HUNDEN banned for two years by ESIC for breach of conduct Jo\u00e3o Ferreira\/DreamHackThe Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has announced that it has slapped Counter-Strike coach Nicolai \u2018HUNDEN\u2019 Petersen with a two-year ban over a breach of its integrity program. The announcement follows an investigation launched in July by ESIC into claims that the Danish coach had leaked sensitive information to a competitor ahead of IEM Cologne without the knowledge of his then team, Heroic. In a statement on Friday, ESIC explained that \u201cextensive investigative efforts\u201d were undertaken, including examination of the Google Drive access records and contents, and interviews with the Heroic management and the opposing team. It also requested a forensic IT report from forensic expert firm Frend. In its findings, ESIC said that, at the time the material was shared, HUNDEN was negotiating a move to the opposing team, whose name was not released. A report by HLTV.org in July claimed that HUNDEN had emerged as a priority target for Astralis as the team\u2019s head coach, Danny \u201czonic\u201d S\u00f8rensen, was entering the final months of his contract with the organization. According to the \u201cforensic evidence available to date\u201d by ESIC, the material shared by HUNDEN was not accessed by the recipient. However, considering that he was employed by Heroic, was locked in talks with the opposing team about a potential career move, and that both teams would attend IEM Cologne, ESIC deemed that HUNDEN: \u201cCreated a threat to the integrity of an ESIC member event (irrespective of whether or not that threat materialized); – \u201cCreated a threat to the reputation of an ESIC member (irrespective of whether or not that threat materialized); and in doing so – \u201cThreatened harm to the reputation and competitive integrity of esports, and ESIC\u2019s member ESL.\u201d – ESIC added that its observations are corroborated by HUNDEN\u2019s admission in a July 28 Twitter post that he shared \u201canti-strat material of opponents\u201d. This, according to the esports watchdog, made the charge against the Danish coach \u201ca self-evident matter.\u201d The ban will last until August 24 2023 and will be served across ESIC\u2019s members, including ESL, DreamHack, WePlay, BLAST, LVP, Nodwin, Eden, Relog, UCC, Allied, Kronoverse, Estars and 247 Leagues. Claims rejected The length of the ban had been revealed on Wednesday by Danish media outlet TV2.dk, which also conducted an interview with HUNDEN. In it, the coach questioned the way the investigation was handled, saying that ESIC had decided against hearing him, and claimed that he was threatened with a five-year ban if he appealed against the ruling. But according to ESIC, HUNDEN has been invited to respond to the charge on multiple occasions since August 19. \u201cTo date, Mr. Petersen has failed to provide ESIC with any reply of substance relevant to the charge made against him,\u201d ESIC added. The esports watchdog also said that HUNDEN\u2019s claim about being threatened with a harsher sanction in case of an appeal is \u201cfalse\u201d. It explained that the two-year ban was offered as \u201ca plea bargain in good faith\u201d and that HUNDEN could either accept the decision \u201cor appeal it at risk of costs and a more onerous sanction at the discretion of the Independent Appeal Panel.\u201d \u201cMr. Petersen\u2019s statements in this regard were not only a disingenuous misrepresentation of a plea bargain offered to Mr. Petersen in good faith by ESIC, but a misleading allegation that flies in the face of ESIC\u2019s work in esports,\u201d ESIC noted. \u201cIt is apparent to ESIC that, as a matter of observation, Mr. Petersen has attempted to employ tactics to evade the scrutiny that should rightly be placed on his conduct with respect to the subject matter of this release and divert attention to fabricated procedural issues which have no direct relevance to or bearing on the outcome reached by ESIC.\u201d A new ban This is not the first time that HUNDEN has landed in hot water with ESIC. In September 2020, he was among the 37 CS:GO coaches who were banned for using the spectator bug for competitive advantage. HUNDEN was initially suspended for a year, but his ban was reduced by four months following a review of the case because of the assistance he provided in the investigation. During his ban, he remained on Heroic\u2019s books in an analyst position, returning to his coaching role in April after serving his suspension. HUNDEN announced in late July that he was leaving Heroic at the end of his contract, citing his wish to \u201cbegin a new chapter\u201d in his career after over a year with the team. He also denied \u201crumors\u201d that he had shared the team\u2019s strategy book, claiming that the only information that he had discussed was \u201canti-strat material of opponents.\u201d But just 24 hours later, Heroic issued a statement accusing HUNDEN of blocking team members\u2019 access to a strategy folder and of revealing confidential and sensitive information with a major competitor prior to IEM Cologne. The Danish organization added that this constituted \u201ca clear breach\u201d of HUNDEN\u2019s contract, and revealed that it had opened legal proceedings against the coach. ESIC and IEM Cologne organizers ESL both stated that the competitive integrity of the tournament had not been impacted by the leak, but the esports watchdog underlined that HUNDEN\u2019s behavior potentially constituted a breach of its integrity program. HUNDEN has not yet announced whether he plans to appeal against the decision. But the Danish coach seems to have concluded that his career in the game is over, telling TV2.dk: \u201cRight now there is nothing called Counter-Strike for me after this\u201d. It would appear that HUNDEN has come to terms with the fact that it’s over for him in CS. “”Right now there is nothing called Counter-Strike for me after this”” That would at least explain why he’s willing to burn down everything around him. https:\/\/t.co\/m6FR6R8GMe \u2014 Milan \u0160vejda (@StrikerHLTVorg) August 26, 2021 This is perhaps the reason why, in the second part of the interview, which was released on Thursday evening, HUNDEN alleged that \u201csome of the players\u201d on Heroic knew that he was using the bug despite previously claiming that he had acted \u201con my own, without the knowledge of my teammates.\u201d CS:GO analyst Jacob \u2018Pimp\u2019 Winneche said on Twitter that he has seen evidence supporting HUNDEN\u2019s new story. \u201cIt\u2019s highly probable he\u2019s telling the truth,\u201d he wrote. ESIC is yet to comment on these allegations, which could bring new charges in connection with the spectator bug case, which is still being investigated by the esports watchdog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HUNDEN banned for two years by ESIC for breach of conduct Jo\u00e3o Ferreira\/DreamHackThe Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has announced that it has slapped Counter-Strike coach Nicolai \u2018HUNDEN\u2019 Petersen with a two-year ban over a breach of its integrity program. The announcement follows an investigation launched in July by ESIC into claims that the Danish coach […]<\/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-38475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38475","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=38475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}