Magisk: "Train has been a big focus because we knew it was one of our weaker maps"

We talked to Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif after Astralis' triumph over MIBR in the quarter-finals at DreamHack Masters Stockholm.

Astralis have joined Ninjas in Pyjamas in the top half of the bracket's semi-finals after defeating MIBR 2-0, securing a convincing win on Overpass and a narrow victory on Train.

After the match, we caught up with Magisk to ask him about the match, their first time playing Train in over three months, and tomorrow's semi-finals against Ninjas in Pyjamas.

On Overpass against MIBR, it just looked so convincing after you were down 3-5, was there any specific adjustment that you made? What was it that made it so dominant for you from that point on?

I think the reason why, first of all, Lukas had a really good round, he saved one of the rounds on B site and from there, we just knew that the rounds we had already lost were on B. They really focused on coming B delayed in the rounds and we kind of adjusted into that and knew that they would probably keep doing that because that's what has worked for them and, therefore, we just changed our gameplan a little bit.

We played kind of passive on A and saved a lot of nades so that if they executed we would still have very good nades. And even if they went to B, there would be three guys there and we could still retake with some great nades and still win the round from that. So I think that was the adjustment we made.

Overall, we have played them a lot in the past on that map and I think they're just playing kind of in the same way as they used to back in the day, and also in that period they were abusing B because they knew sometimes we could be weak on it. We like to be aggressive on A, as well, so we're only two B sometimes, and that's why they abused it in the beginning and we just changed our gameplan a little bit.

Were you worried about playing Train next considering you hadn't played it for a such a long time, since Sydney? How was that experience for you?

Directly after Sydney we changed me and gla1ve, the positions, so I'm playing alley now. I think it was just more to make sure that if I had a bad game, gla1ve doesn't care if he plays bad, he just accepts it and he still talks and communicates and makes plans, and I think that's kind of what we needed on the CT side to make sure that we always had a plan and good ideas to do throughout the round. And that's why we decided to change me and him, to make sure that we always have the initiative. Even though alley might not be the best position, it's just the better for the team and that's why we did it.

We have actually practiced Train a lot and we have actually been really good on the map and we've been beating almost every top team on it, as well, so we actually feel confident on the map even though many people think it's one of our worst maps.

We have been working a lot on our T side, especially because that's usually been our weakest point on the map, so that's why we've been focused on improving that T side, watching demos of some of the really good teams on the map, stealing a few tactics and stuff like that. So it's been one of our biggest focuses because we knew it was one of our weaker maps and if we want to beat all the top teams, we have to be able to play that map.

Still, given your history on both sides, being so dominant on CT and lackluster on T, were you really comfortable with seven rounds as CT before the sides switched?

7-8 is not really the best scoreline for the CT side, so of course we knew that we had to play a really good T side and we knew that we couldn't afford to make stupid mistakes. We also had that feeling that we really needed the pistol round. And it was really important for us to get the momentum going and get the money control.

At least for myself, I was a bit worried, of course, but I knew if we played like we did in practice, where we just didn't lose first picks all the time, we didn't get into disadvantages all the time. On that map, if you lose entries it's really hard to win the round.

So we focused on not dying early in the rounds and then doing something to get us a good late round scenario, because we're really good in those situations when it comes to trading, high-pressure situations when it's low on time, and we know that we have a good feeling about how they play, the positions, etc. So we went in as a group, we didn't lose first blood in the beginning of rounds.

Tell me about the upcoming semi-final against NiP - what do you make of the matchup?

NiP has always been great when they have their crowd with them. I'm pretty excited to play them, it's been a long time since we have played them on LAN, actually.

They're looking decent, I don't think they're playing insanely well right now, but I still think they have some good momentum going right now and they're definitely going to be tough to beat with the crowd behind them. I think it's going to be a close best-of-three, I'm pretty sure it might even go to three maps.