In 2017 Astralis had become Major champions for the first time, a feat that had escaped them on numerous occasions. The addition of Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander propelled them to the next level and they put the world on notice in a matter of weeks. It didn’t last though because their victory at IEM Katowice in March would be their final victory for the year. Runner-up and semi-final finishes were abundant, but they were still missing something. At the start of 2018, they were knocked out by Cloud9 in the group stage of the ELEAGUE Major: Boston. Things weren’t looking good.

Astralis making a roster change might have been a difficult choice to make after the Boston Major without a bit of hindsight. The fact that they had no intention on changing their roster is a testament to that. They had hoped to work out their issues with their roles on the team, despite playing over a year with the same lineup. One member on the team had a different idea though, feeling his chances were better with some old pals.

Following the Boston Major, Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye had discussed his frustrations with Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen. MSL was his in-game leader during their time together on Dignitas and had helped guide Kjaerbye to stardom. His performance as a whole during that period in 2015 and early 2016 had earned him his place on Astralis. During this period, Kjaerbye had ignored all attempts by Astralis to make contact with him. Their worst fears were confirmed soon after when North had announced that Kjaerbye would be joining their active roster. It was one of the rare occasions that a team found out they were losing their own player via a press release.

Losing Kjaerbye with no warning left Astralis with less than three weeks to find a fifth player before StarSeries Season 4. Everyone assumed they’d grab the player Kjaerbye had replaced on North: Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke. K0nfig had showed superstar potential and his benching was a shock to many in the community. The truth is, they were eying someone else the whole time. On their radar was a young stud who was playing in North America on a mix-team that couldn’t get anything going. Astralis coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen had remembered the potential he saw in Emil “Magisk” Reif in 2017 and they decided to cash in.

Magisk showed great promise on multiple occasions while playing for Dignitas. Like k0nfig, he looked as if he was set to light the world ablaze in the years to come when you watched him. Somehow though, he fell through the cracks and wasn’t able to keep his level of play up when the team transition to the North organization. MSL seemed to prioritize Philip “aizy” Aistrup role-wise and it showed. North would go on to bench Magisk in August of 2017, where he would immediately join OpTic Gaming. OpTic’s new lineup would feature him alongside Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas, Adam “friberg” Friberg, Kevin “HS” Tarn, and Aleksi “allu” Jalli.

On paper, that OpTic lineup has a major issue that was never sorted out. It lacked proper in-game leading ability and instead featured a journeyman esque approach to the problem. They never accomplished a meaningful result in international competition. It was doomed from the start. Astralis losing Kjaerbye and subsequently reaching out to Magisk at this time could not have been more opportune. Their offer would not only change Magisk’s life, but it would help cement Astralis in the history books.

After two months and as many events with Magisk, Astralis hit a level of play that had never existed in CS:GO. Fnatic and SK Gaming had their periods of dominance, but neither of them compare. A victory for Astralis at DreamHack Masters Marseille was their first of the year and they would go on to win nine out of the next thirteen events they entered. As if each victory wasn’t already sweet enough, they captured another Major title in the process. Magisk went from the very bottom, to the absolute top in the span of a year. Fans will look back on this period as one of the most glorious in all of Counter-Strike. There is no guarantee that anything like it will ever happen again.

* Title Photo Courtesy of DreamHack