Insider Gaming spoke to Team Spirit rifling prodigy Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets ahead of the IEM Cologne 2026 Major playoffs.
donk gave Insider Gaming his thoughts on Team Spirit’s growth as a roster, the challenges of playing a Major without a coach, and his thoughts on potentially facing Vitality in the semis.
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Insider Gaming interviews donk at the IEM Cologne 2026 Major
In Stage 2, you only drop 10 rounds, you know? Stage 3 was a bit more challenging. What were your reflections on Stage 3?
It has to be like this, like the stage three teams are stronger. Yeah, we faced 9z who we faced in stage two, but there was time to get some preparation and knowledge for them on how to beat us.
They did pretty well; they qualified for the playoffs. It’s actually like four teams from Stage 2 in the playoffs, so it’s insane.
So it has to be like this, and also, we were a little bit tired because we had a day off for like 20 plus days. Maybe there’s some problem in terms of fatigue.
After going through 3-0, do you feel refreshed going into the playoffs?
Yeah, we have like five days, I guess, until the match day, and this time we will spend on refreshment and some new strats preparation, and some time, we will try to improve our form. But the main thing here is about refreshment.
Against 9z, you’re fatigued. It also felt like maybe, at times, there’s a bit of frustration. How do you manage that without having a coach behind you to take the negative emotions away?
Yeah, it’s tough. It’s really hard to get emotions off when you don’t have the person who usually does it.
When you lose control of the map, at like six to all or seven to all, five to all. When you have a gap in score, it’s really hard because there’s no one who can take a pause and say, ‘guys, now we do this, and we’ll destroy them.’
I think it’s the usual thing for the teams that make comebacks. That you’re taking a timeout, you win one round, you win the next one, and then there is already a small gap between scores. But we are trying our best.
Sometimes we are able to do it. Sometimes we are not, but we are doing our best. And I feel like in the playoffs, we all will be focused on it.
Since IEM Rio you have been playing a lot more complete Counter-Strike. What would you attribute that to?
I think from IEM Rio, we got this confidence that we’re still able to be in the finals against strong teams, and I think that gave us a lot of power and trust in each other.
That is the main thing. IEM Rio proved to us that we are still able, and we just started to work much harder, and that’s it.
In terms of magixx, do you feel like he’s more comfortable? Do you feel like he has a more complete playbook?
Yeah, definitely, now he feels more comfortable than he was. Every month and every game that we’ve played, he’s improving.
And you know, for me, a role IGL, it’s more about experience and just playing. The most experienced IGLs are the ones who have played for 20 years. So, he needs just time.
We all feel like he has everything to be a good IGL.
How do you think the team has changed to be less dependent on you?
I don’t, I think we had added some more moves, some individual moves that people want to do. And like, sometimes I throw flashes for my teammates, sometimes they do it.
Now everyone has their own space to make kills, and it makes this difference between the old team and this new team, I would say.
But I still have the same amount of kills because I always see the most enemies than my teammates because I’m the most active player/ I have the most active roles, and that’s it.
I’m not like in the middle of the map, there’s always a gunfight in my zone. So like, I will always have a kill, I would say.
- More info: IEM Cologne 2026 Major Playoff Preview
In semi-finals, you might play Vitality, you might go like head-to-head with ZywOo, in that case, it’s the two best players in the world. Does that matter to you prove that you are the best?
Facing not ZywOo but Vitality is always motivating because like they’re, for me, they’re the best team in the history of CS. Prime Astralis didn’t have like this streak, a win streak like this, like Vitality has. I don’t think that Astralis was so dominant.
So it’s more, I think it’s more motivation about beating them than beating ZywOo, I would say. I don’t know why people comparing us because like I’m a rifler, he’s an AWPer. It’s not really fair. People can say that he’s AWPer because he’s like a hybrid, but like still, he usually plays with AWP.
So, it’s not fair. But it’s better to compare our teams. So. it’s more like Team Vitality against Team Spirit than ZywOo against donk.
End of interview
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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