How Magisk Went from Denmark’s Forgotten Man to Astralis’ Missing Piece

Counter-Strike is littered with stories of talented young players who never really got their mental game right. But sometimes you get one who perfects the balance of skill and mental strength, and that is the story of Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif.

Reif started his career out at SK Gaming before they decided to cut their whole roster in order to sign a group of talented Brazilians led by Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David and Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo. This led to a short successful spell at Dignitas, before they too cut their team after winning EPICENTER: Moscow 2016. Dig then moved to a US-based team supported by the Philadelphia 76ers.

The then known ‘Magiskb0Y’ went on to join North and the Dane got his first taste of a Major at the ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017. The team dropped their first two games, meaning they would need to be perfect to get out of the group – which they did in impressive fashion against Hellraisers, G2, and GODSENT.

North would go on to be eliminated in the quarter-finals by Virtus Pro in remarkable circumstances. Going into the tiebreaker on Cobblestone, Reif’s team started CT and he put up a staggering 29 kills, which was a major record for eliminations in a half, helping his team to 13 round wins. The team unfortunately lost this game, crushing Magisk and creating cracks in the armor of North.

The young rifler later ended up at Astralis after a brief spell at OpTic and helped the team become the greatest of all time. Astralis went on to achieve unrivaled success, winning 3 Majors in a row with their victory at the StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019. Magisk was the missing piece to Astralis’ puzzle and this move played a big part in their now legendary status.