Hunden returns as Heroic’s coach after spending eight months off the roster. Is he what Heroic needs to reach the Number 1 spot again?
Heroic just announced the return of Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen as the team’s coach during the upcoming DreamHack Masters Spring this weekend. The 29-year-old coach has served his eight-month ESIC ban and is now eligible to coach Heroic.
Heroic reinstates Hunden as team coach
One of the biggest names in last year’s ESIC coaching bans, Hunden will now return to coach Heroic’s CS:GO roster. ESIC banned Hunden for twelve months during its investigation into the visual bug abuse by CS:GO coaches. Hunden was one of the thirty-seven coaches in the ESIC banwave.
I am so excited. It has been tough sitting on the sidelines for eight months and not participating in the matches. I have spent the time refining my skills in the analysis part of the game but there is no doubt that it will take some time to find the rhythm again. On the other hand, the team has been working on getting better at making decisions themselves.
ESIC banned Hunden for 12 months from all partner tournaments. The ESIC investigation found Hunden guilty of abusing a visual in-game bug to gain a competitive advantage for his team. The 29-year-old coach was instrumental in assisting ESIC in its investigation of the visual bug abuse. He had also reported the bug to ESIC and therefore had his sentence reduced to eight months.
The Heroic coach calls the incident the biggest mistake he has made in his career.
It was the biggest mistake I have ever made but I am happy that I have been able to remediate it by participating in the investigation and improvement process together with ESIC so that we can get a cleaner sport.
Why did ESIC ban Hunden?
An in-game camera bug in CSGO allowed coaches to gain additional information due to a static camera that could view the enemy players' movements. The bug froze the coach camera in a random location on the map. Sometimes these locations would be strategically important zones. The coaches could, in theory, take advantage of this information and use it to help their players. With CSGO esports transitioning online during 2020, many coaches took advantage of this in-game visual bug. ESIC's investigation found 37 coaches guilty and handed out varying punishments depending on the severity of the abuse.
Heroic is currently the second-best CS:GO team according to the HLTV rankings. The team recently won ESL Pro League Season 13 and lost to Gambit in the playoffs of the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. Hunden will join the team at the DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 event.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS:GO news and updates.
Featured Image Credit: Vakarm.net.