Official: ESIC Ban HUNDEN for Two Years

Former Heroic coach Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen has been banned by Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) for two years. After a two-month investigation the commission came to conclusion that HUNDEN had shared Heroic’s confidential information with a competitor.

According to the investigation, HUNDEN was negotiating his transfer to another team prior to IEM Cologne, which was also a participant of the event. During these talks, the coach shared some confidential information, including but not limited to “anti-strategies” on other teams. The commission believes that Heroic’s competitor did not access the shared information, thus the integrity of the event was not breached.

ESIC has decided to ban HUNDEN from competing in all competitions organized by its members, among which are ESL, DreamHack, WePlay, BLAST and others. The commission also asks other tournament operators to honour their ruling. The ban has already started on August 25th and will expire on August 24th, 2023.

Earlier HUNDEN admitted that he shared “anti-strat material of opponents” with his colleagues from other teams “in the context of sparring”, however denied that this information was confidential and specified that it did not include his team strategies. Heroic did not agree with his point of view, accusing him of breaking their contract, firing him and starting a legal process in Denmark.

HUNDEN also accused ESIC in refusing to hear him out and threatening him with a five-year ban should he make an appeal. The commission responded that both claims are false – they have been reaching to him for a respond, but the coach “failed to provide any reply of substance relevant to the charge made against him”. They also offered him a plea bargain and allowed him to make an appeal with a risk of receiving a more harsh sanction by an independent appeal panel.

This is the second time HUNDEN receives a ban from ESIC – last year he was banned for eight months for abusing a camera bug. Then the coach claimed that he acted on his own without knowledge of his teammates. Now however, he claims that he discussed the bug with his teammates, and some of them knew he used it during official matches. Apparently he has evidence supporting this claim, but hltv report that ESIC did not receive them. Heroic deny these accusations.

Jacob "Pimp" Winneche, former professional player, analyst and streamer, revealed that he reviewed the evidence from HUNDEN and believes that it is “highly probable he’s telling the truth”. The roster in question consisted of three players who still play for Heroic, such as Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen, and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund, as well as Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen (now in OG) and Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup (now in MAD Lions).

HUNDEN was considered one of the main candidates to replace Danny "zonic" Sørensen in Astralis, when his contract expires by the end of the year. The team is currently rebuilding its roster as most of its members have contracts that expire before 2022. The team was also among the participants of IEM Cologne.