Heroic players give emotional account of events after HUNDEN\u2019s accusation HeroicHeroic\u2019s players have given an emotional account of the strain they were under following disgruntled coach Nicolai \u2018HUNDEN\u2019 Petersen\u2019s accusation that they were aware of his actions. In a 35-minute long video, Heroic\u2019s players and former team member Johannes \u2018b0RUP\u2019 Borup spoke out for the first time about being entangled in the spectator bug scandal after HUNDEN backtracked on his first comments that he had acted alone, without the knowledge of the squad. The video was released just a day after the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) said that it had been \u201cunable to find anywhere near enough evidence\u201d linking Casper \u2018cadiaN\u2019 M\u00f8ller, Ren\u00e9 \u2018TeSeS\u2019 Madsen, Martin \u2018stavn\u2019 Lund, and b0RUP with HUNDEN\u2019s actions. The esports watchdog found Nikolaj \u2018niko\u2019 Kristensen, another former Heroic player, guilty of breaching its code of conduct. The Danish rifler, who is currently playing for OG, received a lenient punishment as a result of an admission of guilt and \u201cspecial circumstances\u201d relating to his medical conditions \u2013 he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Asperger\u2019s Syndrome. Learning about the bug In the video, cadiaN revealed that he was \u201cshocked\u201d when niko told him and stavn on TeamSpeak after the 19 May 2020 DreamHack Masters Spring series against Astralis that HUNDEN had used the bug. \u201cWe really gave our opinion and said that under no circumstance should this bug be used, and that it was stupid,\u201d he said, adding that they didn\u2019t share this information with TeSeS or b0RUP. \u201cLooking back, we should have. We should have had a team meeting and said, \u2018What the f*ck is going on here?’\u201d stavn claimed that he and cadiaN made it clear to HUNDEN that he was never to use the bug again. \u201cI felt confident that this would never happen again,\u201d he said. However, HUNDEN ended up exploiting the bug once again just five days later, in a Home Sweet Home Cup 5 match against Spirit. Personal struggles cadiaN explained that the players remained silent despite the barrage of abuse hurled at them following HUNDEN\u2019s claims that they were aware of his actions as they waited for ESIC to finish its investigation. \u201cI don\u2019t need to respond to everyone who is coming out with a false claim about me,\u201d cadiaN said. \u201cI need to talk to the people who are judging this.\u201d According to stavn, the players, convinced of their innocence, felt \u201cat peace\u201d throughout ESIC\u2019s probe. However, as large sections of the community turned against the team, the accusations took their toll on the day-to-day life of certain players. \u201cThe time when I realized that we had to say something was when we had this talk with the team called \u2019empty the backpack\u2019 and Martin [stavn] said that he didn\u2019t want to have a night out with his brothers and friends because he was scared that someone would come to him and say that he was a cheater,\u201d cadiaN said, before bursting into tears. \u201cWhen he said that, I knew we had to talk about it and explain our side of it.\u201d That is one of the many moments throughout the video when tears stream down the players\u2019 faces. The first was when cadiaN, the team captain and most senior player in the squad, explained how difficult it was for stavn and TeSes, who are 19 and 20 years old respectively, to deal with the vicious online abuse that came their way. \u201cI think it\u2019s been very difficult to see the young players being accused of something they didn\u2019t do, knowing that they\u2019re innocent and knowing the pressure they have received from the community,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a bit more experience under my belt and I\u2019m used to a shitstorm or people talking a lot, but it\u2019s been difficult to not say anything when you know you have such a strong case. \u201cI\u2019m just proud that they handled it like this and that they\u2019re still fighting the way they are and that we\u2019ve been able to stick together as a team through this.\u201d cadiaN also commented on the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) created by Heroic to prevent the team from speaking about the alleged cheating allegations. According to him, HUNDEN wanted to sign the document even though the players were against it. \u201cHUNDEN wanted this NDA signed but I was fighting against it,\u201d he explained. \u201cI even remember there was an argument about it, but I was very strong in my belief that this NDA should not be signed, and that\u2019s why it wasn\u2019t.\u201d Feeling betrayed Perhaps the most vivid account came from TeSeS, who was mentioned by HUNDEN as having helped him use the bug in the Dust2 game against Spirit. The Danish coach stated that his claim of player complicity could be proven with server logs. However, this material shows only that TeSeS was on the server with HUNDEN, not that he was boosting the coach for the purpose of using the bug. In an October 18 article, Dexerto\u2019s Editor-at-Large, Richard Lewis, explained that the expert testimony in TV2.dk\u2019s report was misrepresented by the Danish outlet. TeSes said that, while he did boost HUNDEN in warmup upon request, he did not know what it was for since he was not aware that the coach had used the bug against Astralis. \u201cI was treated immensely badly by HUNDEN,\u201d TeSes said about the coach\u2019s accusations. \u201cHe has f**ked my whole reputation, which I have worked for my whole life. All of a sudden, the whole community is after me for something I didn\u2019t do. I have sacrificed so much to be where I am today. It definitely hurt and still hurts me that HUNDEN accused me of something I didn\u2019t do. \u201cI have never come to a conclusion why he would betray me because I trusted this guy. He was my coach and I thought he was my friend. It\u2019s not fair at all.\u201d Looking ahead Heroic\u2019s players are aiming to put this ordeal past them as they turn their attention towards PGL Major Stockholm, which is just around the corner. But according to cadiaN, there were valuable lessons to be learned from this experience. When asked about comments made by experts and analysts in the scene, the Danish captain said that he lost his \u201cfair share of respect\u201d for some people. \u201cIt surprised me a lot that so many people in the community were buying into his [HUNDEN\u2019s] story,\u201d he admitted. Currently ranked fifth in the world, Heroic will get their Major campaign started with a match against TYLOO on October 26. The players hope that this event can mark the start of a new chapter as they look to replicate the success that they enjoyed during the online era caused by the global health crisis. \u201cThe next goal for us is to win a tournament on LAN, hopefully with a crowd and maybe some confetti when we lift the trophy,\u201d cadiaN said. \u201cWe tried to celebrate apart, we tried to do it at a bootcamp. Now it\u2019s time to do it on LAN.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heroic players give emotional account of events after HUNDEN\u2019s accusation HeroicHeroic\u2019s players have given an emotional account of the strain they were under following disgruntled coach Nicolai \u2018HUNDEN\u2019 Petersen\u2019s accusation that they were aware of his actions. In a 35-minute long video, Heroic\u2019s players and former team member Johannes \u2018b0RUP\u2019 Borup spoke out for the […]<\/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-38411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38411","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=38411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}