The newest addition to our CSGO roster, Emil 'Magiskb0y' Reif, took some time to talk about the team’s recent success. He discusses the team’s impressive runs at Starladder and Dreamhack Bucharest, his personal performance, and future goals. Replacing Tenzki, Emil has brought more firepower to the team, achieving a 1.10 rating at the Starladder Season 2 LAN finals, and 1.25 at Dreamhack Bucharest. He has impressed the community with his consistently strong performances, and helped raise the Dignitas CSGO team to the next level. Emil looks to continue his great run of form at the WESG European & CIS regional finals!

A great two first months for you in the team achieving some commendable results in competitions and overall. How have you enjoyed your time with the team?

Magiskb0y: My time with Dignitas has been really great. We're having a lot of fun while still focusing on improving and winning as much as we can. So far it's been a really great decision to join up with these guys!





Since you joined, the team has been on an upwards trend going from 19th place on the HLTV ranking to 7th and you have had a plethora of great matches. Has MSL switched up the team's play style to suit you better or did you integrate into the team with ease? How different of a playstyle does this team have from your previous team?

Magiskb0y: It's always awesome to see that your hard work pays off. HLTV rankings didn't mention me much, but going from 19th to 7th is of course really nice and it shows that we have had many great results already with me on the team. In the beginning we tried changing a lot, for example MSL wasn't calling at the time, but lurking. That changed quickly as VALVE changed the coaching rules therefore, we had to swap it back to how they played with TENZKI and I just took over his positions / roles.



Playing on Dignitas is clearly different from playing with the ex-SK lineup. I had every position on ex-SK that I wanted, I played many of the better positions as the team set me up into good situations and advantageous positions. In Dignitas it's a little bit different because many of my old positions were already taken by k0nfig & cajunb. In the beginning it was really tough adapting to their playstyle, but it's slowly getting better and it's very awesome to see that we're improving from every event we play in together as a team!





The team has gone through an intense few weeks that consisted of two tournaments, the ELeague qualifier as well as a bunch of online matches mainly from ESL Pro League. Has it been tough playing so many games in a row?

Magiskb0y: So we had both Starladder & Dreamhack Bucharest in a row. We played decent at Starladder, where we ended up losing against G2 in the semi-finals and afterwards we played really good at Bucharest but sadly we lost the last map in the semi-final against VP because of our own stupid mistakes. This is obviously very common for a new team with very little practice, but still very disappointing of course! Being away for almost 14 days is never easy, but that's how it is. We play CS:GO to win titles, and you only do that by participating in tournaments :)





You brought the firepower that the team lacked and it has paid dividends as the team finished twice 3-4th at both StarLadder and DreamHack Open falling ever so slightly short in both semi-finals to the likes of G2 and VP. How did the team handle the losses, were they motivational?

Magiskb0y: Losing a semi-final is never easy. We lost map one where there was no doubt that they simply outplayed us but on map two it was a big disappointment as we threw away a very big lead after we played a very good first half. Losing against G2, as a very new team with not much practice is not something you should be disappointed about. Right after the game everyone was obviously disappointed as we felt like we should have won map two but today we're proud of it.



After that we went to Dreamhack Bucharest, where we ended up losing the third map against VP which still hurts to this day. I probably had one of my best offline series in my career, but we simply as a team made too many stupid mistakes which cost us the game. It hurts even more because it felt like we let them win because of our mistakes rather than getting outplayed. After the game everyone was disappointed, but it didn't take long until we moved on. Being so close is very motivating for the team and I'm sure we will get our titles soon!





The team has definitely improved drastically and looks to continue doing so. What is the next step in improving?



Magiskb0y: I think the next step for us as a team, to really become a solid top 8 team, is being more consistent and make less mistakes. It's very normal as a new team to make a lot more mistakes simply because you haven't played too much together yet. So for us the most important thing is to practice more!

Magiskb0y posing for a selfie with young fans

In both tournaments you lost your first match against GodSent/Faze and you also went on to beat them in the decider matches. How did you guys change your plan when facing the same opponent for the second time?

Magiskb0y: I don’t think I have ever won an opener match at an offline tournament so we just joked about it and tried to focus on our upcoming matches. We knew that if we had to play FaZe again we would have a good chance against them, as we felt like we just played a bad opening game against them. So we didn't change much, but we just tried to focus on our game and have good communication in-game.





You have been personally performing really well, could you tell us about your practice schedule?

Magiskb0y: I normally play 30 minutes of Aim Botz before practice and officials to warm up. I really wish I could play DM 24/7, but for me it's really boring and I don’t really feel like it helps me become a better player. I personally feel like you improve in practice with the team, and DM / Aim Botz is only to warm up.





Recently the team faced Astralis twice besting them in two Best-Of-Three's two-maps-to-one. It seems like the team has finally broken the curse of losing to Astralis. Do you believe it is right to call dignitas the best Danish team at the moment?

Magiskb0y: I don’t really care about who's the best team in Denmark as it really doesn't matter to me. I honestly only care about titles and winning. We might have won the last two Best-Of-Three's, but that doesn't change the fact that they have achieved much more as a team than we have. I think it's great that we have many good teams in Denmark as it helps keep us motivated and wanting to beat each other.





What are your personal goals for the remainder of the year?

Magiskb0y: I reallly hope we can keep improving and perhaps win a tournament. The most important for the rest of this year is to qualify for the next Major in January. It would be a big step for me as I have never attended a Major before.





If you could implement one feature either new or old into CS:GO which would it be?

Magiskb0y: I was really young when I played 1.6, but I played it a lot and I really miss wallbanging from 1.6. It would be really awesome to bring back, or perhaps let us choose between M4A4 / M4A1-S in game.





Would you like to give a shout-out?

Magiskb0y: Shout-out to Team Dignitas and all of their sponsors who helps us travel around the world and do that we love!

The team signing autographs after the game

Thank you Magisk for the interview. The staff and I wish you and the team the best of luck during the upcoming WESG, EPICENTER: Moscow, and the major qualifiers! We hope you and the rest of the guys can achieve some great results!



Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Magiskb0Y/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Magiskb0Y

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/magiskb0y_tv

GL&HF