Donk is the best Counter-Strike player in history, and I am tired of pretending he’s not

It has been slightly under two years since donk exploded onto the tier 1 scene of CS at IEM Katowice 2024, and nothing has been the same ever since. Despite Donk’s age of just 18, he has defied expectations at every turn and reshaped the very idea of a rifler in his image.

Donk has made a hell of a name for himself in an unprecedented amount of time. In just his second year of pro Counter-Strike, he’s garnered a reputation that few Tier 1 players can match. Here’s why I think donk is already the greatest Counter-Strike player in history, and how the Russian prodigy could continue to dominate in the future. 

At the end of 2023, the stage was set for Zywoo to cement himself as the singular undisputed best CS2 player in the world. His main rival for the past years in S1mple, was gone, and outside of M0nesy there was no competition in sight. No rifler had claimed the #1 spot since Coldzera in 2017. 

It should be noted that anyone who claims to have known just how good donk would be is either lying or kidding themselves. In the preview for the Katowice play-in, HLTV didn’t even mention donk’s team.

After the event was over, the scene was left in stunned silence. With a staggering rating of 1.7, Donk tied the big event rating record alongside Niko’s 2017 ESL One New York run. The fact that donk managed this across more CS2 maps at one of the most prestigious events in Counter-Strike history just makes this feat all the more impressive. 

Since that day in February, donk has continued to improve. After claiming the #1 spot in his rookie year with an astounding 1.36 rating, a number that even S1mple in his best year, 2021, didn’t quite reach, donk has instead averaged an otherworldly 1.39, which would break his own world record for an average LAN rating.

It cannot be overstated that donk’s two years of Counter-Strike are also individually the best ever played by any player in the modern game. 9 trophies, 10 MVP’s and 10 EVP awards. These numbers are inhuman and already put donk in the conversation of the greatest CS2 player right up there with S1mple and Zywoo.

The difference is that donk, in an era shaped by AWPers, took the aggressive playstyle allowed by CS2 gameplay and became the first superstar entry fragger. Entry Fraggers have always been almost sacrificial players; if they got one kill, they had already provided value to their team. 

The idea of this CS2 role, an Entry Fragger, putting up stats like this is so absurd that if you had said in 2022 there would be one that would not only match but beat the output of the best AWPers in history, you would have been sectioned.

Donk’s closest counterpart for best CS2 rifler in history is Niko, but Niko never played in the positions that donk does. There is no rifler that has ever been able to match the pure aura and unfathomableness of donk. To get close to that, we have to go back to 2015.

There is no player who isn’t afraid of donk. There have been a host of CS2 players that dominated the scene for a period of time, but few are as iconic as KennyS. In 2015, he instilled fear into any team and any AWPer who had the awful task of facing off against the Frenchman in a duel.

KennyS delivered carry performances that at the time seemed like they would never be matched. He became synonymous with the AWP itself until Valve itself nerfed him. That is the atmosphere of dominance that surrounds donk.

To add to this is donk’s ability to seemingly ignore pressure. Even generally great CS2 players like Zywoo see significant drops in their performance at majors, but donk appears to be unfazed, putting an incomprehensible gap of 0.22 between himself and the previous best rookie. That is the same gap as between Zywoo and oSee. 

This culminated in Donk dragging Spirit to a major win in Shanghai, and led to Spirit advancing to the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, where they went out in the semi-finals, losing to Vitality. Donk had the most kills out of all 10 players (with an ADR of 92), and was still dangerous, even when expressly being targeted and taken out first; he was counter-strat’d constantly, which shows Vitality were playing as anti-donk as possible. 

The biggest argument against why donk can’t yet be considered the greatest rifler or player is longevity. Niko, S1mple and Zywoo have simply been around longer, but we have now witnessed two years of Donk putting up numbers that none of them have done.

Two years of a rifler defying all the rules of what someone in his role should be capable of doing. If others could do what he does, they would. 

Having spent more years at the top doesn’t make you a better player if you never reached the same heights. I do not believe there is any CS2 player with a two-year span of performance even remotely comparable to Donk’s in the last 15 years of Counter-Strike. Trophies and time are only supplementary to one’s performance; otherwise, we would all be claiming dupreeh as the greatest rifler for having five major trophies.

In just two short years, donk has completely changed the way we see aggressive riflers.  From the moment he burst onto the Tier 1 scene, he has been dominating and has barely faltered. He has surely earned the title of greatest rifler ever, and in my opinion, that of greatest Counter-Strike player ever.