We talked to Emil “Magisk” Reif about dealing with being the number one team, stumbles at Stockholm, and the main qualifier.

Photo Credit: (Dreamhack)

Astralis are coming into this stage, and the Major as a whole, as the favourites and the best team in the world. Do you think ﻿﻿for you the pressure is on with so much expected from you?

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Of course there will be pressure on us. We are the best team in the world right now and we have been having great results so far and that definitely makes people expect a lot from us and of course we have high expectations of ourselves as well.

This team has so much experience nowadays and we know there is pressure but I feel we are very good at handling it and I don’t think it’s gonna make us play even worse or lose matches because of it. We like the pressure, at least for myself, I like having pressure on my shoulders because I feel that’s when I perform the best. From the outside, there can definitely be a lot of hate if you lose the first match but we know how we can handle that and we have a lot of people helping us with that as well.

You’re the best team in the world but are having to go through what was the Main Qualifier. Do you think that is fair or that future changes should be able to prevent this?



It’s very tough to find the right balance right now in the system because it’s hard to find one that’s perfect. Being the best team in the world right now and having to go through this stage is hard, it’s not unfair because the team previously didn’t prove themselves at the last Major, so they shouldn’t have Legends status but right now, it feels weird in a way. You have to change the system, I don’t feel like you should have eight teams who have Legends status, maximum four teams, maybe even only two teams, because I feel so many teams change rosters all the time.

Just look at Cloud9, they won the last Major and now they don’t even have the same team at all. They’re missing two players and they’re not even on the same level as they used to be, but they have Legends status right now. In that sense, you have to make it top four or top two so you have a lot of people always going through qualifiers and always having to prove themselves. We could have a seeding system so like people from HLTV, or people from the outside could make seedings without bias, who have an understanding of the game or you teach them up about the game. There could be five judges so it can always be three against two. You could then invite a few teams for the Major like that. It’s going to take some time to find that perfect system.

Other than Astralis, there are two other Danish teams, both are former organisations of yours, is there an extra incentive to perform well against them if you meet either of them in this stage?



All of the Danish teams here, OpTic and North, we have all known each other for a long time and there’s always going to be some kind of rivalry against them. It’s always going to be close matches just because we know them so well and they know us. Of course you want to beat them because they’re still your friends and you want to be the best Danish team as well.

Your first match is against compLexity. What are your thoughts going into that game?

Even though we just lost in Stockholm, we still feel very confident in our game plan and how we want to approach the game. We are going to do everything in this opening match and we’re going to study them, we’re going to watch demos, and we’re going to anti-strat, as we normally do. It doesn’t matter if it’s compLexity or Na’Vi or any other team. We’re going to be just as prepared for them as everyone else.

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