Danil “donk” Kryshkovets is doing it again. After dominating both the Perfect World Shanghai Major and the BLAST.tv Austin Major earlier this year, the Spirit superstar is on track to become the highest-rated player at a Major for the third time in a row. His 1.73 rating across Spirit’s five maps at the StarLadder Budapest Major is not only the best at the event so far, it is one of the strongest starts any player has produced in Major history.
Spirit breezed through Stage 3 with a flawless 3-0 run, which limited donk to only five maps of action. It did not matter. The 18-year-old rifler opened the playoffs conversation by putting up numbers that most players never see even in group stages. Mechanical precision, instant multi-frag rounds, and a level of confidence that makes every duel feel inevitable are shaping yet another signature donk Major run.
Highest-rated players at StarLadder Budapest Major 2025
| Rank | Player | Team | Maps | K-D Diff | K/D | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | donk | Spirit | 5 | +51 | 1.85 | 1.73 |
| 2 | KSCERATO | FURIA | 4 | +27 | 1.79 | 1.54 |
| 3 | w0nderful | NAVI | 11 | +75 | 1.61 | 1.45 |
| 4 | molodoy | FURIA | 4 | +28 | 1.80 | 1.41 |
| 5 | ZywOo | Vitality | 5 | +25 | 1.40 | 1.35 |
A brutal playoff path ahead
Spirit may have gone 3-0, but the bracket offers no favors. Their quarter-final opponent will be Team Falcons, a roster built entirely to win events like this. The likely semifinal would be a rematch with Vitality, one of the few teams in the world capable of slowing Spirit down. If Spirit reach the final, a red hot FURIA roster potentially awaits. For donk to secure his third straight Major MVP-style performance, he must do it through one of the hardest playoff paths seen in recent Majors.
Even then, nothing about his current form suggests he will slow down. Budapest has been another stage that bends to his pace and decision-making. Spirit often win rounds simply by giving him space to take initiative.
Where donk stands in Major history
To understand the scale of what donk is chasing, it helps to compare his performance to every top rated player from past Majors. Across more than a decade of Counter-Strike history, only a handful of stars have produced Major events above the 1.40 rating mark. None have ever done it three Majors in a row.
Below are the highest-rated players from every Major to date.
| Event | Player | Team | Rating | Maps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DreamHack Winter 2013 | Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell |  Fnatic | 1.26 (1.0) | 10 |
| EMS One Katowice 2014 | Jarosław ‘pashaBiceps’ Jarząbkowski |  Virtus.pro | 1.38 (1.0) | 9 |
| ESL One Cologne 2014 | Braxton ‘swag’ Pierce |  iBUYPOWER | 1.43 (1.0) | 3 |
| DreamHack Winter 2014 | Janusz ‘snax’ Pogorzelski | Virtus.pro | 1.29 (1.0) | 7 |
| ESL One Katowice 2015 | Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer | Fnatic | 1.31 (1.0) | 9 |
| ESL One Cologne 2015 | obin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist | Fnatic | 1.38 (1.0) | 9 |
| DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015 | Philip ‘aizy’ Aistrup |  Dignitas | 1.55 (1.0) | 2 |
| MLG Columbus 2016 | Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David |  Luminosity | 1.32 (2.0) | 9 |
| ESL One Cologne 2016 | Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David |  SK | 1.38 (2.0) | 9 |
| ELEAGUE Major 2017 | Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilyev |  NaVi | 1.36 (2.0) | 6 |
| PGL Krakow Major 2017 | Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev | NaVi | 1.43 (2.0) | 4 |
| ELEAGUE Major 2018 | Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilyev | NaVi | 1.39 (2.0) | 8 |
| FACEIT Major London 2018 | Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov | NaVi | 1.36 (2.0) | 10 |
| IEM Katowice 2019 | Nicolai ‘device’ Reedtz |  Astralis | 1.32 (2.0) | 11 |
| StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 | Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov | NaVi | 1.31 (2.0) | 10 |
| PGL Major Stockholm 2021 | Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev | NaVi | 1.47 (2.0) | 10 |
| PGL Major Antwerp 2022 | Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard |  FaZe | 1.24 (2.0) | 13 |
| IEM Rio Major 2022 | Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov |  Cloud9 | 1.35 (2.0) | 7 |
| BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 | Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut |  Vitality | 1.39 (2.0) | 10 |
| PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 | Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov |  G2 Esports | 1.42 (3.0) | 14 |
| Perfect World Shanghai Major 2025 | Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets |  Spirit | 1.45 (3.0) | 14 |
| BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 | Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets | Spirit | 1.51 (3.0) | 7 |
| StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 |
No one in CS2 has a streak like this. Not s1mple at his peak, not coldzera during his back to back era, not ZywOo or device. Donk is pushing into territory that defines eras by itself. If he keeps this level across the playoff stage, he will complete one of the most dominant twelve month periods esports has seen.
Budapest could define his legacy
Spirit is not the title favorite on paper, but Major playoffs rarely follow expectations. With donk in this form, Spirit enters every match with the best individual player on the server. That advantage alone can swing an entire series.
If Budapest ends with donk lifting the trophy or even carrying Spirit on another deep run, he will move from rising superstar to a generational player whose consistency at the biggest events sets a new standard in Counter-Strike.
His story is already incredible, but Budapest might be the chapter that defines it.
