ODENSE, Denmark -- There's no doubting Astralis have been in the conversation as the best Counter-Strike team for months.

After their victory in Odense, they now enter a new league: Are they the best esports team of all time?

Claiming the Intel Grand Slam following their four wins at international LANs across nine months, beating a peak Team Liquid at one event and MIBR at another, there's no doubting their place in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hierarchy. There is certainty in 2018 being the year of Astralis, with their era characterized by the moment the S8 trophy was lifted.

ESPN sat down with Emil "Magisk" Reif directly after the win to discuss everything from the veto to mind games, individual performances, historical significance and who can beat them.

ESPN: First question I had to ask was about the veto. Were you expecting the Nuke ban from Liquid? How did it alter your plans for the series, if at all?

Magisk: Actually we knew they were going to veto Nuke. We were as prepared as you can be on Train but they haven't really played it in forever so it's really hard to do anti-stratting on it. We knew they would do momentum calls on the T-side because in general the only way they can beat us is with momentum calls. And we knew that. But we lost some rounds I think we could've won. We had the edge but, in the end, they won the rounds and that made us in bad economy. I think if we had won [those key rounds] things would have been a lot different. I don't think there's so much to say about [the Train game] except for maybe we should've closed out some of the rounds and that would've changed a lot in the game.

We knew they would veto Nuke because NAF -- he told me once -- I mean, he didn't "tell" me but he said at an after-party that he felt like they had to do something different to beat us. And from that I knew. Also when TwistZz tweeted that "27-1," we knew there was something. They also said in interviews they kind of hid like a plan to play against us. So it was kind of obvious that they would leave Train open. Other than that, I think it could've gone both ways if we had won some of the rounds. But in the end I think they had a really good start on T-side.

And things obviously turned around massively on Mirage. Gla1ve dropped 120 odd ADR; you started getting hyped with the crowd. Is that what this map in the series felt like to you as well?

Magisk: Honestly I felt like I was not getting so many chances to be able to do crazy plays or stuff like that. If we won the rounds I would have my impact but in my positions it's tough if we lose first picks. Like, if we're on the T-side when everything goes down it's really tough for me to have an impact. So in that sense it was difficult for me to get going but I knew that my team was always there. We had some great clutches. In general I think we started to get the momentum going back on the CT-side. Especially when we won the two retakes on A. I think they were the swing rounds on Mirage that made us win that.

It was obvious every time they went B they got shot down really fast. The only success they had was on A. In general they really like finishing on A. Today I felt like they felt like they had no chance of beating us on B so they kept going A. So in some rounds we just played retake A and trusted in our retakes and I think it went really well even though some rounds could've gone either way. But that's just how it is when you play retake A. I think we kept it cool and made sure we helped each other in those situations. In general I felt like we had good control of it even though some of those rounds were really close.

Is it hard for you to get back into the game on T-side when Device isn't going huge as well, in that sense? We saw him not necessarily live up to the big star player he's often hyped as in some key moments. How did this affect you individually, if at all?

Magisk: To be honest, on that T-side he doesn't really play that much AWP. In general, it's really tough for the AWPer to have a lot of impact, and he didn't really get rolling -- that's just the way it is sometimes. But both gla1ve and Xyp had really good games. I had one really good round on the T-side as well [and] that 4k, which was really good as well. That was really important. But even if Device doesn't have a good game we can still win. He doesn't have to play his best for us to win. And I think that's really awesome to play on a team that even though -- what people consider the star player is Device -- even when he has a bad game, gla1ve and Xyp9x and me and dupreeh go off to win the game. I think that's really awesome and one of the reasons why we're so good. It doesn't matter if one isn't performing because the rest can step up and I think that's really, really good and also the reason why we won so much this year.

Was there a similar process in the improvement of your Dust II game as there was in your Mirage game? People often talk about Mirage being one of your worst maps, yet you seem so strong on it recently. This is similar to how there was that 16-1 on Dust II, some close results on it recently, and now you beat Liquid so convincingly?

Magisk: In general I think that we feel really good on Dust II. And today we lost some stupid rounds, a 4v2, and some other rounds where we had all the advantages and if we didn't lose those rounds then we would get money control and they would eco. In general, that could've been a 11-4, 10-5 instead of them having them nine rounds. It's difficult to explain how we lost those rounds but they're rounds we shouldn't lose. If we hadn't lost them then I'm pretty sure we would've stomped them on Dust II.

Members of Astralis celebrate after winning the ESL Pro League Season 8. Provided by ESL

I felt like we knew everything they were doing. We were expecting everything and they were still able to win some rounds even though we had complete knowledge of what they were doing. We feel good on Dust II. And Mirage is obviously one of the maps people always pick against us because people think we're weak on it. But honestly we're really good on it. We beat all the best teams on Mirage. In a Bo5 or Bo3 we don't mind playing it because we know we can beat any team on it if we perform. In general we feel comfortable on every map. Obviously there's some maps we feel more comfortable on like Nuke and Inferno as well. We feel like Inferno is one of our best maps. Of course Dust II and Mirage is like a 50/50 sometimes but we like both of them and feel like we have a good hang of them.

A big element of this win was also the context of Liquid's results in the playoffs. They seemed flawless against everyone but yourselves. It's also a big deal you were able to beat a seemingly peak MIBR at ECS. What's the key to beating two different teams playing at such high levels?

Magisk: I mean Liquid has been stomping every team at this tournament, but to be honest, I think they were just as good today as they were against MIBR. I think it's us just being so good as a team and being able to come back all the time. Once you get the momentum away from Liquid they start making stupid decisions, over peeking -- they lose those insane individuals. I think that's one of our strengths, being able to push people out of their comfort zones, and make them not believe in themselves. Just being in their heads all the time, and show people that we are the best team and that even though you might be in front of us we are still going to keep coming back. It's about making sure they feel the pressure in every round. I think that's why they didn't stomp us today. It's hard to play against because we can always change our game plan. We can always swap our play style around. Everyone on the team is really good at communicating and so in those clutch situations we always have such an advantage because we're so good at communicating.

So who can beat Astralis?

Magisk: There's a lot of teams who are playing really good CS and on the right day I think many of the teams can beat us. I think it also has to come with us not playing to our top level. But I think it's Na`Vi, Liquid, maybe even FaZe on a good day with their superstars going off. All these teams can be tough to play against -- they play really good CS. Even MIBR can have good games and you see how close we play against them. I think there's a lot of potential for those teams to beat us in the future. It's tough for me to sit down and say but that's also the reason we want to improve all the time. We know people are working to get close to us. Of course we can feel people are getting closer to us. So it's about us sitting down and figuring out what we can do better -- new strategies, fake -- we always try to implement new stuff even if we don't have a lot of practice. We always try to evolve the game and stay ahead of the enemy and that we have a game plan going into a match.