Heroic & Tricked in conflict over JUGi

Since Michael "⁠Friis⁠" Jørgensen was benched in HEROIC the Danish team has been using Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller as stand-in, but he is not the player the team really wants.

In an interview conducted by Dust2.dk, the owner of Tricked, Morten "Phy" Jensen, says that the owner of RFRSH, Nikolaj Nyholm, contacted him to purchase Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen. The transfer hasn't been completed yet, and according to the interview it probably won't happen.

Phy does also say that JUGi has been benched because he already signed a contract with HEROIC starting on January 1st 2018. HLTV.org have translated the interview below:

Tricked is currently playing without JUGi and the rumors connect him with Heroic. Can you clarify the situation?

We are contacted by Nikolaj Nyholm ang. Interest of Jugi from heroic's side, and it was of course we need to act on. At the time, it's about 5 days since we had our last team meeting where we talk plans for the future vision and so on. So it surprised us a little when Jugi turns back and says he wants to leave for Heroic.

We then move on with the dialogue because we want to be fair to Jugi, even if it means another sales to our direct competitor in Denmark. The negotiations, if one can call them that, is pretty fast to the ground, and it ends up out of nowhere. We therefore choose to benches Jugi while all this is going on as we could tell there was friction in the squad, which of course is understandable, as we experience our second 'setback' in 6 months.

We have subsequently found out that Jugi has signed with Heroic per. 1 / 1-2018 which means he will most likely not going to be a regular part of our squad going forward, as does our desire less to develop a player that we know who slips to the New Year.

We were contacted by Nikolaj Nyholm regarding the interest of JUGi from Heroic's side, and it was of course something we had to act on. At that time, it was about five days since we had our last team meeting where we talked about the plans for the future, vision and so on. So it surprised us a little when when JUGi turned his back to us and said he wants to leave and join Heroic.

We moved on with the dialogue because we want to be fair to JUGi, even if it means another sale to our direct competitor in Denmark. The negotiations, if you can call them that, get stuck and it ends up in nothing. Therefore we choose to bench JUGi while all this was going on as we could see there were some problems within the CS:GO squad, which of course is understandable as we experience our second 'setback' in six months.

Subsequently we found out that JUGi has signed a contract with Heroic that starts from January 1st 2018 which means he most likely won't be a regular part of our squad going forward, and we do not want to put in our effort to develop a player who will leave us.

In the end of 2016 you sent niko the same way. Is this just your place in the food chain? Is Heroic a bigger team than yours?

We don't think so, but RFRSH have been quicker to establish a more lucrative setup. It's unfortunate that we haven't been able to convince people to have more confidence in our plan, we had been a contender for top 3, if we had been able to keep niko back then.

Why can't you keep them? Are the contracts too small? What do you think is the reason for the players to favor Heroic over Tricked?

I definitely think the contracts were too small if we look back at the deal with niko, and there was also international opportunities for him within a short period, which wasn't in the view with us. We roughly know the salary level now, and we can match it going forward. We had some players who were really 'hyped' after our last meeting as we raised the salary once again before the negotiation period. I think JUGi chose Heroic because he thinks the opportunities are bigger over there and he has some good friends in Heroic.

What is the status of the transfer between Heroic and Tricked right now?

Right now, I doubt anything will happen. They have used stand-ins with great success, so I don't see the urgency for them to acquire JUGi right now, and they have sabotaged our success again, although it probably wasn't on purpose.

You choose to use the word sabotage. Don't you think Heroic have been fair during the process?

No, I don't think so, but I don't have further comments to that subject.

Can you describe the process seen from your perspective?

For us, it has been too chaotic and messy. It made some unnecessary noise that you should be able to plan your way out of. Moreover, there has to be an understaning of the elements of sport here so these situations don't end like this.

I feel at least the player owned teams lack a little structure in situations like this.

How does the future look like for JUGi if the transfer doesn't happen?

He still has to earn his salary, but it will probably be through PR work and streaming, as we are already looking into other player options. We spoke to JUGi before he signed with Heroic, so he has been completely informed with this.

What stops the negotiations right now?

The price.

Can you be more specific about that?

I have seen several write that we want $150,000, but that is not true - our price is below that. We think the price we have set is more than fair for the biggest AWP talent, which also has some of the best ratings on HLTV.

When do you expect to present a replacement?

Within 14 days.

After the interview with Phy was done, HLTV.org contacted Nikolaj Nyholm for a comment about the conflict between HEROIC and Tricked:

"Needless to say, we’re happy that we have been able to sign one of the most talented players in Denmark from 2018 for Heroic. Right from the start, Heroic have have been a top 20 team with the potential to become top 10 worldwide. We have a clear strategy in regards to profiles and players to include on the Heroic roster, and I am confident, JUGi will be a perfect match in this context. 

JUGi will be a part of an international top side, and he will immediately be a part of a team on the international scene. At the same time, the RFRSH set-up provides facilities and an organzation, designed to help the individual players and thereby JUGi, the teams and the sport in general and to elevate the sport to a higher level on all parametres. My basic belief is that this is to the benefit for all, including other teams and players. Our mission is exactly that: To contribute to the Development of the Danish and international CS:GO scene by providing resources, physical as well as organizational wise, which ultimately will support Building an even stronger base for CS:GO on all levels.

Our general policy is not to comment transfers, contracts or any negotiation details, but we do want to make it clear that we only offered JUGi a contract for 2018 after it became clear, we would not be able to come to an agreement with Tricked for a transfer in 2017 and after Tricked benched him. We do things in an orderly fashion both in regards to players’ conditions, teams and in our organzation. This is also the case when it comes to the signing of players and any negotiation thereof.

I would like to stress that we in no way have been out to ”sabotage” any other team, as it is mentioned. This is not and will never be our purpose. On the contrary we strive always to talk to our colleagues in other organisations like North, NiP, Virtus Pro etc, in regards to developing the sports together. You will also see competing teams, Danish and international, use our new facilities for training, bootcamps etc. We truly see an interesting future for the sport and in this perspective all teams and organisations play important roles."

It seems that JUGi has to wait 11 months before he returns to playing official matches unless Tricked and HEROIC find a solution.