Top 20 players of 2018: Magisk (7)

Coming in at No. 7 of the Top 20 players ranking of 2018, powered by EGB.com, is Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif, who makes his second appearance on the list since 2016 on the back of incredible consistency all year long.

Top 20 Players of 2018: Introduction

Magisk's professional career started taking roots in 2015 in League of Sharks and the King of Nordic series, where his and Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså's team managed to grab their first notable wins. Impressive play in the lower echelons of Danish Counter-Strike saw the then-17-year-old youngster quickly gain attention from the country's third-best team, SK, at the time featuring Michael "⁠Friis⁠" Jørgensen, Asger "⁠AcilioN⁠" Larsen, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, and Andreas "⁠MODDII⁠" Fridh.

With them, he played his first LAN event at Fragbite Masters Season 5 Finals at the end of the year and early on into 2016 also his first Main Qualifier ahead of the MLG Columbus Major. Although he had already shown some promise up to that point, inexperience was still preventing him from reaching great form, but he soon broke through that as 2016 progressed, most notably with some fantastic play at ELEAGUE Season 1, his last event under the German organization.

Halfway through 2016, the young gun transferred under Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen's leadership to Denmark's No. 2, Dignitas, and immediately became one of that lineup's stars. Magisk found incredible consistency in his game that saw him lead the team to deep runs at numerous tournaments alongside Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke, including consecutive wins at WESG 2016 EU & CIS Regional Finals and at EPICENTER: Moscow, and reach 14th place in the year's Top 20 ranking.

In 2017, he couldn't keep up the same impressive level of consistency under the new banner of North, as he began to fluctuate following two more great tournaments to start the year off at the ELEAGUE Major — his first — and at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas.

"It's always easy to have excuses and use them as an argument for why you played badly. I was not "thankful" enough for how fast I became a good player. I was not mature enough as a person to handle a down period. My whole career had always been on the rise and suddenly I was struggling to perform on my usual level, which I had no solution for because I had never been in that situation before. That is something I have been working on a lot and I'm glad I ended up in OpTic because in that team, I grew as a person and that is also one of the biggest reasons I have been improving so much in 2018, both individually and as a team player."

After the Danes struggled to find the form that saw them clinch the EPICENTER title, Magisk was cut from the roster after the PGL Major. He quickly found a new home in international waters with a completely new OpTic featuring Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli, Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas, Kevin "⁠HS⁠" Tarn, and Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg, who continuously went back and forth between Europe and North America due to their league obligations in the latter region. Although they faced role issues and cultural differences, the European mixture closed out the year with a couple of respectable playoffs finishes at IEM Oakland and ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals with Magisk at the helm.

"Looking back at North, it was obviously a huge disappointment, but today I'm really happy that it happened. Many people make jokes about their decision now, but I believe they made the right call at that time. The results were not there and MSL and the rest of the guys had more trust in aizy as a player and that he could return to his dignitas level, which I don't blame them for. It was the best for everyone at that time.

"I think my time in OpTic is one of the most important periods of my career because in that team, I had to live in the US, get away from my comfort zone and be the 'star' of the team. I had a lot of responsibilities, which I had never tried before. I grew as a person, both inside but also outside the game, which is something I needed to make the next step in my career. So, overall it was a good learning period, but, obviously, our results as a team were not like we expected and behind that, there are a lot of reasons, behind which I see no reason in explaining since it would not help me or any of the other guys. It was chaotic, but, in the end, I'm happy to have played with those guys and got to know them, I still look back at that time and laugh about some of our many great memories together!"

Having missed out on a spot at the ELEAGUE Major after placing third with OpTic at the Europe Minor beforehand, Magisk had to watch the first event of the year from the sidelines while his team was on the verge of a breakdown.

"It's really tough to find the 'worst' memory in 2018, but I had a hard time watching the Boston Major at the beginning of the year from home. It's never fun not being a part of the biggest tournaments, but also it was a very tough period due to the team (OpTic) not functioning as we had expected.

"But it was also a big motivation to see that tournament. You feel sad to miss those events, but it also gave me a reality check to become a better player. So, in that moment, it was tough, but I like to see the positive in every disappointing moment you have in your career. Learn from it and move on."

He got lucky, however, as Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye left Astralis after a disappointing run at the Major to join up with his former teammates in North, allowing the 20-year-old to make his way onto Denmark's best team at the start of February.

"It was pretty easy for me [to transition into Astralis] since I could take over the role dupreeh had been playing, which is the role I had always been the most comfortable with, and he could get back to the role Kjaerbye had, which is what he had always felt most comfortable with. It's never easy getting into a team where four players already know each other and how they play, so we decided to play basic CS so I could slowly get used to the guys and how they played. It made it a lot easier for me because I didn't have to think about too much other than focusing on my own gameplay, and slowly we just build more strats into our gameplay and therefore it was just easier for me to get used to everything.

"Astralis was not like any other organisation I had played for, everything was much more professional and that was really awesome to see. It took some time to get used to, but I'm really happy I get to work with those guys, they have been a huge factor for me but also the rest of the team to be even better inside and outside the game. I was surprised by the amount of time they used on preparation and, also, it was not the same way I had done it previously on any other team. It was really exciting to work with such professionals and already at the beginning of the team I could feel how much ahead they were of any other team in the world."

With less than a couple of weeks' worth of practice, Magisk played his debut for Astralis at StarSeries i-League Season 4. He was a bit up and down there, with his new team making the playoffs from the 3-1 pool after beating Liquid, Gambit, and Heroic before ultimately falling to Natus Vincere in the quarter-finals, where the new addition's efforts on the second map, Inferno, weren't enough to close out the series 2-0 (1.60 rating in a 14-16 loss).

Another week passed and it was time for IEM Katowice. The Polish event saw Magisk start putting up more consistent performances, with just one out of eight maps rated below a 0.85 rating, as Astralis made it one step further compared to their first tournament together; to the semi-finals, where FaZe stopped them.

That is where Magisk and the entire squad got the opportunity to catch up with their opposition thanks to a month-and-a-half-long gap ahead of their next stop at DreamHack Masters Marseille. The amount of preparation had already been paying its dividends in online leagues and it translated to the LAN environment, too; Astralis looked like by far the best team at the French event, with no one getting close enough to make the Danes sweat, as only Liquid were able to take a map off them and even then they couldn't contest the series after two 16-3 wins going the other way. The Danish side beat FaZe, fnatic, and Natus Vincere in the playoffs with convincing 2-0s to hoist their first trophy of 2018, as Magisk received his first EVP mention on the back of a highly consistent showing worthy of a 1.29 rating.

"It just felt natural to play with the guys, like I had been playing with them for years. The way they wanted to play was how I always wanted to play myself. Structured, with discipline, but also with the freedom to make plays when you felt like it was a good thing. Also, it's really rare you see one player on the team make a play alone, we always try to have one guy with us so he can either help you or trade. It's obviously not always possible in every situation to have someone with you, but we try to do that as much as possible."

The 20-year-old went on to improve on that performance at IEM Sydney as the leading figure in Astralis's run to the grand final, during which they looked almost as dominant as in Marseille despite some early struggles against NRG. However they couldn't go all the way this time, as FaZe won the best-of-five for the championship after three very closely-contested maps, and Magisk lost the race for the MVP to Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács despite some great play in the final series, finishing second on the list of EVPs behind Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač.

"There's always going to be pressure on you as the newcomer. But I quickly got used to that and I felt more and more confident going into each tournament we played because I felt like we got better as a team all the time and I slowly got used to how the team played and how each person on the team reacted in pressure situations. So, yes, it did bring a lot of pressure on me at the beginning, but I also used that as motivation to prove my worth to be on the team."

His great run of form continued at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals in mid-May, playing a key role in five of Astralis's 10 victories when they returned to winning ways, yet again dropping just one map in the title-winning campaign to Liquid, who put up a good fight against them in the final. Although three of his teammates outshone him in Dallas, Magisk secured the third EVP award in a row.

That streak didn't stop there, as the Dane was once again one of the highlight players at ECS Season 5 Finals, where another chapter of Astralis's rivalry with Liquid was written with two more encounters throughout the London tournament, including one in the grand final.

"Liquid is a very good team who is probably also the team who's the most professional in terms of structure and preparation. They kind of started doing all the same stuff as we did, both inside and outside the game, which I respect a lot since it requires a huge amount of work and dedication to the game. However, I believe the reason behind our success against them also came down to us understanding the way they played, because it was almost the same as playing against ourselves. We had many great series, also some that could have turned into their favour, but somehow we always managed to make insane comebacks against them and win some maps we shouldn't have won. Perhaps we just won the mental game."

With three titles from the previous four tournaments, the best team in the world looked near unstoppable. However, a new challenger appeared at ESL One Cologne, as Na`Vi took the favorites down in the semi-finals after Astralis once again cruised through to the playoffs without much trouble. It was by no means a bad event for Magisk – quite the contrary, as he showcased solid consistency again with seven out of eight maps above a 1.00 rating for 1.21 over the course of the tournament –, but he didn't have enough standout performances to earn another award.

He did close out the first part of the season with one more, however, helping Astralis hoist their fourth trophy of the year at ELEAGUE Premier on the back of another grand final triumph against Liquid.

When everyone returned from the break at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, the squad everyone saw as a big favorite of the tournament looked a bit off after an uncharacteristic series loss to North and a map loss to TYLOO in the group stage. In the playoffs, they were picking up speed again with 2-0 wins against MIBR and Ninjas in Pyjamas, but Denmark's No. 2 team stopped them again in the final as Magisk was the lowest-rated player of the series to end the event with a 1.09 rating overall.

"It's always easy to blame it on the vacation or off-season, which did have an effect on us individually. As a team, we just didn't play like we normally had and that was the real reason we lost in Stockholm. However, we knew that if we just worked on getting back into our 'normal' individual level, the teamplay would return slowly with more practice and official games we played. So everyone played a lot of DM together and kept the focus on the Major."

When it came to the FACEIT Major, Astralis didn't immediately look in their best form with losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas and Liquid over the first two stages. However, they were dominant as ever once they made it to the playoffs, with only FaZe taking them to double-digits in the quarter-finals, while their North American rivals and Natus Vincere didn't stand a chance. For the team as a whole, this wasn't a new feeling as they had been Major champions before, but that wasn't the case for Magisk, who lifted his first Major trophy as one of the very best players of the tournament.

"I was probably a bit more nervous going into the Major than the rest of the guys since it was my first Major with the team and everyone saw us as the favourites. It helped a lot that the Major was long so I could play myself into the tournament and get some more confidence throughout the tournament. We had many great talks as a team and also with our sports psychologist, which was a great help for me and the whole team."

"My best memory from 2018 was absolutely winning the FACEIT Major, which was the first time I won a Major in my career. But taking home the Intel Grand Slam in Odense is also one of those memories that I won't forget!"

Shortly after the exhilarating triumph in London, he and the squad traveled to Istanbul for BLAST Pro Series looking just as good with a perfect record in the round-robin stage. Their rematch with MIBR in the final kicked off with a whitewash on Train, but the Brazilian-American side fought back on Overpass before Astralis closed out the series with a narrow victory on Inferno.

Time off from LAN events for the entirety of October allowed the top-tier scene to fulfill most of their league obligations and Astralis were no exception, with their next tournament being the following BLAST stop in their home country's capital city at the beginning of November. This time, they couldn't pass the group stage there due to Overpass losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere, with Magisk recording his lowest rating of the year (still an above-average 1.06).

A few days later, the team flew across the Atlantic ocean for IEM Chicago, an event that saw both Astralis and Magisk struggle a bit with a loss to FaZe in groups. After they passed MOUZ in the quarter-finals despite a rather scary encounter on Nuke — on which the Danes had garnered a huge streak already —, fnatic put them to the test in a tough series that eventually saw Astralis prevail thanks to a comeback from 10-15 on the deciding map Inferno. A key performance on that map, along with a great showing in yet another grand final win against Liquid (a series-leading 1.35 rating), helped Magisk clinch another EVP as the year was slowly coming to a close.

The 20-year-old followed it up with more EVP-worthy play to make it a total of nine mentions after ECS Season 6 Finals, where it was MIBR who caused Astralis trouble once again, beating the Danish side in the group stage. Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander & co. took their revenge on Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's team in the grand final, but it was no easy task as both maps went all the way, while Magisk dropped below the average across the series.

"I think MIBR's playstyle made us make more mistakes than we did against other teams, sometimes they would play really fast and then other times they played really structured together as a team. They played some great CS and you could feel that they had started doing more preparation on us than previously, which was something we also had to adapt to. MIBR is a team we always had great and close series against and I'm pretty sure it will be like that in 2019, as well!"

The second league's finals were up next at the beginning of December. Having lost in their home country only a month before that, coupled with the prospect of winning the Intel Grand Slam, put a lot of pressure on the team at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals. However, they overcame the challenge after placing first in their group, beating ViCi, HellRaisers, and Liquid, before stamping their mark on the trophy as well as the $1 million Grand Slam bonus thanks to clear-cut wins against MOUZ and the North American team again in the grand final.

Astralis went into the last tournament of the year tired but with a strong wind in their sails on the back of the huge win in Odense. The latter was double the case for Magisk, who was in amazing shape from the start with a 1.45 rating in five wins in the group stage, and he went on to add a couple of great maps in the final against Natus Vincere to finish off 2018 in style, with a fourth title in a row as well as his first-ever MVP medal.

"BLAST Pro Series Lisbon was indeed a very good event for me. Everyone on the team was slowly getting tired and you could feel that everyone was excited for the holidays, but we also promised each other that we had to give it everything in this last event of the year because we really wanted to end 2018 in a 'perfect' way. I just had a really good individual level and a lot of confidence coming from Odense, where we won the Intel Grand Slam, so I just kept that momentum rolling into BLAST Pro Series Lisbon. It was really awesome to win my first MVP, which I have been very close to winning a few times, so finally getting one of those was a great achievement for me individually. However, I could have seen the beast dupreeh winning it, as well!"

Why was Magisk the 7th best player of 2018?

Magisk's high placing is all about his incredible consistency in every aspect. First of all, he performed above the average at every single tournament he attended in 2018 with at least a 1.06 rating at all 16 events. He was also among the best match-to-match with 74.4% of maps rated above 1.00 at Big events, ranking sixth highest in that regard, and round-to-round with the second-highest KAST of 74.5%.

"If I had the 'secret' to consistency, I probably wouldn't have had a down period earlier in my career. But for me, the most important thing to stay consistent is being happy, hungry to win and the motivation to always improve as a player. It's important to feel good on a team, have fun together outside of the game and fit together socially. Otherwise, you will have a lot more arguments and things to worry about. I don't believe there's a secret that will work for everyone because everyone is different, but this is what works the best for me."

The 20-year-old stood out at 10 of the 16 tournaments as either an MVP (at BLAST Pro Series Lisbon) or an EVP (at nine Big events), also thanks to being one of the best players in big-event playoffs with a 1.14 rating in the bracket stages (seventh highest).

On top of that, Magisk played a key part in Astralis's utility damage, for which the team became increasingly famous as the year progressed, with 6.5 damage per round (sixth most).

"[Utility usage] was definitely one of those things I have tried improving on, but not something I would change my whole playstyle for. For me, it's always been good fun finding new nades, which I also use a lot of time on in my free time, as well. So, in a combination with good preparation and zonic helping us out with new ideas of how to use nades, it just came naturally for everyone on the team to test it out and see if it worked. Which it did, so zonic deserves credit for that."

On the other hand, in comparison with the players who outplaced him in the ranking, he lacked more of the extreme peaks that saw him place in the top five of an MVP race only three more times in addition to BLAST Pro Series Lisbon; at IEM Sydney, ECS Season 5 Finals, and the FACEIT Major.

"I always want to improve. Yes, we had a great 2018, but there are still 100+ situations that I could have played better. No one is ever going to be perfect in CS and that's also the beauty of it. You can always get better aim, better decision making, or use your nades better. I want to become even better individually but also as a teammate so that I can keep contributing to the team in the best possible way. And hopefully win a Major, but sadly many other teams are working really hard for those wins, as well ;)"

Bold prediction

Joining valde, Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta, Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth, and GuardiaN with his prediction, Magisk also believes Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali will develop into a great player in the future:

Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali

"refrezh. I'm glad he finally got to a team like OpTic, where he can develop as a player. He will have experienced guys playing with him, which is something you really learn a lot from. So even if he doesn't make it to the Top 20 next year, I'm certain we will see great things from him in the future. Just keep grinding, work hard and stay humble, Ismail!"

Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2018 ranking powered by EGB.com and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected.