Magisk: "Getting over that bump to start progressing as a team again, that’s what I think we did today"

Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif took some time for an interview with HLTV after surprising many with an upset of ENCE.

Vitality have struggled to make the Franco-Danish super team work and it seemed BLAST Spring Finals would be no exception, the team having suffered a reverse sweep by G2 before dropping a map in victory against paiN.

A quarter-final matchup with world #2 ENCE blew that perception out of the water as Vitality marched to a 2-0 victory, confidently taking Overpass before clinching their opponents map pick of Nuke in overtime.

Fresh from the landmark victory Magisk gave an in-depth interview to HLTV covering every facet of the win, as well as addressing his team's struggles with communication.

Congratulations on making the arena! What were you expecting from that series, because I imagine you weren’t expecting the 2-0?

No, ENCE have been proving themselves a top team, a solid top-four team in the world, so obviously we knew it was going to be a tough match, we knew we were going to be the underdogs. We don’t have people expecting us to beat them right now, we haven’t been playing our best Counter-Strike lately, so obviously it’s a really good result for us and we are really happy that we managed to win 2-0.

We understood a lot about how they played, we have seen a lot of preparation about them and the way they love to play, the way they rotate, and in general their game-style. I think we made a good plan for that today, and had a good understanding of how they were going to play out situations, obviously they have good individual players so its not easy, but we played really good as a team and also stepped up individually today.

Talking about some specifics, you posted a really strong T side on Overpass, getting 9 rounds. How were you able to do that?

Again, I think it game down to the game plan that we made today, and I think that whole game philosophy we made for them was something that we had a lot of success with in the beginning of that T side, then obviously they started adapting and started to figure out the way we were playing. They started to get a good string of rounds, but we managed to take the last round in the half, but everything matters (smiles).

I think it was the game plan today, and also that people stepped up individually. The communication, obviously sometimes it’s going to be a bit stressful, but it was a lot better today than it usually is in those kind of situations, and it’s definitely something that we have a lot of focus on, trying to keep it as calm as possible. We know it’s not perfect right now, but everything takes time and we know that, it’s something we are working and having a lot of focus on.

Even though it sounds like there is a lot of chaos sometimes, we still also have good rounds where we have good communication, and people are doing good calls, stuff like that. It takes time.

Talking about communication, I heard at one point during the series dupreeh say “go French”. Is that something you often say to the Frenchies, and I assume you will sometimes switch to Danish?

Yeah. We have to be honest that the communication is not the best right now, it’s definitely not on the level we want it to be, and maybe also a bit below the level you need for a top team right now. Obviously it’s something we know, and right now we want to be as good as possible, right now we want to win, so we want the French to go to French when they have the opportunity, it’s something we say when we see them alive, we say “go French”.

It's a lot more fluid and easier for them, when you play a tournament you want to win, and if it gives us a better chance of winning it’s definitely something we will do. Obviously we need to work for it in the future to make it more fluent when we speak English, of course, but yeah as I said that takes time.

Is that a short-term fix then, or will you take advantage of it in future?

I think it’s a mix of both, obviously right now it’s a fix in the moment (laughs) but I also think it’s a good thing in some way, if three French people are alive and speaking French, I can still speak you know? I can still say like “one heaven, one main,” stuff like that, I can still speak and give information. I think it’s good when they have those situations, and I think we will continue doing it in the future in some way, but it started as an in-the-moment fix.

Looking to Nuke, you seemed to have some struggles on the CT side of that map. What happened there?

The gameplan we made was not working so well (laughs). We had a gameplan, and I think they switched up a little bit from what we expected, that is just credit to them for having a good T side. I’ll be honest, our CT side was not really working that well, I think we lost a 1vs2 clutch in a round…

Yeah hades posted a couple early in the game

Yeah, and then they started getting a little bit of momentum, and we got a little bit more scared in some way, and I think it’s a natural thing but obviously if we had a clutched a little bit on CT it could have been a bit closer. They also played really good, and I think they had a good understanding of how we wanted to play CT as well.

By contrast the T side started off really well, it looked like you would close it out, then it faltered. Why do you think that was the case?

I think the gameplan, again (smiles), because today I think it was the gameplan that managed to get us through this game. I think it worked really well, we managed to punish them a little bit in the beginning and we knew the way they wanted to rotate and took advantage of that, and then they adapted.

We actually expected the AWP to start, because we were abusing under a little bit in the beginning, to start going under, but in some way we got caught a bit by the AWP anyway. That was our own mistake, obviously you can never know how people are going to react and adapt, but I remember one guy in the team said the AWP was going to start rotating under. We kept going under, we got punished a little bit, and then they got the momentum as well, but that’s Counter-Strike sometimes. It was a good adaptation from them, that was what got them into the lead again.

Towards the end, in OT, things got chaotic on the server, right?

Yeah (laughs).

What do you think got you through, it seemed like you were in good spirits throughout?

I think the fact that we, for once actually (laughs), managed to stay a little bit calm and play the situations. Even though we went 4vs5, we played the situations instead of going full individual, we still played together and went together as a unit, but of course we also did some sick individual shots. If you want to win rounds in a disadvantage you need individual plays, but we did it together as a team and that’s what managed to get us through the overtime today.

We did lose the first round I think on T, where Snappi pushed ramp, and it’s small things like apEX taking out his knife in the moment he pushes, and he gets a double kill instead of us perhaps winning the round, so that’s the chaos, but that’s what we love about Counter-Strike.

One final question and then I’ll let you go. Your team has been talking about wanting to see progress, that it doesn’t need to be a tournament win but you want to feel like you are on the right path. Do you feel that right now?

I’ll be honest, I think we have been standing still the last one, one and a half months. I think the progress started a little bit, and I think it’s a natural process, you progress a lot at the beginning and everyone is very motivated. It’s not because people are not motivated now, but being disappointed again and again is tough you know, and it’s obviously tough mentally as well that you know exactly how good you can be as a team and the potential, but you are not proving it yet.

I for a long time have said that in some way we just need one good result to start unleashing our potential, and this is a really good step in the right direction. I’m not gonna sit here and say in the next few tournaments we are going to win everything, that’s not how it works, but I think sometimes you need a little bit of success. Getting over that bump to start progressing as a team again, that’s what I think we did today, and also the chance to get experience playing in front of a crowd together. I’m going to be honest it’s been a really long time since I played in front of a crowd…

Of course, with COVID and everything I imagine it was a while ago…

It was 2019.

Really? Wow…

Yeah, December 2019 in Bahrain, so it’s been a long time.

Not that you remember the exact date or anything.

(laughs) I do, I do!