Magisk: “I’m impressed with the older guys, they’re trying their absolute best to remove some of the habits they’ve played with for many years”

BC.Game have enjoyed a fruitful start to life with Emil “⁠Magisk⁠” Reif as its in-game leader and the reunited Mongolian duo of Azbayar “⁠Senzu⁠” Munkhbold and Ayush “⁠mzinho⁠” Batbold, having won Elisa Esports Breakout Series 1 on debut and securing a playoff berth at the Esports World Cup open qualifier in Paris.

The Danish in-game leader spoke to HLTV after advancing to the playoffs about his transition to a leadership role, stating there is plenty of work ahead as he and Wiktor “⁠TaZ⁠” Wojtas work to implement their system and culture across a slew of different personalities.

“Right now the focus is to implement the culture of me and TaZ, because we need to be comfortable, and then we can try to divert into getting everyone implemented into one culture,” Magisk said. “I think that’s the key: we want to create not just the Vitality, Astralis, or NAVI culture, we want to create the BC culture.”

Listen to the interview here.

I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything this big happen on LAN with this many big teams coming in for even an open qualifier part of it, and we have another 28 teams later. Tell me about the experience of the qualifying phase after you qualified for the second stage.

I get flashbacks to playing Copenhagen Games, bring your own computer, you know? It’s really weird being back at this stage of the league, if that makes sense. But honestly, it’s insane that we have so many teams here with full setups, everyone is playing at the same time. I don’t think this has ever been done before at this scale, and I think it’s amazing, because now we’re in a bracket where we’re fighting a lot for points.

This tournament gives a lot of teams an opportunity, also for going into the Major potentially. So even though it’s basically one big LAN, there’s so much on the line for every team, because this might be the difference between a good and a bad season, especially for us as a team. We want to go to the Major, but that also means we need a good result right here, right now.

So yeah, it’s a bit weird to be back in these places, but it’s also a bit refreshing to see how much hunger there is in the league and how much people want it. I think that’s something we need to focus on as a team too, because if we don’t fight for it here, and don’t give ourselves 100% and show a good version of ourselves, we will lose. 100%.

You were talking about how long it has been since you played at this kind of level, and now you have to take a step down. And you just came back from Finland, where you took the win, but there were a couple of moments where it got a little bit close. What has it been like for you to get adjusted to being back at this kind of level?

Honestly, I think it’s harder to play down here than against the big teams, because that’s the CS we’re used to playing. The styles are almost identical in the top 20, I’d say, and that’s what I’ve been playing for eight years in a row; that’s the CS I know. But when you take that step down, you realize people have good aim, insane skill, they’re very strong mechanically. The only difference is whether you’re good at teamplay, ping pong, doing good setups, and have good teamwork on T sides.

Honestly, the difference between tier-two and tier-one isn’t the mechanical [part]; it’s just a different play style: way more aggressive. You need to punish people, and if you don’t, you will get destroyed because people have good aim. That’s the difference we need to get used to as well, because we have a lot of people who are used to playing in the big leagues. This is something we’ve tried to get used to in practice, maybe focusing a bit more on playing against lesser good teams to get used to the styles, and that’s definitely something we’re still in the process of.

You came into this team to take over in-game leadership. You didn’t have a team since you had that quick Astralis stint at the end of last year, so over these last seven months, did this feel like the obvious next step, or did it just come down to the offer coming at this time?

I’ve been thinking about taking this role for a long time, not just the last year. It’s been a few years now, sometimes I’ve been offered if it was something I wanted to try in some of my previous teams too. I’ve always been told this role would fit me, and it’s something that especially zonic [said] he would like to see me in in the future. So it’s been on my mind for maybe one and a half, two years.

You get to the point where you want to have the influence with making decisions, deciding how the team should approach games, and in what way and what direction you want to go as a team. The tactical part has always been something I really loved, something I worked a lot with in my previous teams with the in-game leader and the coach, so I think it comes naturally for me. Of course there’s a lot to learn; I still have to learn calling and stuff. It’s been many years since I had that role in Astralis for like six months, so it’s a big task.

But I also believe it would be unfair to expect myself to be one of the best in-game leaders in one month. It will take time to get used to it, to be more fluent in the game when stuff goes wrong. I think that’s the biggest difference: when something goes wrong, can you rebuild the round as an IGL? That’s sometimes the biggest task as the captain, and if you don’t manage to do this properly, you can look silly sometimes.

With this team, we have a lot of skill, a lot of heavy-hitting people; that’s one of our biggest strengths, but we also have to understand the communication is still something we’re working on, and it can be a little chaotic sometimes. This is no one’s fault; we knew going in it would be part of it. But it’s a big task when you play and you have to react fast and react in the moment and stuff like this. This is something we’re trying to improve on as a team, because it is very important in CS that you can react very fast; everyone needs to know what’s happening and understand the rounds. That comes with good communication, so this is something that we’re trying to focus on.

I’m sure that also affects the way that you approach this team as a new in-game leader. How much do those limitations prevent you from expressing how you’d like to play the game, and how much has that come down to simplifying or making some concessions about how you want to play?

Sometimes I need to not make like, crazy fakes, double fakes, crazy big strats and stuff like that, because we need simplicity in the beginning. That’s the progress we’re making as a team, that right now we need to start with baby steps: becoming comfortable as a team, getting to know each other, playing on the fact that we have good aimers who aren’t scared of taking duels.

This is something I want to embrace with the team; I want them to be comfortable, especially the young guys. They have some of the biggest skill I’ve ever seen from pro players. So there are some limitations for now, but the more comfortable we become as a team, the easier it will be to take the next step in the playbook, like creating gimmick moves in our set strats and stuff like that. It’s going to take some time; nothing comes within one month. In the future, it will be better for me to express what I want to have implemented.

Tell me about the team’s culture. You have these two guys coming in from Mongolia who have never played in an international team before, with electroNic and s1mple, who come from a completely different school. Trying to mesh this all together, how is that working at the moment and how much have people been able to express what they want to do?

It’s an important question for the team in general, how the culture works together, and it’s still a work in progress [to define] how we are going to be as a team. I think it’s important that we don’t try to become one identity, because we have Denis [electroNic] and Sasha [s1mple], which is kind of one culture; then we have Senzu and mzinho, which is another, and then me and TaZ, which also comes from a culture in itself. So right now the focus is to implement the culture of me and TaZ, because we need to be comfortable, and then we can try to divert into getting everyone implemented into one culture.

I think that’s the key: we want to create not just the Vitality, Astralis, or NAVI culture, we want to create the BC culture. That means we need to speak Counter-Strike, talk Counter-Strike all the time, find out what people like, what people don’t like. That’s probably the hardest part of creating a team, is can you find this dynamic between the players? And this is something we need to [do], or otherwise we won’t be a successful team.

That’s also why we need to start somewhere, and that is where the easiest is where it’s me and the coach, who’s responsible for almost every strat and all these things, so it becomes easier to implement our style at the beginning, and then slowly see if we can create our identity as a team. It’s a big role for the IGL and coach to have success with this, and I think it’s going to be the difference-maker for whether we’re successful or not as a team.

It sounds like you and TaZ have hit it off, then.

I hope so. That’s obviously the plan. I didn’t join this project to sit and play online tournaments, sit at home, and not enjoy life, you know? Because I’ve achieved everything as a player, but I cannot be okay with playing at home. I need to be at the big leagues, the big tournaments, and this will take time. I also understand this is part of my new team, that we have to grind our way through the system. This might come fast, but it also might take some time, and this is part of the process as a team: that we need to be calm, even though we’re in a hurry at the same time.

I know I’m saying the words against each other, but I think that’s the key to the mindset: yes, we’re in a hurry to gather points, but we also need to focus on one day at a time, one mistake at a time. How can we improve on this map from practice to practice? If we focus on these things, and not on all the mistakes, have a bad mood and stuff like this, I think it makes a huge difference to the team.

As an example, I think it was very good that we lost a map today. It’s the first time as a team we’ve lost a map, and we didn’t play good CS. We didn’t play like we normally do, people were hesitating, not trading each other, not focusing on the next round, focusing on the mistakes instead.

We had a good talk after the game and told the team we have a decision to make: we can either go in with a bad mindset and lose, or reset and play like we normally do: playing for the team, sacrificing for each other, reacting when I’m calling something. The last map of the first game and the last game showed that when we have the mindset in the right place, focusing on all the good things we do, cheering each other on for a sick round, that’s when we really play good CS.

In general, I’ve been impressed with us being able to reset this fast because we have people with big personalities, and I think everyone already knows that from the outside. That’s also what a lot of people ask questions about: ‘How is Sasha? How is Denis?’ and all these questions.

So far, I’m impressed, even with the older guys, that they’re trying their absolute best to remove some of the habits they’ve played with for many years. Every time I see that when we bring something to them and they change it, it makes you proud, because it’s not easy being one of the GOATs of CS:GO, and then having people tell you, ‘ We need you to change this and this and this on some maps,’ and then you see him actually do it.

That’s a big step for me as a captain, seeing that every time we come with something, he actually tries it. It gives a lot of confidence to the team too, because he’s a big idol for the young guys, and when you have a personality like Sasha committing to the plan and buying into the plan, you will also get a much better effect from the young guys, because they see their idol going all in on this project. That’s a very good feeling.

I also wanted to ask about TaZ; you were talking earlier about it all being about you and the coach at the moment with your vision about how to play the game. From that, it sounded to me like you have an aligned vision of how to do this at the moment.

He comes from the G2 culture of playing, and I come from a similar structure, and also the way you play CS in general. When we had our first meeting together, we ended up… you know, you have this feeling like when you go to a job interview, sometimes it’s 30 minutes because you don’t have much to talk about. This one took three, three and a half hours, talking CS.

It was clear from the beginning that we had a lot of the same thoughts and ideas about how we want to play CS, and also how we want to build a team, and that was important for me, because it’s a big role for me and I still have a lot to learn. It’s important for me that I can also have my partner in TaZ to support me with this, and that we don’t have different views on how to play CS.

It’s a long road for me to become the best captain I can be. I have a lot to learn, both in the game and outside the server. You can have a big impact as a captain even outside of it. I’m still learning every single day, so it’s a good feeling that we’re aligned, at least for now, on how we want to play and how we want to build BC.