The Hunden Files 4: Legal Battles

While far from the worst revelation in the communications provided to us by an anonymous whistleblower, the text messages suggest that Astralis helped with Petersen's legal dispute with Heroic

Picture taken by Marcin Wróbel of ESL Gaming

In this final look at the court filings from the ongoing Heroic vs Nicolai “Hunden” Petersen lawsuit we shall focus on text messages that suggest Astralis may have been behind the legal representation that Petersen received in the case. Given that what has been published so far shows that Petersen was unquestionably working on behalf of Astralis while still employed by Heroic that might not be surprising. However, it does go to show that Astralis were so enamoured with the idea of having Petersen as their coach it appears they were even willing to assist in any legal dispute he had with his former employer.

Exchanges between Astralis Director of Sports Kasper Hvidt and Petersen show that Hvidt provided Petersen with advice in how to handle the dispute and continually requested updates from Petersen about the matter. At one point Hvidt himself even takes a meeting with Petersen’s legal representative, muddying the waters about who they were working for.

On the 15^th June 2021, two weeks after a revised contract was reputedly sent to Petersen, Hvidt says that he has been thinking about “the way we approach Heroic.” He adds that the smart approach is to bring in Maiken (the lawyer) adding “it is impossible for me to contact [Heroic] about your contract. That is why we brought her [the lawyer] on but let’s talk tomorrow.”

The same day Hvidt expands on his point stating “The only real way from here is with Maiken if you want to get out of the contract before it expires. This is why she was summoned… If we get involved it would be an impossible scenario.”

He later would add “now is the time when you step aside and let Maiken send the factual mail and after that she will be running your case. So it doesn’t get personal. The notice period will also mean you will coach the team in Köln as you said you wanted to.”

After a few days of Hvidt checking in with Petersen about the status of the case, Petersen says that there is “some good news” and that an agreement for him to be able to leave was likely if the right date was proposed on the 20^th June.

On the 22^nd June Hvidt says that he has spoken with Petersen’s lawyer and that she will “press Heroic for written confirmation of notice of termination” that would have cleared the coach to join Astralis after the 1^st August. Hvidt notes that nothing further is needed unless Heroic decide to get a lawyer of their own.

The conversations also show that the most likely outcome would have been for Petersen to join Astralis as a full time coach starting in August 2021, however through his decision to attempt to provide Astralis staff with access to a Google Drive containing “anti-strat” material set off a chain of events that made his hiring non-viable. In a press release issued on the 29^th July Heroic stated they were terminating Petersen due to a “clear breach of contract.”

“This [the sharing of the anti-strat material] was done without the knowledge of anyone at Heroic, and would obviously not have been approved,” Heroic said. “A legal process is ongoing in Denmark. Two courts have independently found sufficient grounds for evidence collection, which has been carried out.”

The text messages contained in this series stem from that evidence collection having been provided to this publication by an anonymous whistleblower. It was their belief that it was important the full story was available to the public as Heroic’s ongoing financial difficulties might have impacted on their ability to see the court case through to conclusion.

This release concludes the publication of information relevant to the public interest from the 101 page document of communications we received. It leaves absolutely no doubt that Petersen effectively worked for Astralis on a number of projects while still employed by Heroic and that Astralis took no issue with using him in this way despite that fact. The amount of faith placed in Petersen by Kasper Hvidt was staggering, especially considering that Astralis at that time had staff employed to perform the duties Petersen was being consulted about.

Questions might also be raised about the working relationship between Astralis and Petersen given how much stock was placed in his opinions during this time. When it was revealed in August 2022 that Petersen had been working with Astralis owned Pixel.tv for deliverables relating to their Aimlabs sponsorship, the organisation said that was the extent of the relationship despite sources stating otherwise.

There are also other questions to be asked about Astralis using a proxy – Petersen – to essentially poach players from another Louvre Agreement team, in this case Complexity, when the Louvre Agreement effectively makes them business partners as stakeholders in the ESL Pro League. For the most part though the communications show that Heroic had every right to be concerned about where Petersen’s loyalties lay during the last months of his time within the organisation.