Astralis fined $100k for conflict of interest over HUNDEN relationship AstralisThe Executive Board of the Louvre Agreement has imposed a fine of $100,000 on Astralis in a conflict of interest case involving CS:GO coach and analyst HUNDEN. The Executive Board of the Louvre Agreement, a partnership between ESL and 15 organizations, announced that an independent investigation found that Astralis \u201casked for and received services from a future employee between April and July 2021, which created a conflict of interest as that party held a position of authority within a competitor team.\u201d The case in question refers to Nicolai \u2018HUNDEN\u2019 Petersen, who was coaching Heroic at the time, Astralis\u2019 Danish rival. The 32-year-old was Astralis\u2019 priority to take over the team as head coach Danny \u2018zonic\u2019 S\u00f8rensen was entering the final months of his contract with the organization. Independent reporter Richard Lewis revealed earlier this year that HUNDEN was offered a coaching role by Astralis in March 2021. He would sign the document the following month. \u201cIt [Astralis] did not report this to league authorities and the competing team itself,\u201d a statement from the Executive Board read. \u201cThis was found to be a breach of the regulations of the Louvre Agreement.\u201d According to the Executive Board, the inquiry determined that \u201cno competition or match results were impacted\u201d by HUNDEN\u2019s actions. HUNDEN was in August 2021 slapped with a two-year ban by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) for this case. According to the esports watchdog\u2019s investigation, HUNDEN was found guilty of sharing sensitive information with a competitor ahead of IEM Cologne without Heroic\u2019s knowledge. ESIC\u2019s findings showed that, at the time the material was shared, HUNDEN was already negotiating a move to Astralis. Though the files were never accessed by the recipient, his actions still \u201ccreated a threat to the integrity of the tournament\u201d and to the \u201creputation and competitive integrity of esports, and ESIC\u2019s member ESL.\u201d In December 2022, ESIC announced that HUNDEN\u2019s ban had been lifted following an in-person meeting between the two parties. The Danish coach agreed to undertake \u201crelevant training\u201d, while the esports watchdog pledged to \u201creview its policies and procedures to ensure they are consistent with good industry practice and fit for purpose\u201d. Astralis and HUNDEN respond to fine The CEO of Astralis, Anders Horsholt, admitted to being \u201csurprised and disappointed\u201d with the conclusion of the inquiry, but accepted the verdict, stressing that his organization \u201cworked closely and collaboratively\u201d with the ESL Pro League Commissioner\u2019s Office throughout the process. In a statement posted on Twitter, HUNDEN stressed that the investigation \u201cconcluded that there was no ground for sanctioning me.\u201d \u201cI have cooperated fully with ESL and their third-party investigators in their examination of the events by providing all necessary documents and participating in relevant interviews, and I have spent a substantial amount of my own time and resources into this investigation,\u201d HUNDEN said. The Danish coach added that his recent departure from Astralis is not connected to the outcome of this investigation. He left his post as Astralis\u2019 head analyst on June 21 after six months as the Danish organization made a number of changes to its staff and CS:GO team. In August 2022, Dexerto reported that Astralis had maintained a working relationship with HUNDEN while he was still serving his ESIC ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Astralis fined $100k for conflict of interest over HUNDEN relationship AstralisThe Executive Board of the Louvre Agreement has imposed a fine of $100,000 on Astralis in a conflict of interest case involving CS:GO coach and analyst HUNDEN. The Executive Board of the Louvre Agreement, a partnership between ESL and 15 organizations, announced that an independent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}