Spirit Dominate Falcons To Win PGL Astana As Donk Takes 11th Career MVP
Team Spirit lifted the PGL Astana 2026 trophy after a dominant final display against Falcons. The Serbian team, captained by Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov, controlled the best-of-5 match, prevailing 3-0 to take their first trophy of the year.
Meanwhile, Danil “donk” Kryshkovets not only dominated the final, winning Player of the Match with more than 80% of the vote, but also walked away with his 11th career MVP. The 19-year-old finished the tournament with a 1.61 HLTV rating.
PGL Astana 2026 Final
In truth, Spirit enjoyed a dominant run through the tournament. They dispatched The Huns and The Mongolz 2:0 in their opening group games before dropping their only map of the tournament in a 2:1 victory over FURIA.
They also made short work of G2 and MOUZ in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, winning both games 2:0.
And the final started in the same vein. They took their own map pick, Dust2, 16-12, pulling ahead after a relatively close first half. They powered through Mirage 13-7, and comfortably controlled Ancient, the final map, 13-10.
Falcons never really looked like mounting a fight.
Impressive individual stats highlighted Spirit’s dominance. Donk led the way, finishing with a 1.52 rating. Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich came out with a 1.29. Long-serving Boris “magixx” Vorobiev, who took over as IGL in December 2025, mustered a 1.06, and Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov also returned a 1.05. The lowest-ranked player, Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia scored a 0.97.
For Falcons, Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin was the only player to score higher than a 1, ending with a 1.18.
Donk Delivers
As well as dominating the final, donk enjoyed an exceptional return throughout the whole tournament. His 1.61 rating across the event was one of the best performances of his career and secured the 19-year-old his 11th MVP.
He now has the 4th most MVPs of any player, behind dev1ce, s1mple, and ZywOo. His relatively young age means he has a good chance of reeling his main opponents in, too.
A Spirited Year
The win means Spirit have enjoyed a strong start to the year. They finished second at IEM Rio, losing out to Vitality, who did not compete in Astana and instead opted to play at IEM Atlanta.
With the 21 points accrued from this performance, Spirit retain 2nd place in the global rankings.
Falcons actually lose 13 points as a result of their loss, although they still have enough to remain in 3rd.
Vitality tops the rankings, despite being dumped out at the quarterfinal stage of Atlanta by NAVI.
Next Up
The next major CS2 event is IEM Cologne, which takes place at the beginning of June, before the Esports World Cup in August. Spirit and Falcons, as well as Vitality and NAVI, have all been confirmed for the Cologne event, which means it will have a stacked roster.
