The Danish team Heroic competes in Counterstrike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). They are now making serious accusations against their head coach Nicolai “Hunden” Petersen (30): He allegedly revealed his team’s strategy to an opponent before an important tournament in Cologne. Heroic has fired the coach and is suing him.
This is the tournament in question: The IEM Cologne 2021 is one of the most important tournaments in CS:GO. The tournament was held as part of the Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI. It took place from July 8 to July 18 in Cologne. At the esports tournament, $972,000 in prize money was distributed.
The tournament was won by the professionals from NaVi led by the cult player “s1mple”. They bagged $400,000 in prize money. The Danish team Heroic only placed 7th and received $24,000 in prize money.
Team suspends coach before tournament – He allegedly betrayed them to rivals
These are the accusations from Heroic: In a statement on Twitter, Heroic (via twitter) stated: They fired their head coach Nicolai “Hunden” Petersen on July 28. Heroic believes the following occurred beforehand:
- Before the tournament in Cologne, Heroic decided that Hunden would not participate in the tournament – due to “serious trust issues”
- Hunden then blocked team members from accessing the folder with the team strategy
- It was found that Hunden had shared “confidential and important information” from this folder with a key person from a rival prior to the tournament
- None at Heroic knew about this – and no one had approved it
- Heroic sees this as a clear breach of contract
- A legal process has been initiated in Denmark. Two courts independently determined that there are sufficient grounds to collect evidence
- The incident was reported to the leagues
- The contract of Hunden was terminated by Heroic
In a statement, Heroic expresses how disappointed they are with their coach’s behavior. Such actions are unacceptable.
They are particularly disappointed because they had given Hunden a second chance, as he had been banned from CS:GO for exploiting the “Spectator Bug”.
Coach denies all accusations
This is what Hunden says: He had published a statement before his dismissal became public (Via twitter). He thanked Heroic for the great time and the many successes, but said that he had decided to embark on a new chapter when his contract with Heroic ended, rather than extending it.
Heroic and he were a “perfect match”, but the recent events are very regrettable.
There are rumors that he shared Heroic’s playbook. He denies this. He would never do such a thing. Hunden claims that he only shared “anti-strat” material of the opponents during scrimmage matches. However, he did not share or discuss Heroic’s own tactics. He will now cooperate with the leagues and relevant authorities.
Hunden was one of the first coaches to be punished in CS:GO for using an exploit. He served an 8-month penalty and then returned to Heroic. But apparently not for long:
3 coaches cheat in CS:GO, face severe penalties – Here’s what they did
