CS:GO team signs coach who was banned for cheating – fans criticize: “You are really shameless”

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A CS:GO team is currently receiving strong criticism from fans for hiring a former coach who was banned for cheating.

Which team is it?

  • The Danish esports organization Astralis is one of the best-known teams in digital sports and is active in games such as CS:GO, Valorant and Rainbow Six: Siege.
  • Between 2016 and 2019, Astralis won prestigious titles, including the “StarLadder Major 2019” in Berlin and the “Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Katowice Major 2019”.
  • In CS.GO they have star players like Nicolao “dev1ce” Reedtz in their ranks.
  • Former players include Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and Finn “karrigan” Andersen

    • Who has Astralis signed? On January 5th, Astralis announced that they had signed former player and coach Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen as “Head Analyst”. The 31-year-old Dane was involved in two scandals in his career as a CS:GO coach, for which he was banned.

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    Coach took advantage of Bug for unfair advantage

    Why was he banned the first time? In 2020, the so-called “Spectator bug” caused a stir in the CS:GO community. The bug caused a kind of “free camera” perspective.

    Some coaches deliberately caused the bug by performing certain steps and then exploited it to gain insight into opponents’ movements that they shouldn’t have.

    The ESL intervened and initially banned 3 coaches – including DOGS, who was hit second hardest and who was banned for 1 year. Later, the “Esports Integrity Commission” (ESIC) announced in a document that a total of 37 coaches were banned for cheating (via esic.gg).

    At HUNDEN, the ESIC document lists two violations using the Spectator bug that he committed during his time as Heroic’s coach. One of those breaches was against his future team Astralis on May 19, 2020.

    Betrayal of your own team

    Why was he banned the second time? In 2021, HUNDEN was involved in the next scandal. The coach is said to have passed on secret strategies to a competitor during a tournament. At the time, HUNDEN was still coaching Heroic, but the team fired and sued their coach.

    Later, ESIC took up the case again, conducted an investigation and banned DOGS from major tournaments for 2 years. During this period he is banned from ESL, Dreamhack and BLAST tournaments.

    How is the CS:GO community reacting? The CS:GO community and especially the fans of e-sports react with a lot of criticism for Astralis. The signing of HUNDEN is met with a lot of headwind:

  • Liam SleviN: “Absolutely ridiculous. The irony and lack of confidence with this move must be at an all-time high for esports (via Twitter).”
  • Don Haci: “Absolutely shameless (via Twitter).”
  • Jungle_CS: “Imagine falling so far as a team that you have to sign a cheater because you think he’ll save your team (via Twitter).”
  • Poloolpp: “Astralis is really shameless (via Twitter).”
  • petterlillhonga: “Thanks for the information. Please someone tell me when she decides to remove the cheater so I can follow Astralis again (via Twitter).”

    • But the criticism of employing DOGS is nothing new. There was strong backlash for Heroic back in 2020 when the team continued to employ the Dane despite the cheating ban (before he leaked the secret info) and said: “DOGS is our boy. We love him […].”

    Teams Continue to Employ Banned Cheater Coaches in CS:GO: “A Joke!”

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