The Only Way to Stop donk

Team Vitality captain Dan "apEX" Madesclaire has shared how his squad managed to neutralize one of the brightest stars in modern Counter-Strike — Danil "donk" Kryshkovets of Team Spirit. Speaking on the All About CS podcast on YouTube, apEX emphasized that the key to dealing with donk is avoiding head-to-head duels, where the young prodigy thrives.

apEX revealed that he began closely watching donk’s gameplay in early 2024, following his historic performance at IEM Katowice. At that event, the Team Spirit star dominated the opposition and established himself as the breakout player of the season. Aware of donk's danger, apEX decided to prepare his team specifically for a potential encounter.

Dan apEX Madesclaire

“When donk first appeared in 2024 and stormed through IEM Katowice with the best individual showing in major tournament history, I was following him and knew we had to prepare for him. I came up with an idea on how to counter him. In our first meeting in the IEM Dallas 2024 quarterfinals, he played with a 0.86 rating. So yeah, I think we have something that works against him.
That doesn’t mean donk can never destroy us — it’s certainly possible. But I realized we had to play a little differently against him. I think he’s the strongest when it comes to duels. If you force 1v1 fights with him, that’s the worst thing you can do. That’s why FaZe Clan are the perfect opponents for donk. In the finals of IEM Katowice 2024 and Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, he had a 1.75 and 1.96 rating respectively, because FaZe players always go for those individual duels.
So yeah, playing donk like that is tough. I tell my guys to take a different approach sometimes. We don’t need to brute-force it. We have players who can adapt. We’re good not just at one style — we can do it all. And you need that not just against donk — there are other teams like that too.”

Since the beginning of 2024, Team Vitality and Team Spirit have faced off six times. Vitality won four of those matchups, including the memorable quarterfinal at IEM Dallas. However, Spirit claimed victory in their latest encounter in October 2024. Despite that, apEX still believes his team has a solid plan to handle the most dangerous player in CS2.

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