Heroic to Continue Working with Hunden Despite the Ban

The Danish CS:GO team Heroic has decided to continue working with their coach Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen, despite his ban by ESIC for the spectator bug abuse. While being unable to be with his team during official matches and participate in the draft, Petersen will continue to fulfil his duties as a coach and an analyst. Heroic CEO Erik Askered issued the following statement:

“As earlier mentioned, Nicolai’s mistake does not reflect the values or standards Heroic holds or wants to promote, but a mistake is a mistake. We all make them. After all, Hunden is our boy. We love him and he has so much to give this sport, that losing him would neither benefit Heroic, himself, or the pro scene. Our focus will now be to maintain the ranking we have fought hard for, and continue proving the world how good we are.”

Hunden was one of the first three coaches, alongside Ricardo "dead" Sinigaglia from MIBR, and Aleksandr "MechanoGun" Bogatiryev from Hard Legion, who was banned by ESL for the spectator bug abuse. Then ESL found out that Hunden used the bug during DreamHack Masters Spring in 10 rounds on 1 map, thus banning him for 12 months. Soon after the announcement Heroic suspended the coach and started an internal investigation.

Earlier this week the Esports Integrity Commission ESIC released the first report on their large-scale investigation into the historical abuse of the bug, issuing sanctions against 37 coaches. According to the report, Hunden used the bug twice – at DreamHack Masters Spring 2020 Europe in a match versus Astralis, and at Home Sweet Home Cup 5 in a match versus Team Spirit. However, the ban period was reduced by 20% to 8 months – most likely for assistance in investigation.

Hunden joined Heroic as a coach this April, shortly after ending his player career. With his help the team managed to reach the second place in the world team rankings – this summer the team emerged victorious at ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe and finished 2nd at IEM XV – New York Online Europe. Currently Heroic are competing at ESL Pro League Season 12 – today they will face Astralis (4:30 PM UK Time) within the first round of the playoffs upper bracket.

Hunden is not the first banned by ESIC coach to be supported by his organizations. Earlier similar statements were issued by OG, forZe, and Hard Legion.