The Hunden Files 2: The Leak

Much has been made of the "leaked" Google Drive incident where Petersen provided an Astralis staff member with access to Heroic's "anti-strat material" ahead of IEM Cologne. These filings clear it up.

As is established by now, Nicolai “Hunden” Petersen was sanctioned for a second time by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) for sharing strategic materials with a rival opponent and given a two year ban on the 27^th August 2021. In their investigation it was revealed that the materials were shared via means of a Google Drive and that the only reason that Petersen was the only party banned was that forensic analysis showed that no-one else from the opposition team accessed the files. It would later be revealed that the team in question would be Astralis who earlier published documentation shows Petersen had agreed to join as early as March the same year.

At the time the Heroic organisation detailed the contents that had been shared and explained it via Twitter as such:

HEROIC @heroicgg

“The content of the documents reveals what our team look for, how we think, and how we outplay our opponents, both in various map settings and sides in the game," the statement says. "It describes our philosophies in specific scenarios, such as mid round calls, when X and Y happens, and how we want to abuse and manipulate rotations."

"In aggregate this provides a lot of information about how we think as a team. The documents cover far more than where opponents like to stand and what setups they use. They give detailed instruction on how we act vs set teams, how we want to play vs specific smokes, and what exactly we look for in our preparation - which can be manipulated in the wrong hands.”

Petersen himself admitted, in a now deleted tweet, that he had shared material and stated it was “anti-strat material of opponents” and that he had shared the knowledge “in the context of sparring.”

However from the evidence listed in the court filings we can see this isn’t entirely honest. The Google Drive was said to include a full break down of strategies that Heroic used to deal with teams which may have included Astralis who they were due to play at IEM Cologne.

Also included in the filings, for reasons that are not immediately clear, were screenshots of tactics related to Astralis Talent.

While it’s impossible to know what prompted Petersen to share this documentation it is hard to ignore the constant contract negotiations and clear desire to join Astralis that had taken place before. However it also cannot be ruled out that it is a stupefyingly ill thought out lack of judgment on the part of a prospective employee desperate to impress who he knew would be his new employers.

Messages exchanged between Petersen and then Astralis Talent head coach Dennis 'VNG' Vang show that Vang did not access the drive and had no idea what Petersen was sending him. Key to the Heroic lawsuit is a dispute over whether or not the strategic material belonged to Heroic or not, with Petersen insisting in his messages that the material was his to do with as he pleased. It is our understanding that Heroic are disputing this citing wording in their contract with Petersen that would give them a claim to ownership of any such materials created while he was working for the organisation.

“RIP fucking RIP” Petersen said at one point “the Heroic players have seen you got access to my private Google drive. It’s exclusively my mail and my drive. It’s my private material.”

The reaction raises some questions as if Petersen believed he wasn’t doing anything wrong, there would be no need for secrecy in the first place. Despite that Petersen later seems unable to conceive of how his actions might have prompted an ESIC investigation and could be considered a violation of competitive integrity.

“There is an investigation. ESIC, Heroic and me. I am completely broken. Fully down to be honest” he would later say.

Included in the filings are screenshots that show the only other person who could access the drive besides Petersen was Vang. While Vang was the head coach for Astralis’s academy team it is also understood he was working as an assistant coach for the main team and would have been in communication with the team at Cologne, which is why ESIC felt compelled to issue sanctions.

While the connections between Petersen and Astralis are well established at this point the documents show no evidence that this information was solicited by the Danish organisation ahead of Cologne. Text messages from Astralis’s Director of Sports Kasper Hvidt say that Petersen needs to “think” about who he shares his Google Drive with and then goes on to explain that they were able to prove to ESIC that Vang did not access the drive. The texts show that Hvidt was in constant communication with Petersen during the investigation.

Much has been made of this incident and what the court documents show is that while Astralis could have easily have been beneficiaries of Petersen’s decisions, they were not. The tenor of his messages to Vang also strike a contradiction between what appears to be an understanding of the need for secrecy in the exchange but also bewilderment at the subsequent ESIC investigation. Perhaps this reaction is enough for many to give Petersen the benefit of the doubt in this matter but it is also hard to overlook the apparent loyalty that he felt towards Astralis while still being under contract with Heroic. It is also worth noting, as we will demonstrate next time, Petersen had been in ongoing conversations about building a team for Astralis and had even engaged in talks with players on their behalf.

[Editor’s Note] One of the above screenshot has been clarified as being a document relating to Astralis Talent, the Astralis academy team, and not the Astralis main team.