In mid-April, an online argument emerged over a seemingly trivial question: Did a guy in a video say ‘Donk’? This debate centered on Danil Kryshkovets, known as Donk, a 19-year-old e-sports player famous in Counter-Strike 2. The video in question was a seven-hour broadcast of a tournament in Bucharest, Romania, where Donk was not competing.

During the livestream, at about five hours and 22 minutes in, a caster commented on a team called FUT. The caster said: ‘Let’s think about the money situation here for FUT. Don’t — they don’t get any kills in this round.’

When the caster said ‘don’t,’ it sounded similar to ‘Donk.’ This sparked a debate on a Discord page called dispute-threads. Some participants believed the sound was accidental and not a reference to Donk the player. Others argued context was irrelevant and that the sound was enough to be considered a reference.

Image: Danil Kryshkovets, known as Donk, in 2024. His nickname either was, or was not, uttered during the livestream.

To support their points, some participants trimmed and slowed down an audio clip of the sound, repeating it with added echo: ‘Doooonnnk, doooonnnk, doooonnnk.’