Danish CS:GO coach Nicolai ‘HUNDEN’ Petersen has been banned for two years by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC).
ESIC chairman Ian Smith said, “The integrity of esports depends on the enforcement of the rules and regulations set by those that govern our activity. Non-compliance will not be tolerated, and ESIC will work tirelessly to identify any individual breaking the rules and take whatever action is appropriate. We want this evidence of corruption in Danish CS: GO to serve as a reminder that nobody is above the law, as demonstrated by this 2-year ban.”
Petersen admitted to betting on games but claimed at that time he did not know it was illegal. It turned out he was betting for his own team, Heroic, because he felt like they were underperforming. Smith said, “Considering the competitive and high profile nature of esports, this was an abuse of power to benefit his own team.”
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Smith added, “ESIC has a variety of tools available to us in order to track down rogue tampering and breaches of the rules. We have used a number of them with varying degrees of success and will continue to do so.”
During his trial at Esport Court (Danish CS:GO Onlinetribunal) on October 19th, it was revealed that Petersen tried several times to bribe different players with money because he felt like Heroic was underperforming. The failed attempts occurred between August 2014 and October 2016.
Petersen was also a member of the Danish Esports Federation (DEGu) and was known to many players as the coach who would often ban cheats.
ESIC will now be working with Esport Court to make sure that this information does not leak out since it is very important for integrity in esports.
Other notable cases include Óscar ‘mix well Cañellas of G2 Esports, one of the world’s top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams, who has been banned by ESIC for two years due to match-fixing.
The organization had banned him at the beginning of September after internal investigations concluded that he had fixed matches played by his team.
