At just 17 years old, Danil “donk” Kryshkovets shattered long-standing records, earning the title of the highest-rated Major MVP with an unprecedented 1.49 rating at the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024.
Following Spirit’s 2-1 victory over FaZe in the grand final, donk was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. His performance not only solidified his reputation as a rising star but also established him as the youngest player ever to win both a Major and an MVP title. At 17 years and 324 days old, he surpassed the previous record held by Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye, who achieved the feat at 18 years and 277 days during the ELEAGUE Major in 2017.
This was donk’s debut Major MVP award, joining an already impressive collection of five other individual accolades. Four of these were earned in 2024, his first full year of competitive play, marking an extraordinary rookie season. Among these is his MVP award from IEM Katowice earlier in the year.
Throughout the Shanghai Major, donk delivered a consistently outstanding performance, breaking yet another record by becoming the highest-rated Major MVP in history. His 1.49 rating across the elimination stage and playoffs surpassed Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s previous benchmark of 1.47, set at PGL Stockholm.
The young prodigy displayed incredible consistency, recording only one map with a negative rating out of the 14 Spirit played during the tournament — a 7-13 loss to MOUZ on Nuke. His pinnacle performance came during the decider map of the grand final against FaZe, where his 30 kills in regulation earned him an astonishing 1.98 rating.
donk played a pivotal role in Spirit’s victories throughout the event, particularly excelling in clutch moments to help secure their title. His grand final performance alone showed him a remarkable 1.67 rating, emphasizing his crucial contributions to his team’s success.
Throughout the tournament, donk led in nearly every statistical category, including overall rating (1.49), KDD (+97), damage per round (101.4), kills per round (0.99), total kills (289, tied with Robin “ropz“ Kool), headshots (177), headshots per round (0.60), and impact rating (1.75).
In addition to these achievements, he ranked among the best in damage difference per round (+25.9, 2nd), percentage of multi-kill rounds (56.7%, 2nd), total assists (69, 5th), KAST (78.2%, 5th), and total opening kills (45, tied for 3rd with Guy “NertZ“ Iluz).
To cap off his extraordinary performance, donk set a new record for most aces at a Major, securing four. This broke Egor “flamie” Vasilyev’s previous record of three, set at IEM Katowice 2019, and tied Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s Big Event record of four aces, achieved at IEM Cologne 2021.
