The Hunden Files 3: Hunden The Recruiter
The bulk of the 101 page court filings show that Nicolai "Hunden" Petersen worked to help build an Astralis roster while still under contract with Heroic
The overwhelming majority of the 101 pages submitted as court filings revolve around conversations between Astralis Director of Sports, Kasper Hvidt, and Nicolai “Hunden” Petersen, then coach of Heroic. The main topic of conversation is Hvidt tasking Petersen with feedback on building a new look Astralis team and encouraging the Heroic coach to reach out to other players and encourage them to join Astralis.
Over the course of these exchanges Petersen continually speaks of himself as if he had already joined Astralis and would be operating in the role of coach. He provides Hvidt with player phone numbers and details of their transfer status and mindset as they try and assemble what Hvidt believes to be his perfect roster. All of this was undertaken while, according to our sources, Petersen was contracted to Heroic until May 2022. The exchanges also add an extra layer of complexity as Petersen at one point refers to being on sick leave from his duties at Heroic while simultaneously engaging in tasks on behalf of Hvidt and Astralis. It isn’t clear when the sick leave began but it ended in time for IEM Cologne in July 2021.
On the 15th April 2021 Hvidt requests a phone number for Frederik "acoR" Gyldstrand, a key target for Astralis at this time, and Petersen obliges. At this time they also discuss who Petersen would like as an assistant.
Later that day Hvidt would also ask Petersen’s opinion on whether Benjamin "blameF" Bremer, another key target for Astralis at this time, could operate as an “entry-fragger” as opposed to an in-game leader. Petersen responds with a prospective line-up including Patrick "es3tag" Hansen, who had been mentioned in earlier exchanges. This conversation continues with Hvidt acknowledging that Astralis’s current in-game leader, Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander, is going to be a father and with the addition of Bremer they would have two in-game leaders.
Further into this discussion Petersen would add that mouz had paid 2million krone for Gyldstrand and that he was not happy with the team. He also asks Hvidt to find out a price for Asger "farlig" Jensen, to which Hvidt agrees.
Both agree that the big issue with assembling a team now is the AWP, with Petersen stating if “we” – meaning Astralis – have to play the rest of 2021 without an AWPer then “we” are going to be pressed.
On the 16th April after the prospect of Philip "Lucky" Ewald is raised. Hvidt asks Petersen to speak to Tricked and then asks if he has the following day. Petersen asks Hvidt if he can find out how much they want for Ewald with Hvidt stating “without saying it is us.”
On the 19th April Hvidt rules Gyldstrand out and Petersen asks how Hvidt rates Ewald in comparison to their other targets. Hvidt reiterates that while Gyldstrand is number one he believes Ewald can be the next Gyldstrand, just that the player lacks experience.
On the 22nd April Hvidt asks Petersen to get a hold of Hansen and explain to him how the line-up would work explaining that both him and Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke were both nervous about committing to joining. ”Please reach out to both of them today” he orders. Petersen expresses concern that Hansen might speak to either Casper "cadiaN" Møller, the Heroic in-game leader, or Martin "stavn" Lund, Heroic’s star player, about their discussions.
Petersen later adds he hasn’t been alone as he has media training and content creation duties for Heroic all day.
We can now fast-forward to the end of May. On the 31st, seemingly still working with Petersen to assemble an Astralis line-up, Hvidt asks if Petesen has spoke with Bremer. Petersen says it was a really good talk. Hvidt then asked if Petersen had a gut feeling about the “economy” and if Bremer would “sacrifice” anything for Astralis. Petersen says Bremer wants the move. Hvidt says he will have a contract drafted and asks if Bremer is OK without being IGL.
On the 6th June, after Hvidt has said he had sent Petersen a revised contract from Astralis, Hvidt asks if Lund would come with Petersen from Heroic or whether Heroic will stay together as a five man roster. Petersen says he spoke with Lund and said that the player would like to be part of a stable roster and coaching set-up.
Petersen then adds that he believes Lund will not re-sign with Heroic when his current contract expires. Hvidt asks how long he has left on his contract. Based on the chat logs no answer was provided.
On the 20th June Petersen said he had been meeting with Rossander, suggesting he had already started some form of work with the roster, although it isn’t clear what that is from the conversation. Hvidt in exchange tells him confidentially that the organisation had signed Ewald.
On the 28th June Hvidt asks if the Heroic players “know” – presumably the work that Petersen has been undertaking for Astralis although it’s not clear from the flow of conversation what it could be – and Petersen says they know he is on sick leave but he has asked them not to say anything about Astralis. By the 2nd July Petersen tells Hvidt he returned from sick leave to be ready for IEM Cologne only for Heroic management to block him from talking to players.
It is worth noting that since as the suspension from duty seemed to take place on the 2nd July, perhaps as part of the ongoing contractual dispute between Petersen and Heroic, that would mean that the access to the Google Drive he attempted to provide Astralis staff with took place after this suspension raising further questions about the motivations. You can read more about that in Part 2 of this series:
On the 12th July Hunden continued to assist Astralis in their recruitment efforts telling Hvidt that Bremer wasn’t sure about joining due to the inclusion of Ewald and Lucas "Bubzkji" Andersen on the roster.
He followed this up adding Bremer was happy with the inclusion of Rossander, Hunden and k0nfig.
On the 14th July Hvidt says Bremer needs to be confident in Petersen’s abilities and choices and adds that if Ewald doesn’t perform they will replace him and echoes a similar sentiment about Andersen. He asks Petersen if he can “sell that” to Bremer.
These exchanges naturally bring up a lot of questions regarding Petersen’s loyalty to Heroic but there are more to ask about Astralis management. It is irrefutable based on the evidence that Hvidt continually tasked a Heroic employee with duties that would benefit Astralis. As both teams competed in tournaments alongside each other at this time and given Petersen’s prominent influence in the Heroic organisation, it’s difficult if not impossible to measure the negative impact these divided loyalties could have had. Equally, it could be ruled a type of tortious interference given that it is clear Hvidt was aware of Petersen’s contractual status with Heroic. As things stand the case is only between Petersen and the Heroic organisation and focuses on breach of contract and potential copyright infringement.
If it wasn't for RL and a few others like him, everybody in eSports would get away with everything they could ever dream of. I hope this series will be the straw that breaks the camel's back for Astralis, or at least Kasper.
Well at least we know why astralis struggled for so long, the guy in charge has no idea what he is doing(Kasper hvidt), too stuck in his past as a regular sports player. Why is someone who dosen't understand CS leading a CS team? Wish we could know how management was before with zonic, because it seems today the players & coach are nothing but puppets.