We caught up with Emil "Magisk" Reif ahead of his trip to Dallas and picked his brain on North's recent struggles and his expectations for the ESL Pro League Season 5 finals.

North travel to the United States hoping to put their demons to rest, having failed to break into the top four at their last three international events, IEM Katowice, the SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 finals and IEM Sydney.

Magisk believes North are prepared for the event

The early exit from the Australian tournament was particularly devastating. Defeats against SK Gaming and FaZe put them on the brink of elimination, but it was Chiefs, who were ranked 78th in the world at the start of the month, who hammered the final nail into their coffin with a 16-13 victory on Nuke.

"The loss to Chiefs was a big disappointment, but they played well, while we played poorly individually," Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif recalls. "We are still a really good team on Nuke, but we simply did not show up that day."

With North having finished at the top of the Pro League table in the regular season, they have been handed a kind group, avoiding both SK and G2 - the only two teams above them in the ranking that are in attendance.

A one-week bootcamp inside Telia Parken, FC Copenhagen's stadium, has allowed North to iron out the flaws in their game, and Magisk believes that the team will see the reward for the hard work they have been putting in.

"We feel really confident for this tournament," he said. "We have focused on our CT sides and tried to be more consistent. "I am very happy with our performances in the Pro League and that we managed to finish first. "That shows our potential and that we have the skill to become one of the best teams in the world."

Earlier this week, a report from Slingshot Esports suggested that North were looking to replace Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup, who has posted below-average ratings on LAN since joining the team.

Magisk admitted that it has not been easy to integrate the former FaZe member into the team, but expressed his belief that everyone will step up now.

"We have had our issues since we joined up with Aizy," Magisk explained. "We have tried to figure out the best way to play as a team, but it has been a bit more difficult than we expected at first. "But I think we are slowly finding the right way to play, and everyone is starting to perform better individually."

North will take on mousesports in their first match of the Pro League finals, with the event kicking off on Tuesday at 17:30 .