Counter-Strike 2 superstar in the making Danil “donk” Kryshkovets has obliterated all competition in FACEIT season one, reaching a record-high 4,782 Elo ahead of his much-anticipated debut at IEM Katowice later this week.
Not since the days of s1mple has the Counter-Strike community been so invested in the come-up of a single young player but donk has been stealing CS2 headlines for the past few months. Now, he’s added a FACEIT season title to his growing collection after dominating the third-party ladder for the better part of a month, and it’s only seen the hype build more.
While the official FACEIT season ended yesterday, the Russian prodigy hasn’t stopped the grind, surpassing 4,800 Elo today to currently sit a whopping 300 Elo ahead of the next-best, Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and British sniper Owen “smooya” Butterfield. Topping the charts, donk heads up a 125-player list for FACEIT’s Proving Grounds in February, with the emerging winner taking home the lion’s share of $100,000 USD.
Sll eyes will be on the youngster this week as Donk makes his IEM debut with Team Spirit in Katowice, Poland on Jan. 31. Spirit begins its Kato campaign in the Play-In against Apeks. Donk, who turned 17 just last week and only participated in his first top-tier LAN at BetBoom Dacha in December, is the talk of the town and is expected to draw the most attention from CS2 fans.
At BetBoom Dacha, donk stood head and shoulders above all, recording a remarkable 1.32 HLTV rating and claiming the event MVP medal in his first offline outing. However, the competition he’ll face in Poland this week includes some of the best squads in the world—assuming he and Spirit make it through the Play-In first.
In an interview with HLTV at BetBoom Dacha, donk revealed that despite a step up from the lower tiers of competition, as well as a huge lifestyle adjustment with a move from his hometown of Tomsk to Spirit’s headquarters in Belgrade, he wasn’t feeling any pressure. “Individual accolades are just a byproduct of playing well as a team,” donk said, stating his main goal was to open 2024 as strongly as he finished in 2023.
Given the numbers he’s put up online this year, he looks well on track to achieve that goal—but LAN CS is a different beast. We’ll see if donk and Spirit have what it takes to crack the top 10 at IEM Katowice when it begins in this Wednesday.
