Donk’s female double went viral. Can you spot the difference?

Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, the prodigious talent from Team Spirit, exploded onto the CS2 competitive landscape with unprecedented impact. At just 17 years old during 2024, this young phenom accomplished more career milestones than most professional gamers achieve in their entire careers, consistently setting new performance benchmarks. His celebrity status in Russia reached extraordinary levels, with fans frequently approaching him during everyday activities.

Multiple TikTok videos showing what appeared to be donk interacting with supporters in public settings amassed staggering view counts exceeding 10 million. However, viewers discovered an unexpected twist—the individual featured wasn’t the actual esports celebrity. Instead, it was Maria, a 21-year-old woman sporting Team Spirit merchandise. The lead image accompanying this article also depicts her rather than the genuine player.

Maria’s popularity surge within Russian TikTok communities began around May. She revealed to eScoreNews that she’d grown accustomed to comments about her resemblance to donk, primarily from family members and fellow college students. Originally, she intended to develop original content concepts. When an admirer requested a photograph believing she was the real donk, intending to impress friends with their supposed encounter, Maria decided to explore their visual similarity through social experimentation.

Maria created a TikTok video incorporating the professional player’s memorable quote from IEM Katowice 2024, approximately translating to explicit expressions of dominance over opponents. This particular clip achieved viral status, accumulating 4.2 million views. Her content not related to the CS2 star sometimes generates even more humorous situations, particularly when examining viewer comments sections.

Her subsequent strategy involved purchasing official Team Spirit apparel and visiting various public locations to document public responses. In certain environments, individuals immediately identified her as donk and pursued her throughout venues. Multiple recordings exist featuring supporters taking selfies, completely convinced they stood beside the Counter-Strike 2 superstar. One group of male fans enthusiastically offered encouragement for “success at the Austin Major” tournament.

Interestingly, the location where she received the least recognition was a local gaming cafe, despite being surrounded by CS2 enthusiasts. Some observant followers, however, recognized the familiar appearance and expressed confusion about why “nobody showed interest” that such a prominent competitor visited that ordinary internet establishment in Irkutsk.

Maria’s most ambitious current concept involves arranging an encounter with donk to reproduce the iconic Spider-Man pointing meme scenario. She believes he knows about her existence because several prominent figures within Russian competitive gaming circles have acknowledged her presence, including his personal acquaintances. Organization Aurora even requested she create content for their Telegram channel. However, donk personally hasn’t responded to her videos, and Maria worries this indicates he finds the situation intensely awkward.

Despite the entertainment value, Maria experiences conflicting emotions about the situation. She recently began feeling that the experiment “crossed reasonable boundaries,” and she wishes to extend apologies to donk. The content creator also possesses independent video concepts and fears she might become permanently typecast as the “donk imitation,” despite her genuine admiration for the player after deepening her understanding of CS2 competitive landscape and resuming gameplay after several years away.

Truthfully, I’m leveraging his notoriety and public persona—I’m not concealing this reality or pretending otherwise. What originated as an amusing small-scale test somewhat escalated beyond management, and currently I’ve essentially transformed into donk’s lookalike.

He’s remarkable. Genuinely, he’s exceptionally impressive. Because of him, I rediscovered Counter-Strike. I previously played CS:GO half a decade ago, but discontinued and uninstalled it. I’m sincerely thankful to him for that experience. I value that he refrained from making disparaging remarks about me. I would genuinely enjoy conversing with Danil directly. I’m eager to inquire about his perspective regarding having a feminine counterpart—or perhaps he’s actually my duplicate. I’m 21 currently, while he’s merely 18.

Who is donk’s alleged girlfriend. Is donk dating suns1de?
Unless they’re trolling.

No reproduction without permission：Game Guides » Donk’s female double went viral. Can you spot the difference? Exploring the viral phenomenon of donk's female doppelgänger and its impact on esports culture