After Spirit secured a hard-fought 3-1 victory over FUT to win the Esports World Cup, Most Valuable Player Danil “donk” Kryshkovets stopped by HLTV’s microphone to talk about the difficult match.
Mysterious as always, he didn’t want to reveal too much about how prepared Spirit were for FUT’s playstyle and their overpeeks, which they punished on several occasions on Anubis, but offered some insight into what made the match so close.
We knew they’d ban Dust2, but we didn’t really expect a Cache pick
“They’re a great team and they’re sharp as hell, and because they’re young, they’re hungry,” he said. “It was difficult, but we also finished playing at 10 in the evening, and we didn’t have time for preparation at all.
“They had a huge advantage in this case. They also had an advantage in terms of veto. We knew they’d ban Dust2, but we didn’t really expect a Cache pick [for the first map.”
donk also spoke about his and the team’s individual form, saying both still have ways to go despite the Esports World Cup victory. “I think I came to this event in great shape, but still I see a lot of things that I can improve, and the things that we can work on as a team. This is not the point where I will stop, I would say.”
You can watch the interview in full, in which he also spoke about winning the tournament just hours after Spirit’s Dota team won their third The International title, below:
Congratulations on the victory at EWC. A hard-fought one, against FUT, that you met for the first time. Can you tell me about what they were like as an opponent? Was it more difficult than you would’ve expected?
I think it was difficult, not because of the opponent, no. Like, yeah, they’re a great team, and they’re sharp as hell, and because they are young, and they’re hungry. It was difficult, but we also finished playing at 10 in the evening, and we didn’t have time for preparation at all.
They had a huge advantage in this case. They also had an advantage in terms of veto. They knew that they would pick Cache. We also knew it. We knew that they would ban Dust2, but we didn’t really expect a Cache pick, to be honest.
For the first map, you mean?
Yeah, yeah.
They’re quite known for their tendency to over-peek in certain situations, and I think that’s something you punished on Anubis in a couple of situations. The 3v5 comes to mind, which was quite crucial. Was that something that you were ready for, went into the game with that game plan in mind, knowing that these situations might happen?
I don’t know. Who knows? I don’t want to reveal anything.
Very mysterious. But occasionally it also caused you to go into rounds quite a bit late. Anubis, you didn’t manage to close out in regulation because of one of those rounds where you didn’t leave yourself enough time when you were coming into the A bomb site quite a bit late. But there were situations like that across the series as well. Can you tell me about that?
So what can I tell? CS has a lot of details, and it changes every moment, every second. Sometimes you need to finish a round in a direction that you didn’t expect at the beginning. It would be often that you finish the round in like 20, 15 seconds left because something maybe went wrong or you didn’t expect something. It’s CS, and I think it’s a basic thing on T side. On Ancient, it’s a typical experience of playing T side.
I saw an interview quite recently where you said you felt individually you could be doing better compared to the start of the year. Do you feel you’re up there now, up to your peak individually after this tournament?
I think not. I think I came to this event in great shape, but I still see a lot of things that I can improve, and the things that we can work on as a team. This is not the point where I will stop, I would say.
Lastly, I just wanted to ask you about your Dota team’s success. The grand final at The International also ended during your game here. Were you left in the dark during your match about the result? Did you find out in the meantime, or how did it go?
So basically we were watching game four, and we saw how our team lost the fourth game. Before game five started, our game started, and our phones were removed. They took away our phones, like before the game, as always.
Our manager and everyone, staff, said that we will reveal you the winner only after your game. So we only found out after we won. After we grabbed a trophy or after we broke FUT’s key, our manager said, ‘Our Dota team won TI.’
How did it feel to know that you made it happen for your organization, the double?
It’s great. It’s a third TI for them, and it’s more, I don’t know how to say. It would be interesting to see our CEO’s reaction.
