Richard Lewis reveals HUNDEN signed contract with Astralis while at Heroic

The former HEROIC coach signed a contract with Astralis as early as April 2021.

Veteran journalist Richard Lewis has made public the first of what he refers to as "The HUNDEN Files," a series of articles that will bring to light "101 pages of private communications" between Nicolai "⁠HUNDEN⁠" Petersen and the Astralis organization while he was employed at HEROIC from 2020-2021. In the first release, Lewis reveals that HUNDEN signed a contract with Astralis as early as April 2, 2021 — all while he still had a contract with HEROIC until May 2022.

As a very brief refresher, HUNDEN was banned by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) for exploiting the infamous coaching bug in 2020 while a part of HEROIC, at the time claiming that he was alone in his actions. He served a reduced eight-month sentence thanks to his cooperation with the esports watchdog's investigation, during which time he was suspended by HEROIC, but was reinstated in April 2021 as the coach of the Danish team after serving his sentence.

Just four months later, however, it was alleged that the 31-year-old had shared confidential information from HEROIC's strategy folder "with a key individual at a major competitor prior to the tournament." That competitor was later revealed to be Astralis, whom HEROIC ended up facing in a crucial match at that event.

Rumors of the Dane swapping to the rival Danish organization had been swirling ahead of the tournament, with HUNDEN revealing after the event that he would not be renewing his contract with HEROIC. A response from HEROIC came very swiftly after that, with the organization alleging that HUNDEN had shared the aforementioned confidential material and that they were pursuing legal action, which is ongoing.

You can read through the article below for more details and an in-depth recap of the whole saga from this point onward as it pertains to HUNDEN reneging on being the only person involved in his use of the coaching bug while at Heroic. Note, HUNDEN was never "cleared" of wrongdoing, but rather was allowed to return to competition with immediate effect.

Read more

Banned, reinstated, banned again, cleared: The HUNDEN saga summarized

Lewis' first release of files regarding HUNDEN pertains to the communication between HUNDEN and Astralis during this period. The British journalist states that HUNDEN had a contract with HEROIC from May 2020 until May 2022, but agreed in principle to sign a contract with Astralis as early as March 2021.

In the article, Lewis provides evidence of Astralis' Director of Sports, Kasper Hvidt, officially offering HUNDEN a role as coach for the team on March 8, 2021. On March 19, it was indicated that the Dane would be sent a contract to review, contingent upon the ongoing investigation by ESIC.

That contract was received by HUNDEN on March 23. with the only issue that remained being his outstanding talks with ESIC. On March 31, a Hellosign document was sent to the 31-year-old containing an employment contract, which appeared to have been signed by both HUNDEN and Astralis CEO Anders Hørsholt just two days later, on April 2.

HEROIC were seemingly only notified of these contract talks between their coach and the rival Danish organization by an "Astralis insider" by email towards the end of April.

Astralis later revised the contract and wanted to send HUNDEN a new version on June 1, at which point the Dane said he will hold back on signing until he had seen what HEROIC had to offer. As evidenced by the timeline, all of the above unfolded well before HEROIC and Astralis took part in IEM Cologne 2021, with Lewis stating that HUNDEN "firmly believed he was working for Astralis and undertook multiple tasks on behalf of the organisation despite still being a Heroic employee."

Lewis also added that the documents showed that HUNDEN was attempting to have his contract with HEROIC voided at the time, with Astralis referring him to legal representation to help in that endeavor.

Further details regarding the saga are set to follow in subsequent releases of "The HUNDEN Files."