HUNDEN suspended from Heroic following tournament exploit, ban

Heroic has suspended Counter-Strike: Global Offensive coach Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen following his involvement in using an exploit used to gain a competitive advantage during Dreamhack Malmö and Home Sweet Home Cup Season 5.

The announcement came a day after the public reveal that three teams had used an exploit that allowed coaches to gain an unobstructed view of any part of the map during tournament play. ESL announced that it had identified three teams that had used the exploit over the course of three separate tournaments in violation of ESL rules. Along with the statement announcing HUNDEN’s suspension from the Heroic roster, the organization also released a statement from the Heroic coach explaining his actions.

“CSGO at the top level is super competitive and I saw an edge which I knew was wrong, but I took it and used the bug in-game. I acted on my own, without the knowledge of my teammates,” HUNDEN said.

HUNDEN went on to say that after using the exploit several times, he alerted an ESL referee to the exploit. That referee, Michal Slowinski, then went on to review thousands of demos and ultimately identified that Heroic, MIBR, and Hard Legion had used the exploit.

CSGO coaching exploit spells trouble for competitive scene

The prevailing defense coming from the involved teams places particular emphasis on referring to the exploit as a bug, despite the fact that it was easily reproducible and gave teams who used it a clear advantage in competitive play. Valve’s other Regional Ranking tournaments used to determine team placement in the next ESL CSGO Major have been alerted and are currently reviewing their own demos to see if other teams may have used the exploit.

With the potential of other teams having used the exploit, competitive CSGO could face further shakeups in the coming days as tournament organizers like Beyond the Summit and Eden Malta Arena complete their own investigations.