ESIC-commissioner: niko was ruthlessly manipulated and set up by Hunden
The report underlines "exceptional circumstances" in how ESIC has dealt with Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen.
Today the report from ESIC cleared four of the five 2020 Heroic players from any wrongdoings in the case of the spectator bug, that their coach Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen accused them all of being aware of.
The last member of the roster, 23-year-old Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen has been found guilty of breaching the ESIC Code of Conduct after he admitted his complicity in the cheating exploits of Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen.
- As a result of his breach of the ESIC Integrity Program, Mr. Kristensen has accepted the following sanction under a plea bargain agreement with ESIC.
1) A severe public reprimand for his behavior. 2) A warning as to future conduct with severe consequences for any future breach of the ESIC Integrity Program. 3) Mandatory attendance at two one on one education sessions with the ESIC Commissioner of a minimum 30 mins duration each. 4) A minimum 15-minute check-in with the Commissioner every month for a minimum of six months to ensure he has understood and is complying with the ESIC Integrity Program and to offer him support for any issues he might be having in this respect.
Exceptional Circumstances
The lenient penalties for Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen are a result of exceptional circumstances according to ESIC, who lists the factors that have played in at the sentencing. The information disclosed herein pertaining to Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen is disclosed with the permission of Mr. Kristensen communicated to ESIC via his agent
- Mr. Kristensen has ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome. Upon consulting with the ADHD and Asperger’s Team at the National Autistic Society and the ADHD Foundation, ESIC was informed that this would have significantly impacted his ability to know right from wrong, make values-based decisions on his own and communicate effectively in a conventional way.
- Mr. Kristensen is heavily dependent on the people he trusts. He is naive and, by his own admission in conjunction with the objective evidence collated in the course of the investigation and enquiries (see 13.1.1) into the implications of his conditions, trusts too easily.
- Mr. Kristensen trusted and respected Mr. Petersen implicitly and Mr. Petersen observably deliberately fostered and then exploited that trust at a timing that was convenient to him.
- Mr. Kristensen, aware of his limitations in conventional day to day life, did not want to stand out as contrarian in any aspect of his life as a CS:GO professional at Heroic and so willingly went along with whatever Mr. Petersen proposed, without understanding the full implications or seriousness of what was occurring.
- Mr. Kristensen's naivety extended to believing both that the exploitation of the spectator bug was no big deal and humorous and that all his teammates must know and be complicit in the same way he was. It turns out he did not know this as a matter of observable or ascertainable fact at all, but purely as an assumption.
Ruthlessly manipulated
ESIC Commissioner Ian Smith ends his report commenting on the relation between Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen and Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen.
- I have found myself increasingly sympathetic to Mr. Kristensen’s position in this matter in light of his conditions and personality. In particular, I believe that the much-publicised text and phone conversations in July 2021 with Mr. Petersen demonstrates that Mr. Kristensen was ruthlessly manipulated and set up by Mr. Petersen in an attempt to force Mr. Kristensen to verbally commit to a position which would incriminate both himself and his former teammates. The transcripts, when read in isolation, are damning and were, to a high degree, the basis on which I initially decided that the information provided by Mr. Petersen to ESIC justified an investigation. However, it is not just the words said during the conversation, but the timing, tone and intent that comes through when actually listening to it that are compelling for me. This conversation, initiated by Mr. Petersen and recorded by him in July of this year (after Mr. Petersen became aware that ESIC was investigating his sharing of Heroic’s data) without Mr. Kristensen’s knowledge or permission, shows only two things of relevance to me: First, that Mr. Kristensen is being set up to aid Mr. Petersen’s agenda to cause harm to Heroic and, second, that Mr. Kristensen assumes, without knowing, that his former teammates knew about the spectator bug at the time of those matches more than a year earlier. This is not, in my view, a basis for concluding that they actually knew.
You can read the full report here.
