A conversation and server logs are part of this evidence. Is there enough to hold the players accountable?
Former Heroic coach, Hunden, has released evidence to implicate the players’ involvement and knowledge in the coaching bug exploit, according to a TV2.dk report.
Hunden was found guilty earlier for abusing the coaching bug to help Heroic gain an unfair strategic advantage in 2020. He claims the players were aware of his role in abusing the coaching bug, and has now released evidence to ESIC, who will now take a decision whether or not to further investigate this matter.
The coaching visual bug allowed teams to gain an unfair advantage as the coaches would get uninterrupted vision over a specific area on the map. The coaches could see the movement and positions of enemy players in a specific area of the map. It gave teams that abused this bug a massive strategic and unfair advantage.
Did Heroic’s players know about the coaching bug abuse?
Hunden has released server logs and a conversation between him and Nikolaj ‘niko’ Kristensen as evidence of the players’ knowledge about the bug.
Who on Heroic knew? Was it some? Was it everyone?
In evidence is a conversation between Hunden and niko (now playing for OG); niko says all Heroic players were aware that Hunden was using the bug. If true, this proof could have dire consequences for some, if not all, players that were part of Heroic at the time.
Everyone on our team knew it. Maybe not the first time. But after. Everyone knew that.
Heroic’s lineup during the two matches in which Hunden used the bug was as follows:
- René "TeSeS" Madsen.
- Niko.
- Casper "cadiaN" Møller.
- Martin "stavn" Lund.
- Johannes "b0RUP" Borup.
Did TeSeS help Hunden get into a position to cheat?
The evidence also claims TeSeS reportedly helped Hunden get into a position to be able to abuse the coaching bug. According to Hunden, he could only reach the position after some help from a teammate. Server logs acquired by TV2.dk show only TeSeS was present in the server along with Hunden, much before any other players joined them. As such, it is logical to assume the 21-year-old helped Hunden get into a position to abuse the bug. Hunden used the bug to see enemy player positions and movement for 12 rounds on the map.
This incident took place before Heroic’s match against Team Spirit in the Home Sweet Home 5 CS: GO tournament. Heroic faced Team Spirit in the semifinals of the $40,000 tournament. The Danish squad won the series 2-0, a result now marred by the infamous coaching scandal.
Overall the news comes as a shock to the CS:GO community, many of whom had rejected Hunden’s claims earlier as one of vengeance. But if these claims are true, it would mean possibly career-ending actions against players in the former Heroic lineup.
Community Reacts: Shock and Disgust
The community’s shock and disgust spilled over to social media. Top players were dismayed at how (if true) the former Heroic players abused a bug to gain an unfair advantage. Heroic was at the top of the rankings for a significant amount of time in 2020.
Karrigan feels disgusted on hearing about the players possibly helping Hunden in abusing the coaching bug.
With evidence submitted, all eyes are now on ESIC to take a decision. ESIC had sanctioned 37 coaches after the initial findings last year. To keep the public knowledge up to date, ESIC launched the transparency initiative last month. Part of this initiative is to publicly list ongoing investigations such as the MDL match-fixing investigation on which ESIC is closely working with the FBI. Hunden recently received a two-year ESIC ban for violating ESIC's Code of Conduct.
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