donk cleans up at HLTV Awards
To the surprise of very few, Team Spirit's rifler superstar Danil "donk" Kryshkovets dominated at the year-end HLTV Awards show. The young star due to turn just 18 in a couple weeks claimed all four awards he was nominated for, and also landed a spot in the All-star Team of the Year.
Donk came out on top in the race for arguably the biggest award on the show, Player of the Year. Throughout the year, the award was contested in a three-horse race between donk, Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, and Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut. But it was donk's record-breaking performance at the PW Shanghai Major that pushed him over the top.
Naturally, a rookie that wins Player of the Year also wins the Rookie of the Year award, though G2 breakthrough Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa did manage to take the second place award in this category. Donk also outpaced a product of North America in the Opener of the Year category, beating out Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski. Finally, donk's incredible 1v5 clutch against HEROIC from this past Major won the Highlight of the Year award.
It was a team victory for NAVI at the show as well, with three players and their coach occupying four of the six spots on the All-star Team of the Year roster.
