Emil Magisk Reif is the fourteenth Major MVP

Despite his youth, Emil Magisk Reif is one of the most decorated players in the world and is the subject of the highest-profile transfer story in the CS:GO world.

One of the best-known and most promising eSports talents, he was born on 5 March 1998 in Denmark. The young man has been playing Counter-Strike since he was eight years old and turned pro at the age of 18 when he joined the SK Gaming team under the nickname Magiskb0Y. Emil spent 9 months in the team that were a period of initial experience.  His first major successes were with Dignitas. However, the Dane’s star status began when he joined OpTic. Although this team did not belong to the top, but was quite noticeable on the pro scene.

And when a vacancy was created in the Astralis team following the departure of star Marcus Kjaerbye, roster player Danny Zonic Sorensen turned to Reif. Admittedly, Magisk was not a prime candidate for a place in the title-winning team. Initially, the coach wanted to bring in the well-established k0nfig, but then he changed his mind. And he wasn’t mistaken.

A triumph for the team and for the player was the MVP of the 2019 Majors in Katowice, when the Danes didn’t give their opponents a single chance. In that tournament, Astralis crushed serious and titled opponents such as Complexity, Cloud9 and MiBR. Emil Reif especially wowed the organisers and spectators with his brilliant play-off performance. At the end of the tournament, the young Dane was voted Most Valuable Player even though he was ranked lower than stars like Nikolai dev1ce Ridtz and Andreas Xyp9x Hoislet.

Next Astralis continued their victorious march, defeating all their opponents in the Berlin Majors. The pandemic and the switch to online competition had a very negative impact on the team. The team’s winning streak was interrupted, and in 2021 star Nikolai Ridtz left the team.

The PGL Major Stockholm 2021 was a failure for the Astralis, as the team dropped out of the competition before the play-offs. Shortly after that tournament, information emerged about Emil Reif’s imminent move to Team Vitality. Together with him the relegated Astralis players Peter dupreeh Rasmussen and Danny Zonic Sorensen announced their intention to change their cap. All three waited until their contracts with Astralis expired and signed with Team Vitality. 

In Team Vitality, Reif performs alongside another superstar, Mathieu ZywOo Herbaugh. Fans have been waiting for a very high result from such a tandem, but the two renowned and titled players apparently need a rather long period to “battle-ready”. Therefore, the results so far are not encouraging. But the fans are still waiting for the team’s performance in the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 with high hopes, and experts predict its entrance to the main part of the tournament, but are cautious with predictions about the possible success so far.

Emil Reif is currently the winner of three majors, a two-time MVP and a four-time HLTV top-20 ranking. On top of that, he’s also the sixth richest professional player in the CS:GO world.  And that’s despite the fact that he’s still fairly young and has a very promising future.