to watch for the past few years, but donk is right in saying that it wasn't anything super special, mouz are just better rn

2024-05-20 19:04

1 reply

They are sacrificing one player on CT every round to kill of Donk. Normally as ct ur not happy with a 1 for 1 but they did it all game.

2024-05-21 10:41

lol the kid used to yell "look how I pissed all over them" on Katowice seems like bombing out of Major and losing a tier 3 bookie event knocked him down a peg

2024-05-20 11:12

5 replies

2024-05-20 17:01

bming and shouting in a match and being humble in interviews can be two different things

2024-05-20 19:05

donk "Two-faced" Toledo

2024-05-20 19:29

name is correct happy that cs has no pedos

2024-05-21 12:32

what's humble about shitting on your ops victory and blaming your teammates?

2024-05-21 05:04

Spirit Perfecto incoming soon, either zont1x or magixx are out

29 replies

Why? They are doing fine, why change something that works, just because you are getting knocked by one of the best teams in the world, if not the best atm Spirit has what it takes, it is not like they are getting knocked out by tier 1.5 teams

2024-05-19 22:16

Nope, not at all my point or meaning. They are doing great, but Perfecto can make them more stable, and he's surely better than both magixx and zont1x. He's playing zont1x roles so it's either removing him, or removing magixx and change zont1x roles in case they want to make this kind of move.

2024-05-19 22:17

It's crazy to even think of removing Zontix after one bad game.

2024-05-19 22:20

Why you jump to conclusion I wrote this based on this game ? ... typical hltv user

2024-05-19 22:26

4 replies

Says the typical HLTV user who thinks they know better than Hally.

2024-05-19 22:30

Once again you jump to personal conclusions, I never said I think I know better than anyone - that's my humble personal opinion.

2024-05-19 22:52

zont1x choked in the major too; I still remember that moment when he started running to the other site on Vertigo with like 10 seconds remaining. Spirit should get some psychologist or similar to prepare these young players for playing in front of large crowds, sometimes cheering the other team

2024-05-20 10:51

can guarantee zont1x`s words about him feeling no pressure and not feeling any difference between regular and stage plays are 100% true, he is just never nervous or emotional at all, just such temper. The problem wasnt his or anyone`s mental, that`s for sure. He`s the 2nd igl in the team and very often calls, so his understanding of the game is good. He choked in the major because of sickness, in this gf you can see that maybe he lacks some aim and movement, but his statistic is still nice

2024-05-20 14:25

Nooo, not zont1x the only crab walker in the entire scene 🦀🦀🦀🦀

2024-05-19 22:46

hahah its funny how he is always holding ctrl

2024-05-19 23:27

2 replies

i gotta pay attention to that from now on

2024-05-20 00:41

shit will stay rent free in my head

2024-05-20 09:21

how 2 zont1x: 1. crab walk 2. shoot enemy in crotch 3. profit

2024-05-20 09:42

will probably be zont1x in the scenario it happens since magixx is essentially the team's "glue".

It's an unpopular opinion but I really think removing zont1x is better than removing magixx

2024-05-19 22:18

Agree, magixx has tons of experience for his age, zont1x doesn’t seem quite ready yet, basef on the eye-test

2024-05-20 00:29

Why make a change and risk the team going backwards? Won Kato, lost a very close game to FaZe in the Major (terrible seeding the two best teams in the world playing eachother in QF), and lost their next final to MOUZ who are top 3. If this team starts losing to Astralis, G2, coL and the lower end top 10 teams then make a change, but why touch such an amazing lineup for a non-guaranteed upgrade? The only actual move they should 100% make is if m0nesy is somehow on the market. Otherwise you dont touch the lineup.

2024-05-19 22:25

Vitality won a Major and removed dupreeh for flameZ - the right choice for them... sometimes even if you win there's a better option out there to make you better and more stable. Perfecto in my opinion can bring them experience and stability, I truly believe that under chopper and their system he can shine like in prime Na'Vi under Boombl4.

2024-05-19 22:28

Vitality werent an undisputed elite team and dupreeh's form was pretty terrible coming up to the major. ALSO lets not forget they played the 3 worst ranked teams in the major playoffs (according to hltv rankings if you check the Paris Major event thing). Completely and utterly not the same situation. Sure Perfecto on paper is probably 2x the player magixx is, but considering the shitshow C9 was (1 piece away eternally) there is no guarantee Spirit get the PEAK Perfecto, and magixx is the second most tenured player and kinda the spokesman of the team at times considering his english is by far the best and seems to be that 'glue guy'. If it was 2022/21 Perfecto I'd agree but it simply isnt.

2024-05-19 22:32

I think the problem in C9 was too many voices, I believe sh1ro realized that quick enough to escape, but Perfecto isn't as vocal as electronic and under a good IGL and structure he can return to his 22/21 form - in my personal humble opinion. and I don't think magixx is the one that should go - I actually think zont1x is, and he's also the one playing Perfecto roles.

2024-05-19 22:51

I agree that C9 was a very flawed team. Even then you still cant guarantee instant performance. Look at electronic. was amazing on C9 even if it was a shitshow, but is having a hard time adapting in VP. There is no guarantee that Perfecto is going to be a plug in play type of player. He might improve the team by 5-10% but if it takes a whole like 2-4 LANs to get that increase (thats not guaranteed either) it really isnt worth Spirit's time. That also doesnt include that Perfecto will have a buyout that surely wont be peanuts considering those Bookie teams could all use such a great player as well and they probably have much more money.

2024-05-19 23:00

+1 only one with brain here

2024-05-20 01:23

adding perfecto is silly. zontix and magixx are both young with room to grow. if they're gonna add anyone it should be ax1le for magixx. and if they're not winning everything after a year with that squad then they should replace chopper with boombl4.

2024-05-19 22:39

Chopper is 100x better than boombl4 right now, the second guy couldn’t build the game plan while chopper had been reading opponents like an opened book + chopper aim and gamesense are like 2x better than boombla Spirit shouldn’t replace anyone till they get serious downfall but now they have lost only one final and it’s not the case to replace someone

2024-05-19 23:57

Ax1le is an aggressive rifle like donk and wouldn't belong as a support like magixx

2024-05-20 00:47

ax1le is nothing like donk. ax1le has plenty of exp anchoring and he's not an entry.

2024-05-20 01:19

He's been in bad form since cloud9 got electronic and perfecto and he was no longer the star player. It's not that he isn't capable of playing well but he's only shown it really in the old gambit/c9 lineup where he had support

2024-05-20 04:21

H0bbit would fit better into magixx shoes, tbh.

2024-05-19 23:06

losing 1 final = roster changes LMAO pls stop

2024-05-20 01:11

Sounds humble to me

2024-05-19 22:14

get used to it lol

bro got humbled

Get a better team

honeymoon is oveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer

Donk aka zywoo's son He said exaclty the same as zywoo would

2024-05-19 22:15

6 replies

Dont think zywoo ever said vitality are terrible lol

Playing terrible he probably already said that ..or very bad he did

2024-05-19 22:19

Ahaha ZywOo said it felt good to finally have teammates in 2023 so he could feel less pressure lol

2024-05-19 22:23

Do you know donk IS a fan of zywoo ? Would not be surprised if zywoo IS donk fav player.

donk said that he looks up to NiKo also the bfk named zinedine zywoo is propably rented

2024-05-19 23:29

He wouldn t play with it if he was not a fan and he already mentioned zywoo in interview , he IS sure one of the player he has big respect and admiration..sorry for the donk fans who hate zywoo

2024-05-20 00:17

Carrying 4 deadweights nt nt

7 replies

Yes ofc. All players in t1 are the best of the best in the world, but "dead weight" sure =)

chopper tier5 igl zontix tier2 magixx tier2 sh0r0 most inconsistent guy when it comes to big games

Your expectations of players are way too unreal. You should try join one game with these guys then talk

2024-05-19 23:15

2024-05-19 23:24

i shoulnt be a pro player to see how bad they are', completely carried by donk most of the games

2024-05-20 02:09

"How bad they are " the guy on the hltv forum says about the people who are professional players. That's rich buddy :)

2024-05-20 08:20

my point was is the only reason why they are here is donk, absolutely best prodigy talent touch this game stay mad

2024-05-20 16:00

The beauty of youth. Donk doesn't have the pressure of being MVP or being the number one player. He just wants to play CS and win. Blud is already streaming after that game.

zont1x might be in trouble if team continues to not deliver

Most illogical think ever... bro is young, just entered the Tier 1 scene in 2023, and won Katowice and made major playoffs... "trouble" , give them time smh...

its classic hltv brain

2024-05-20 02:42

Dont worry Donk. You will win alot of trophys soon. Just Dont play VS Astralis or MOUZ and you are good ;)

It's cool to see him focus on the team effort and team accomplishments, that's a great mindset for as good as he is. But if you are able to perform this well up until the grand final where you are outcalled, outaimed and outsmarted in a dominating fashion against a team that rocked your shit before the same way, you should give them credit instead of being so negative about your team. Sure, maybe you didn't perform to your standards, but the defeat is so humbling only because MOUZ is constantly setting their standards higher and higher.

"We didn’t play our game, and we played badly. Hence it’s hard to highlight what they were doing because we didn’t play them when we were at our best yet." Yeah i don't buy that. mouz just outplayed them tactically, apart from chopper who played really poorly as an individual Spirit did have their players performing well. Their game plan just didn't work against mouz, that has nothing to do with the team being "terrible".

are you tripping, spirit was not playing great, why would he lie :D

2024-05-19 22:27

first tournament in 6+ weeks... "outplayed"

not sure if you've watched more than couple of rounds, it was scrappy and protocols were not there. It was still enough to almost win the first map, almost to come back on second and third was a flop. This was a bad showing from Spirit, they were off with their reactions. Rust played a part in it for sure, looking forward to see more of them. But if this is their floor then that's a good sign, despite final being scrappy they were surprisingly close on first two maps. I think it was a mental thing for them

2024-05-19 22:43

buddy did you event watch the game? they were just outaimed by mouz players. siuhy top fragging. xertion instakilling zontix on mirage short like 5 times in a row. wtf are you talking about "tactically".

2024-05-19 23:32

I understand your take, but I don't think this would happen in a major where Spirit is 100% prepared and in great form like MOUZ is right now.

2024-05-19 23:44

Mouz is in good form, but had no time to prepare for Spirit, meanwhile Spirit had months and tons of demos to prepare against mouz

The boy is sincere and seems to have personality lol Spirit really was terrible

donk is a very good kid, really smart and down to earth.

"It's rather about us being terrible, not them doing anything special" Lmao what a sore loser, learn to give credit when it's due

>"They are a strong team, and they are in good form"

Self-criticism > flattery

0/8

2024-05-19 22:53

Ill give him the benefit of the doubt, probably cMe out worse than he intended

Very Nice to take one phrase out of context to make a garbage take.

2024-05-20 00:44

Dogshit bait try harder

2024-05-20 06:35

how do people hate this guy? still don't get it. nt buddy

copium with troll mvp award

2024-05-19 22:29

noooooooooo dont let them humble youuuu

disappointing af from sh1ro brought in to be the experienced awper yet still continuing to crumble in the most important matches hopefully they can improve from this

2024-05-19 22:33

Ignoring his katowice performance and his sf vs falcons? He was still better than his major performance vs faze. He wasn‘t good today but still better than he was vs faze also he had 2 1v2 clutches Also let‘s be real wtf is betboom dacha? We are in 2024 and yet lans are played without a crowd. Easily few hundred Serbians would find a way into the studio. I would hardly consider this as important. This was their warmup tournament after their lose vs faze at the end of march(?). I would hardly consider this as a „crumbling“ in an important match

2024-05-20 00:27

donk don't care about being top 1 player and he only care about team will rise and win many events gg

2024-05-19 22:35

he admitted failing which is honorable

14 replies

??? "It’s rather about us being terrible, not them doing anything special." Still ignorant, they played terrible because mouz guys are that much better in terms of everything, not the other way around.

2024-05-19 22:44

13 replies

Dude, he might be the best player in the world currently, it is natural that he is not easily impressed by his opponents and can easily spot mistakes from his teammates and himself. S1mple also said similar kind of things whenever Navi lost.

2024-05-19 22:50

And I hated that in him as well, spotting mistakes doesn't mean sh*t if you can't adjust midgame, Mouz forced all of that with an incredible aim and calls. Saying that they got demolished because they played bad and not because mouz were two heads higher and schooled them like little kids is being a d*ck.

2024-05-19 22:54

2024-05-20 01:26

He is not disrespecting Mouz, he just has an elite mentality and will not accept losses. He wants to win and he believes that they can win everything if they work hard enough and play well enough. He has the mentality of a GOAT.

He owned up to his mistakes. whats your elo, are you analizing the team potential on one match preformance because u lost money?

2024-05-19 23:28

The last thing I would be doing is betting on spirit.

2024-05-19 23:41

2024-05-20 08:02

Almost as if it was a 17 year old boy who spent most of his life playing video games. Sorry but expecting that much maturity from this kinda guy almost seems unfair to me. The interview was fine, he wasn’t being a dick, just more focused on his disappointment from their performance than anything else. I’ve seen many more sore loser interviews from much experienced and older players on this site.

2024-05-20 00:30

s0mple in particular XDDD

2024-05-20 06:33

Yeah for example

2024-05-20 07:43

Who else do u have in mind?

2024-05-20 07:57

S1mple was first that came to mind, next one is Apex but I honestly don’t have any specific examples. Point of my original comment was just that talking about your team being shit rather than opponent outplaying you is totally normal in majority of these interviews and this donk one wasn’t any worse than any else I’ve seen, for me it was totally okay. He is basically saying that they played bad enough Mouz didn’t need anything special.

2024-05-20 08:26

I do agree with ur point, i was just interested to know some of ur examples

2024-05-20 08:42

Nvm kk

GG for Spirit, even on such a scrappy day with a game that looks like their floor they've still put up a decent fight, 1-st map was one round difference and second map they've mounted a serious comeback. Hope they learn from it, can't with them all. But if this is the floor of this team then it's actually quite insane cause MOUZ is currently quite hot. Can't win em all, second place is more than a good showing.

2024-05-19 22:45

Elite mentality, bro is gonna be on the same level as the all time greats when he's done. Also did anyone watch this interview? Was Donk speaking English or was a translator used?

2024-05-19 22:56

A lot of wins ahead of you, Danya, good luck😇

2024-05-19 22:57

Give torszi or xertion his deserved mvp then.

2024-05-19 23:09

It’s real funny reading comments for zontix to be removed after a bad game lmao, nothing wrong losing to top1 Mouz 🤣 look at Vitality

2024-05-19 23:23

Yes, and it’s not like any of his teammates except for Donk was any better

2024-05-19 23:55

Ye chopper falling to his death after a duel and zontix jumping during a duel on vertigo.. nobody mentions all the rounds where donk went down SUPER EARLY.

2024-05-20 10:58

Positive side is that spirit drivers and fangirls came back to their caves, humbled Thanks Mouz

2024-05-20 00:06

>liquid fan

2024-05-20 05:54

Yeah babysiting prodigy losers by giving them MVPs so they feel better, just like with s1mple in Navi in 2018-2019. Just because actual teams like Faze or Mouz don’t rely on single hardcore carry and prefer actual team play where stats are naturaly evenly distributed makes it basically impossible for their players to have chance at MVPs. This is absolute BS, HLTV need to switch back to pre-2018 model of awarding MVPs.

2024-05-20 00:35

Whilst mouz creates their own talent and develop them to become great, faze poaches superstars from other teams and hope to win. Don't compare those two teams.

What is has to do with my comment? I didn’t compare their transfer market strategy, I talked about their style of play which is very similar, that’s why ex-Mouz players always did well in Faze and that is also reason why Mouz despite being insanely good team capable of beating every team struggles against Faze so much. Also Mouz players themselfs leave their team for Faze, you make it seem like Faze forces them to do so. Such a butthurt irrelevant reply from you, keep hating boy. Are you also mad Europe is taking the best brazilian football talent the moment they turn 18 making your league irrelevant?

2024-05-20 00:56

Faze literally just gets the best possible players and try to win, how is that remotely similar to mouz? The structure is also completely different. Butthurt? Can't even criticise your team without you being offended and I am butthurt. You lack reading comprehension if you think I was talking about market strategy or whatever, learn to understand the big picture, not only what is in front of your eyes. Also, try being a bit more respectful. Idk what Norway can say about football

2024-05-20 00:59

Lmao, they singed Frozen and u talking Like they bought Simple, zywoo and donk xD Was Broky the best sniper to sing? No Was ropz the best to sing? No Twistzzz? Karrigan ? Sure they started by singing Stars Like coldziera, Niko, Olof ,Guardian but that was dissapointment, best faze was build by singing Young and good prospering players not superstars.

2024-05-20 05:13

I mean, did you hear them? :))

2024-05-20 08:27

Both Ropz and Twistzz were the actual superstars by the moment Faze signed them tho. Only one who wasn't - was Broky, man came out of nowhere

2024-05-20 09:53

Twistzz was a grand slam winner. Ropz was a top 20 player, and super promising Same for frozen

2024-05-20 16:29

Finding new teammates might be much easier tho

2024-05-20 00:43

Nothing new. Russian teams aren’t great

2024-05-20 01:08

Sooner he teams up with m0nesy the better for him, spirit core are not consistent title contenders

2024-05-20 02:24

xdddddddddd

2024-05-20 08:46

Change magixx back to being rifle instead of waste money on double awp, economy better and you can win ct rounds, ez fix

2024-05-20 03:19

humbling? you're still screaming across the room and cussing like a immature kid. you've never been humbled, because you have to act like it also.

2024-05-20 05:43

+1 that always bothers me when he does that emogirl scream :D

So he basically says his team is bad , sounds like downfall incoming

2024-05-20 05:50

Sounds like he acknowledges all the issues they have

Yeah but pretty much calling your team out , takes away motivation of others

this kid has a good mindset

2024-05-20 07:18

Only bad thing I can think of about donk is his fanbase, other that that he is super mature for his age and imo best player rn

2024-05-20 08:03

Mature? Bruh do u even watch games ? He always screams like emogirl

2024-05-20 08:47

Compare him to manchild bots like apex then, 90% of 1.00 rating players in top 30 scream like they are being skinned alive whenever they get fuckin assist

2024-05-20 08:52

With this you are correct , but can't really call him mature , but you got a point.

2024-05-20 10:13

Its called emotions.

2024-05-20 14:34

Every won round ? Only time he was quiet when tournament staff said they will get disqualified

2024-05-20 18:28

There's a relation between you playing bad and the enemy playing good, obviously. If your opponent is better, you are obviuosly worse. Unless it's a highly competitive nail-biter, which it wasn't. It also was a BO5, so no excuses ... MOUZ was just straight better that day.

2024-05-20 08:39

" so no excuses" - I'm sure you've had days where you just play bad; 2 maps or 3 maps doesn't change it

2024-05-20 11:04

I agree, opponent being good is what actually making you make mistakes. Though, donk did say in his telegram channel that "surely mouz fully deserved the win as they were a better team"

2024-05-20 15:58