Falcons bid farewell to Magisk

The Saudi organization is parting ways with the four-time Major winner, who had been benched in June.

Falcons have announced that benched player Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif has been released from his contract.

The 27-year-old has linked up with Astralis, the organization with which he won three of his four Major titles, as a replacement for Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund, who is stepping down from the roster due to personal reasons.

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Astralis confirm Magisk return

Magisk joined Falcons in December 2023 amid an overhaul of the team, which also welcomed Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer, Pavle "⁠Maden⁠" Bošković and Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García from ENCE. He was later joined by his former Astralis and Vitality teammate Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen.

Falcons struggled for results in 2024, which led to another, even more ambitious rebuild at the end of the year.

With players like Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen on the roster, Magisk finally lifted a trophy with Falcons as the team won PGL Bucharest. The Saudi organization then completed the blockbuster signing of G2 AWPer Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, who immediately helped the team to back-to-back final appearances at IEM Melbourne and BLAST Rivals Spring.

But amid the sequence of deep runs, Falcons were already plotting another big transfer, that of 17-year-old prodigy Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin.

Initially, it was reported that the Spirit Academy talent would replace TeSeS, but the player on the chopping block ended up being Magisk, who made his final appearance in a Falcons jersey at the Austin Major, where the team was eliminated in Stage 2.