donk: "I'm really frustrated when I play badly because it means my guys should do more than they have to"

donk struggled on map one of the grand final but bounced back to win 3-1 and earn his seventh career MVP.

Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets came into 2025 with a clear goal.

"Yes, I think [I can get more medals than 2024]," he told Dust2.dk on BLAST Bounty's media day. "I don't know how many, maybe 10 MVP medals. Why not?"

Part of his thinking was that there are more events this year than last, but there is still a layer of confidence to the 18-year-old, an unwavering belief in himself that he is correct to have.

Read more

All the winners of the HLTV Awards

He also holds himself to high standards, winning the MVP here but still showing disappointment post-match in his performance on map one — something he quickly rectified with a 2.28-rated showing on Dust2.

It's his seventh career MVP, just snatching it from Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov, and after a sensational rookie year donk is showing no signs of slowing down.

"[Winning number one has] motivated me to perform better and better and work more and more hard. It gave me a bit of motivation."

---

Listen to the interview here.

---

donk, first event of the year, how does it feel to start with a win like this?

Great. It shows that we got into, I can't say our best shape, but a good shape. Just, other teams were in worse shape than us so we won. It's a great feeling.

How was it to win without hally?

It was very hard. I'm pretty sure if we had him, it won't happen what happened on the first map against Eternal Fire. And, against NAVI on Ancient, it wouldn't be as difficult for us because, in my opinion, Ancient against NAVI had to end earlier than three overtimes. Without hally, it's really hard for us because we're a young team.

You're often quite critical of your own performances, [like you just were about Anubis on Danish TV], so how does it feel to still win?

It's okay. I have a team, I know my guys are great in the game and they can win without me. But I know, I just want to play better, I'm really frustrated when I'm playing badly because it means my guys should do more than they have to. I want to perform well and better at every tournament I play.

You said on media day that you were aiming for 10 MVP medals this year, are you still on for that?

I will try my best, and my team will try our best.

Next tournament, Katowice, are you ready to defend that crown with hally back?

We will see. We have like three days break, between travel day to home, and three days practice to fix our mistakes. Sometimes it was really silly and we're going to get our shape better.

One more thing, on the team overall, a lot of teams win a Major and fall off a little bit. What did you guys do to stay at a good level?

We had the player break, I don't know how long it was, but before this tournament, the online part, we had two weeks of practice, some pracs, some theory. I don't know, we didn't change something, we are working as hard as we did previously before the Major. We are just trying our best.

Is that the same for you individually after winning Player of the Year? Are you working as hard as ever?

Yeah. It's motivated me to perform better and better, and work more and more hard. It gave me a bit of motivation.