In Demand: Team Spirit’s Young CS Superstar
In a wide-ranging interview with Erik Shokov, Team Spirit scout Alexey “OverDrive” Birukov has quoted an eye-popping number about what it would take to pry their young Counter-Strike superstar from their cold, ghostly hands, before hastily adding that, of course, he wouldn’t want to go anywhere anyway.
We have all run out of superlatives long ago about the skill and quality on display of donk, the 17-year-old Russian phenom who took tier 1 CS by storm in 2024. The youngster put up a 1.70 rating at IEM Katowice and became the youngest-ever player to be named an HLTV MVP at the tournament. This was sandwiched between two other MVP awards at BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2023 and BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024.
The Incredible Skill and Style of donk
But of course, it’s not just the awards and the stats, but the way donk makes it all work—the in-your-face style on and off the server alike, running and gunning in incredible fashion that makes seasoned pros look like hapless amateurs at times.
With Team Spirit’s strong showings of late, it’s no surprise that top teams continue to circle around the squad—and while donk himself has also already stated that he has no intention of moving on, the organization’s seasoned scout has engaged in a bit of a hypothetical in this Russian-speaking interview:
The Value of donk: A Record-Breaking Price Tag
Per a Reddit translation and an insider account’s approximation on X, formerly Twitter, OverDrive reiterated that donk has no desire to depart on account of the team environment and camaraderie, but if a deal was to be made, a mere million dollars wouldn’t suffice. Five million sure is a lot—to compare, G2 supposedly signed m0NESY for $600,000 at the age of 16 back in October 2021. But hey, if that’s the price to get donking, would anyone really bat an eye?