donk: “chopper is our IGL, he doesn’t have to show amazing numbers”

Team Spirit come into BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2025 in tough form, despite the continued individual heroics of donk. Since adding tN1R, the team have suffered tough exits at ESL Pro League Season 22 and IEM Chengdu 2025, but now have the opportunity to round out the year in style.

We got the chance to speak to Team Spirit’s talisman rifler, donk, ahead of BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2025, gathering his thoughts on the team’s recent struggles on the server.

So donk, how are you feeling coming to this event?

donk: Good, good. Nothing special.

Saumya: You obviously did not have much time between Chengdu and BLAST. So what was the team discussion like in between?

donk: That we have to work on our travels, that our structure went wrong I would say, and our system started to work bad in some games. We weren’t showing that well as we do I’d say.

So tell me about tN1R.

Saumya: In a recent interview at EPL with, it was HLTV I believe, he said he was not sure if he wants to be a star player. What are your thoughts on that? How is he feeling in this team right now?

donk: I don’t know. It’s better to ask him, not me. But I think he understands well which team he got and which role he needs to be, to do. In my opinion, he’s doing great. The way how he works with the coach and our IGL, it makes me feel good because it’s always shows fire. He’s a hungry to win guy, and he wants to become better every single day he is spending on this game. It’s always great to work with such a person.

Saumya: Moving on to your map picks. Dust2 has been a very safe map pick for you, but recently you lost it to The MongolZ and Falcons as well. What do you think has been going wrong for you?

donk: Just as I said earlier, our system started to work bad. And we have to fix it and get the thoughts, like the reasons for such things. That’s it I guess. Actually, I don’t think it’s a problem about the map pick and I think we would face such problems on any map.

I did run a stat check: in the top 20 teams you had the best opening kill conversion, but when it came to 5v4 conversion rate you were actually ranked the worst.

Saumya: Is the problem coming with closing rounds for you?

donk: The problem comes with closing rounds. I don’t understand, so we are good at 5v5 but we are bad at 5v4?

Saumya: You’re good at opening kills, you have the highest opening percentage. You have a really good success rate there. But in 5v4s, other teams are better at converting rounds than you guys.

donk: My team or me?

Saumya: Your team. Is that the problem for you?

donk: I think it’s because we are easy to predict. I think it is easy for people to understand in which direction we attack. That’s the only reason we have a low win rate in 5v4s.

Saumya: Just two more questions. With a new player, expectations sort of change. Do you have different expectations now, maybe not aiming for trophies right away?

donk: So our philosophy in our team is to not make any expectations, but it’s hard. Right now like, we believe we have a bright future with these players. We just have to keep working. The problems we are facing now, they have to come. You have to face them. Those problems are faced by every team in the world. But it’s just a matter of time.

Saumya: Last question.

People throw flak on chopper and zweih.

Saumya: Just looking at their numbers. What do they bring to the table that people don’t see?

donk: First of all, chopper is our IGL, and he doesn’t have to perform, and show amazing numbers, he has to be a good leader, not an aimer, fragger, or something like this. We have enough firepower, and.. yeah we have enough firepower. And zweih is a young guy, he is very powerful, and he has good skill in hitting heads. He’s good to go first and entry some zones or bomb sites. People always trying to show reasons to hate, but it’s useless to react to that.