Sliding doors: what if Kjaerbye stuck with Astralis?

What might CS:GO have looked like had Kjaerbye stayed under the Astralis banner in 2018? 

Rewriting the Kjaerbye story

In May 2016, Astralis announced the signing of eighteen-year-old entry fragger Markus “Kjaerbye“ Kjærbye from Team Dignitas. Playing for Astralis for nearly two years, he would write himself into the history books by becoming the youngest ever Major MVP to date following the Danes’ win at the ELEAGUE Major 2017 in Atlanta. 

Kjaerbye would leave Astralis in early 2018 in an audacious move to Danish rivals North, but his career slowly plateaued over the next three years. Following some middling stints with FaZe Clan and HYENAS, Kjaerbye announced his retirement from professional CS:GO in June 2021 at the young age of just twenty-three, leaving behind a legacy of being one of the biggest ‘what if?’ storylines in the game’s history. 

Kjaerbye rides the Astralis wave 

If 2017 was the year Astralis announced their arrival on the big stage thanks to Kjaerbye and co., 2018 was where the org began to carve out their own era. For a record 406 days from April 2018 to May 2019, the side would hold the number one spot in the HLTV world rankings and would sweep to the latest three Majors at FACEIT London, IEM Katowice and StarLadder Berlin, becoming the first side to win three of these prestigious events in a row. 

The Astralis era saw the peak in powers of each player in the side’s setup, but it’s fair to say that Kjaerbye’s departure was not born out of a lack of form or talent and that he almost certainly would have ridden the wave of the org’s success throughout 2018 and beyond. 

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Kjaerbye maintained a healthy 1.04 HLTV rating across his Major-winning 2017 and, even after his move from Astralis, would hold the same rating until 2019. Interestingly, his record at Majors after dropping the Astralis banner would only improve, closing out StarLadder Berlin with a hefty 1.25 rating, comfortably ahead of the 1.06 he registered at ELEAGUE in 2017. 

With his already established chemistry within the Astralis core and his consistency at the top table of the game, Kjaerbye almost certainly would have racked up the silverware had he stayed put, and if he found the drive to continue competing, he could have even remained a part of the org’s lineup to this day, just as Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander still are. 

Magisk is denied his moment 

The man that replaced Kjaerbye following his earth-shattering move in early 2018 was former SK, Dignitas, and North rifler Emil “Magisk” Reif. The twenty-three-year-old has won three Majors, including an MVP performance of his own at IEM Katowice, and bagged three consecutive top twenty HLTV awards during his stint with Astralis.

Magisk had ended 2016 ranked as HLTV’s 16th best-ranked player after a string of impressive performances for SK and Dignitas, with his 1.17 rating on LAN that year showcasing his ability to perform on the stage. 

However, 2017 saw that rating drop to 1.04, and the Danish rifler was put on North’s bench for a month or so before a move to OpTic was sealed in August. A 5th-6th place finish at the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals was the highlight for Magisk at OpTic however and, having already played for all the recognized faces in the Danish scene, it’s hard to imagine where the young rifler might have found even an inch of the success he’s enjoyed had Kjaerbye stayed with Astralis. 

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Magisk was pried away from OpTic by Astralis so it’s safe to assume the Dane would have stayed in the NA region for a time, competing on the edge of the top table at a handful of S-Tier events a year, and his 2016 form that eventually proved to be a true reflection of his talent, meaning might well have gone down in the history books as a largely forgotten blip.

Instead, Kjaerbye’s decision to gamble his talents away from Astralis gave Magisk his shot at the big time, and it has since been proven to be an inspired decision by the org. Both players are the same age, boast similar playstyles, hold similar ratings around the 1.10 mark on the big stage, however, there’s no denying the direction their careers have gone since February 2018 could hardly be more different – and one has to wonder whether they would have swapped places in history had Kjaerbye opted against what seems like the most consequential roster move in CS:GO.