He has a good reason to be loud.
There have been only a handful of young talents in Counter-Strike's history who have had such an immediate impact like Team Spirit's CS2 superstar Danil "donk" Kryshkovets.
The Russian youngster has been making headlines since Spirit Academy picked him up when he was just a 14-year-old teenager in December 2021 and saw a meteoric rise to the top in 2023, most notably after the competitive circuit switched to CS2 in September.
Esports.gg sat down with donk during BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024's media day on June 11 to talk about himself and Spirit, and you can check out some snippets below.
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Donk and all the shouting controversy
Several senior personalities in the Counter-Strike scene, including the famous head coach of Natus Vincere, Andrij "B1ad3" Ghorodensjkyj, have already criticized some of donk's antics, like the way he shouts in Spirit matches.
However, donk told esports.gg that as long as his yelling helps his team, he doesn't care.
"If it wasn't like this, I [wouldn't] do it," donk told esports.gg, referring to his teammates getting energized. "For example, last tournament, I wasn't so loud, but no one saw it. I don't care about [what] people think about my screams, my yelling, because I'm doing it for my team and for myself only. If I feel that I need to scream, I'll scream, and if I think my team [needs] it, I'll do it."
We didn't see donk shout too much during Spirit's debut at BLAST Premier Spring Final against G2 on June 12, perhaps because the match wasn't as intense as it would have been if Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov played as well.
However, Spirit and donk still have at least two matches left in the tournament as they already earned a spot in the playoffs after besting G2. We can only expect the Russian prodigy to get louder as a lot of fans will certainly support him in the arena.
Spirit will continue their journey at BLAST Premier Spring Final today against Virtus.pro at 11:30 a.m PT. The winner will advance directly to the semifinals, while the loser will have to play in the quarterfinals.
