In all of professional CS:GO, Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen has recently become a community member with by far the most controversial reputation. As Heroic’s coach, he was one of the 37 coaches banned for abusing the camera bug. Nevertheless, the organization believed in him and decided to give him a second chance. Apparently, the trust was misplaced.
Turns out, HUNDEN shared confidential information with the Danes’ main rival, Astralis, who he was supposed to join after his contract with Heroic expired. The CS.MONEY Blog is here to address Dane’s misdeeds and look back on his coaching career.
Beginning of coaching career
As a player, HUNDEN has always been a strategist who had an excellent understanding of the game, rather than a strong rifler. His teams lacked firepower. That was probably the reason why Nicolai switched to coaching.
In April 2020, HUNDEN became Heroic’s coach. His leadership did wonders for the squad. When Petersen had just assumed the position, the Danes were #25 in the HLTV ranking. At the end of August, after the team had won ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe, Heroic secured second place.
Ban & second chance
ESIC banned Nicolai for exploiting the camera bug in September 2020. Petersen used the bug twice, in matches against Astralis (10 rounds) and Spirit (13 rounds). At first, he got a 12-months suspension, but later ESIC decided to reduce the punishment to 8 months because of HUNDEN’s assistance in the investigation.
HUNDEN fully admitted his guilt and specified that none of the players were aware that he was abusing the bug. Heroic conducted its own internal investigation and suspended Nicolai from coaching the team. However, HUNDEN remained part of the organization as an analyst. This decision came in for a lot of criticism. Heroic never hired a new coach to replace Petersen, so HUNDEN apparently continued to act like the club’s coach.
New scandal
The bug scandal eventually died down, and the coaches were waiting for their bans to expire. Nicolai’s ban was lifted in April this year. It seemed like the whole matter was a thing of the past and it was time for a clean slate.
But HUNDEN chose a different path. Two days before the start of IEM Cologne 2021, Heroic announced that Nicolai wouldn’t go to Cologne with his team. The organization didn’t specify the reasons. Rumor had it, HUNDEN was to become the coach of Astralis; according to the common belief at the time, this was the main factor at play.
On July 28, HUNDEN posted a tweet that later came to change his entire career. He wrote that he had no intention to renew his contract with the organization, stating that he was accused of giving access to Heroic’s stratbook to other teams.
Soon enough, Heroic gave an official response: HUNDEN had missed IEM Cologne 2021 due to a “lack of trust.” After he learned this, Nicolai blocked players’ access to the document with the tactics. Heroic confirmed they suspected Petersen of leaking this document to a third party.
Heroic sued Nikolai, broke his contract unilaterally, and relayed the information to ESIC (Esports Integrity Commission) and ESL, who launched their own investigations.
ESIC’s decision
On August 27, ESIC ruled to ban HUNDEN for two years. The day before, Nicolai gave an interview. He said ESIC hadn’t given him an opportunity to respond to the charges and threatened to impose stricter measures in case of an appeal. At this point, Petersen apparently decided he had nothing to lose. He soon claimed the Heroic players knew about the coaching bug and were aware that HUNDEN was using it (even though he had previously claimed otherwise). However, the 30-year-old Dane didn’t name specific nicknames.
Petersen’s statement didn’t go unnoticed. According to reporters from TV 2 DK, ESIC is going to conduct an additional investigation regarding the Heroic players. TV 2 DK has obtained documents that prove that the players knew about the bug. ESIC hasn’t yet launched an official investigation into the matter.
Why did ESIC suspend Nikolai for two years and what new facts surfaced during the investigation? On the whole, we learned nothing new.
Here are the conclusions ESIC came to:
- HUNDEN was negotiating with another team;
- HUNDEN was sharing anti-strats and other information that could have been potentially useful for the opponent;
- The recipient of this information never took advantage of it, and IEM Cologne 2021 was a fair competition;
- Nevertheless, HUNDEN disseminated this information when he was under contract with Heroic, negotiating with another team. Nicolai knew full well that at IEM Cologne 2021, Heroic might face the team to which he had passed confidential information.
Besides, ESIC stated that Petersen’s public statement on Twitter dated July 28, 2021, about “leaking” anti-strat materials was essentially an admission of guilt. Combined, all these factors led to a verdict with which Heroic fully concurred. HUNDEN has yet to comment upon the situation.
Questions to ESIC & answers from Heroic and HUNDEN
Prior to the ESIC’s official announcement, the community’s general attitude towards the ex-coach of Heroic was negative. For instance, former FaZe Clan coach and tournament analyst Janko “YNk” Paunović said Petersen deserved a permanent ban if he had indeed leaked his team’s tactics.
When ESIC announced its decision, the community immediately expressed concerns. Leaking tactics and leaking anti-strats — those are two different things. Particularly if we factor in the circumstances: HUNDEN was busy transitioning to another team and could have said too much in the negotiations.
ESIC didn’t answer all the questions — but HUNDEN and Heroic did. Nicolai admitted that he had indeed given the data to an Astralis employee. Additionally, Petersen spoke about a conflict with one of Heroic’s representatives. He said the management had tried to resolve the issue by offering the Dane better contract terms, a new apartment, and a car. HUNDEN could even have become a part-owner of Heroic. Soon, however, the rhetoric of the bosses changed drastically and became outright aggressive. In an attempt to exact revenge, he leaked the info in question. However, HUNDEN assured that there was no way the intel could’ve harmed Heroic.
The organization has a different opinion on the matter. Heroic said that the leaked documents contained tactics for certain situations, depending on the map, location, and the phase of the round. Some documents were even written by the players.
Of course, HUNDEN must be punished. He had no right to share confidential information. But why such a long ban? A two-year suspension basically means the end of his career. If the coaching bug incident had an impact on the decision, ESIC should have mentioned it in their statement.
Cases like the one at hand lack transparency, facts, and reasoning. Particularly on the part of ESIC. For one thing, why is it Heroic and not ESIC who’s answering the question “What exactly did HUNDEN leak?” Or why didn’t the report mention the team to which HUNDEN leaked info (Astralis)? We only learned this from rumors and Petersen’s own words.
This is not the end
In CS:GO, scandals are all-too-common. The camera bug, the Akuma incident at the RMR tournament — and now HUNDEN and his fight against Heroic. There’s probably no way to avoid such unfortunate situations. What can be done, however, is to develop rules which will regulate the matches and to competently convey these rules to the entire community, from beginners to pros. Naturally, this is all ESIC’s primary objective.
Even though ESIC has already pronounced the verdict as regards HUNDEN, the consequences of this story are yet to be seen. Will there be an investigation into the Heroic players and if so, what will be the outcome? Will we learn the name of the mysterious “Astralis employee” to whom HUNDEN passed the confidential information? The CS.MONEY Blog will keep an eye on the situation and report updates in this article. Stay tuned!
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