BLAST Premier reveals top 5 highest-rated players from Open Porto

Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets isn’t just having a good year. He’s having the kind of year that makes other professional Counter-Strike players reconsider their career choices.

BLAST Premier released its top five highest-rated players from the Open Porto 2026 tournament, and donk sits comfortably at the top with an HLTV Rating 3.0 of 1.62. For context, anything above 1.20 is considered elite-level play. Donk cleared that bar by a mile and then kept running.

The top five and what the numbers mean

The full list reads like a who’s-who of CS2 talent right now. Team Spirit’s donk led the pack at 1.62, followed by Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov at 1.40. Rounding out the top five were dem0n, Starry, and sh1ro, with other notable performances from xelexcs (1.37) and HeavyGod (1.28) during the group stage.

The gap between donk and the second-place finisher is worth pausing on. A 0.22 rating difference at the professional level is enormous.

Donk’s performance earned him MVP honors for the event. His consistency across maps and matchups made him the clear standout in a field of 16 teams competing for a $1.1 million prize pool.

M0NESY’s 1.40 rating deserves its own mention. On any other day, at any other tournament, that number headlines the conversation.

Team Spirit’s back-to-back dominance

Team Spirit defeated MOUZ 3-1 in the grand final on September 6, 2026, claiming their second consecutive title. Their previous win came at the Esports World Cup, meaning this squad has now strung together back-to-back championship victories in two of CS2’s most prestigious events.

The group stage ran from August 26 to 31 at BLAST Studios in Copenhagen, where 16 teams battled through double-elimination groups with bounty mechanics. The playoff phase then moved to the Super Bock Arena in Porto, Portugal, running September 4-6. This marked the first time BLAST Premier used that venue, expanding the organization’s Portuguese footprint beyond previous events held in Lisbon.

The $1.1 million total prize pool included $150,000 for the first-place finisher.

What donk’s season says about the competitive landscape

The HLTV Rating 3.0 system is the third iteration of the community’s most trusted individual performance metric. It accounts for kills, deaths, round impact, utility damage, and a range of other variables to produce a single number. The system is calibrated so that 1.00 represents average professional play. Donk’s 1.62 means he performed 62% above that baseline across the entire group stage.

For MOUZ, the grand final loss comes after reaching the final of a $1.1 million event. The 3-1 scoreline suggests Team Spirit had another gear that MOUZ couldn’t match when it mattered most.

BLAST Premier’s decision to expand into Porto also signals confidence in the Portuguese market for live esports events. Lisbon has hosted successfully before, and the move to Porto’s Super Bock Arena suggests the organizer sees room to grow its audience in the region.

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