When Emil “Magisk” Reif joined Astralis in early 2018, it was almost by accident. Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye, the team’s young star and MVP of their first Major, had just shocked the world by leaving for North, a rival project backed by the FC Copenhagen football club and Nordisk Film, with heavy resources and big ambitions. For Astralis, it felt like betrayal, a devastating blow to their stability. They needed a replacement. They found Magisk.
That twist of fate changed everything. With Magisk, Astralis didn’t just recover, they became the greatest team Counter-Strike has ever seen. Now, years later, he returns. And the question is simple: can the man who once built a dynasty spark another?
Astralis Before the Storm
Astralis had reached the pinnacle in early 2017 by winning the ELEAGUE Major in Atlanta, the first Danish team to ever lift a Major trophy. They had established themselves as tactical innovators, led by gla1ve’s system, device’s flair and finesse, dupreeh’s consistency, the clutch mastery of Xyp9x, and the youthful firepower of Kjaerbye.
But after that triumph, results began to stagnate, with only a top 4 at the next Major. FaZe was rising, SK Gaming was still around, and Astralis looked fragile under the pressure of expectations, eventually falling to a 12th–14th place at the ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018. Something was broken, but nothing seemed likely to change, hard work, they hoped, would bring them back to the top.
Then came the earthquake. Their MVP, Kjaerbye, chose to leave. His decision to join North, a local rival that represented money, ambition, and the promise of being “the future of Danish CS”, sent shockwaves through the scene. Astralis had lost their wonderkid. The empire seemed to be crumbling before it had truly begun.
Less than 2 hours before the press conference, we found out Kjaerbye has signed with North. Speechless. And more motivated than ever!, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
Magisk: The Accidental Savior
The solution was Magisk. At the time, he wasn’t the obvious choice. His talent was undeniable, especially at just 19, but his runs with North and OpTic had been inconsistent. He arrived at Astralis as a last-minute replacement, not as the franchise savior.
But almost instantly, everything clicked. With Zonic’s backing, Magisk slotted into the system seamlessly. His rifling gave Astralis the stability and consistency they were missing. gla1ve regained full control of his tactical vision, device shined again, dupreeh found balance, and Xyp9x thrived once more in the shadows.
The Greatest Team in Counter-Strike History
What followed was nothing short of historic. Astralis didn’t just win, they dominated. Their use of utility set new standards for how Counter-Strike was played. Their teamplay became legendary. From 2018 to 2019, they crushed every rival, lifting trophies at DreamHack, ESL Pro League, ECS, BLAST, ELEAGUE, IEM, First Intel Grand Slam and more.
Most importantly, they etched their names into history by winning three consecutive Majors: London 2018, Katowice 2019, and Berlin 2019. No team had ever displayed such control over the game. Astralis weren’t just champions, they weren’t just part of an era, they were a dynasty.
And Magisk, the “accidental” signing, became one of its pillars. Calm, consistent, and clutch when needed most, he was the missing piece that turned Astralis into the greatest Counter-Strike team ever assembled. He even earned a Major MVP in Katowice 2019, proving that Kjaerbye’s departure only made Astralis stronger.
Downfall and Diverging Roads
Then the dynasty fell apart. Astralis, weighed down by burnout, internal issues, and failed roster moves, slowly collapsed. Device was the first to leave in 2021, then Magisk and dupreeh in 2022, before Xyp9x and gla1ve saw the project crumble in 2023. The team that once seemed invincible became a shadow of itself, missing out on titles, cycling through players, and losing its aura of invincibility.
In just four years, Astralis went from a model of stability to chaos. With only six players during the dynasty, they cycled through 17 after it: JUGi, es3tag, Bubzkji, Lucky, k0nfig, blameF, Farlig, MistR, Buzz, Altekz, b0RUP, Staehr, stavn, jabbi, br0, cadiaN, Hooxi. Almost all failed. In the same amount of time, 4 years, Astralis ruined careers instead of building legacies.
Meanwhile, Magisk carried on. After leaving Astralis, he joined Vitality with dupreeh and zonic, where he reinvented himself once more, and in 2023, he lifted his fourth Major trophy in Paris, this time as part of another legendary lineup alongside ZywOo. While Astralis spiraled downward, Magisk’s star kept rising.
Falcons, The Wrong Bet
But success didn’t last forever. In late 2023, Magisk made a bold move by leaving Vitality, a stable, Major-winning project with the best player in the world, to join Falcons, an ambitious organization backed by Saudi money and massive resources. On paper, it looked like a golden opportunity. In practice, it was a disaster.
The project never found its footing. Results collapsed, and Magisk missed the first two CS2 Majors. The player once praised for his consistency, reliability, and big-match performances became a target of ridicule, with fans and pundits calling for him to be benched.
Ironically, he had fallen into the same trap as Kjaerbye years earlier: abandoning a winning team for promises of money and a bright future that never materialized.
Coming Home
Now, in 2025, Magisk returns to Astralis. And while no one expects history to repeat itself so perfectly, the symbolism is undeniable. The man who once turned crisis into dynasty is back.
This time, the landscape is different. Device has already come home, bringing back stability and star power. With Hooxi at the helm, the project looks steadier than it has in years, slowly rebuilding its identity after seasons of chaos. Astralis is no longer the all-conquering giant of 2018, and Magisk will never have the same transformative impact he once did. But that doesn’t make the story any less beautiful.
For Astralis fans, his homecoming is more than just a roster move. It is a reminder of the glory days, of a time when the team defined excellence and rewrote the history of Counter-Strike. And it is a chance, however slim, that those days might return. Magisk was the missing piece once. Now he comes home to try again, not to build a dynasty from scratch, but to close the circle of a legendary story.
