The Sh1ro and donk dichotomy
(Credit to Counter-Points, Thorin and Maniac for inspiring this article) Celebrating sh1ro, donk and their partnership.
Something about the way sh1ro will hold down a site is awe-inspiring to watch. He puts all the pressure on himself to deliver in late-rounds, and is so unlike other AWPers who depend on mobility to find kills and create opportinities. Sh1ro defends a site with the AWP as if he was a turret that can only take a few steps at a time to face down his enemy, like the king in chess. He plants himself down in a small space, and will use that space to the maximum advantage. He lets enemies come to him, and punishes them one by one. Sh1ro brings to life the fantasy of having one man defend against an army and putting up the honorable fight.
If there is one quality about donk that sticks out like a sore thumb, it is the way he moves. He nearly never stops moving - sometimes even when he’s in the middle of firing. He is a space taking machine that knows not when to stop. The donk slide itself is a strategy to abuse movement against enemy opponents in open areas, making himself so weaselly and hard to hit. He wide swings, flaunting all the space he has taken from you, then scurries away while killing you with ultra-precise sprays.
It seems like a mad twist of fate that these two players should find each other. A yin-yang relationship, one thrives with little space while the other thrives the more he has, one static and the other mobile, each unusually passive and aggressive for their roles. One a master of the one shot, one kill weapon, the other a master of controlling unruly sprays. What is most impressive of all is that they seem to value each other on an interpersonal level while both are exceptionally talented in opposite ways. This could be a recipe for future successes with no limit on what can be achieved; this could be the foundation of trophies for Team Spirit for years to come.
What sh1ro brings to a CS team
Sh1ro on Gambit and then Cloud9 was a force to be reckoned with. His team broke out during the online era of CS in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented in-person LAN events. Eventually climbing up from the Gambit Youngsters team, sh1ro and his team became world number 1 team by 2021 from obscurity within less than a year. He made his name via consistency: he never seemed to miss any of the easy shots that most AWPers have issues with. His firing speed was super high while being deadly accurate. He was like a snake in the grass impossible to snatch when he was on his game, as oppsed to players like s1mple who are more like rabid dogs. Anytime sh1ro was in the clutch, you could count on him to clean up 1v2s. He was the full package in terms of a skillset for an AWPer.
His only drawback came with his playing style: he was known for being very passive. That could be beneficial in certain scenarios, by not giving up his life in tricky economic situations. However, when certain games got tough, sh1ro’s impact would be non-existent due to his passivity. The most painful example of this was the Major semi-final vs Na`Vi at the Stockholm Major, where Gambit was getting outclassed by their main rival, and sh1ro could could do nothing to stop it despite his exceptional talents. He’d rarely go for very audacious plays in losing scenarios, preferring to play the percentages.
His passivity overlapped somewhat with the rest of his team, especially Ax1le, the second star of the team, who liked playing for the late-round as a T-side lurker. It meant that often these two players couldn’t shine their brightest at the same time. The rest of the team also showed a lot of passivity in losing scenarios, lacking players that could be counted on to make space for the rest of the team.
Sh1ro was a fantastic player before Team Spirit, his only drawback being with his commitment to playing safely most of the time independently of what the situation needed.
How donk completes sh1ro
Donk is the exact antidote for the malady caused by sh1ro’s passive style. The passivity of sh1ro’s style, once an occasional handicap, has become the final piece of the puzzle for Team Spirit, rather than their fatal flaw. While it is rare to see sh1ro and donk play in a 2vX together, their symbiosis runs deeper than at first glance.
Sh1ro is the perfect clean-up crew for donk’s explosive but risky plays. It’s torture to have to play against donk, who is so unpredictable and efficient, and even when you are able to outplay and counter him, your counter is punished by the existence of sh1ro, who thrives the most when he has knowledge of the enemy’s position more than almost anybody. We have already seen games, like the Spirit vs FaZe Katowice final on Mirage, where donk is punished for aggression on CT-side, but to no avail for FaZe as they run into the brick wall of sh1ro.
On the T-side, this could be even more dangerous. Imagine having a player as calculated as sh1ro, waiting for the donk barrage to be let loose on the site, biding his time to punish opponents who he is wary of due to donk’s aggressive plays. Once these two figure their relationship out, and communicate effectively, the world is their oyster.
That is one of the aspects that is essential – communication. Mutual success is contingent on these players working out how they can each help each other and their team. Lack of communication can lead to players eventually stepping on each other’s’ toes when they stray away from their zone into their teammates’. The worst thing that could happen is that donk hits a rut in his game and decides to alter his style. He absolutely must stick to his style if the dynamic with sh1ro is to become a duo for the ages.
Duos like these are examples of why it is so disappointing duos like EliGE and Twistzz never stuck together and tried to work out their differences. If they had managed to agree to stick to their role and coordinate with each other, it could do so much to elevate them and their team as a result. Instead, they each play on different teams, with similar roles and positions, and we all have to wonder at what could have been achieved. They could have surpassed GeT_RiGhT and f0rest as a duo from North America. That beats a fluke major any day of the week.
With sh1ro and donk, we may be able to unlock an even more powerful juxtaposition of greatness. The unstoppable force on the same team as the immovable object. How can anyone beat that?