Danish Organization Heroic has terminated Head Coach Nicolai “Hunden” Petersen’s contract and is pursuing legal action over a Breach of Confidentiality where Hunden allegedly leaked the team’s Strategy Book with a competitor.
If you're confused about the strat books popping up on social media - it probably has to do with Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen. The Heroic coach has found himself in some hot water lately, with rumors of him leaking his team's strat book to competitors emerging. Hunden has since released a statement on Twitter implying that his time at Heroic has ended. He also denied the rumors about the leaks in his statements. According to him, he did share information, but it was nothing that affected Heroic negatively in any way.
Heroic's Statement In Response
In response to this statement, Heroic has issued a statement of their own to set the record straight.
- Prior to IEM Cologne 2021 in early July, the Heroic team unanimously decided that Mr. Petersen would not participate in the tournament due to severe trust issues.
- Following this, Mr. Petersen blocked the team members’ access to the team strategy folder.
- Investigations revealed that Mr. Petersen had shared confidential and sensitive information from Heroic's strategy folder with a key individual at a major competitor prior to the tournament.
- This was done without the knowledge of anyone at Heroic, and would obviously not have been approved.
- Heroic considers this a clear breach of Mr. Petersen’s contract.
- A legal process is ongoing in Denmark. Two courts have independently found sufficient grounds for evidence collection, which has been carried out.
- The issue has been reported to ESL and ESIC.
- Heroic has terminated Hunden's contract.
This isn't Hunden's first run in with ESIC either. The coach had just come off an 8-month ban after his involvement in last year's Coach Bug Scandal. Despite this, Heroic continued to keep Hunden on as an analyst over the duration of his ban. This decision caused quite a lot of outrage on it's own, as the community criticised the org's choice. Hunden subsequently returned to the Coaching spot, but didn't attend IEM Cologne with the team.
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Hunden's Future Unclear
Before the statements were released, many speculated that he would take some sort of role at Astralis. This was the reason, many had assumed, he was absent. With the new information, the scenario is a lot clearer. With such a clear record of unethical behaviour, Hunden's future as a top coach remains in question. As of this article, Heroic has initiated legal action against Hunden over Breach of Confidentiality. On top of that, an ESIC investigation on the matter is ongoing.
These result of this investigation could very well be the nail in the coffin for Hunden. More details are expected with the investigation's conclusion.
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