Former champion, PPD retires from DOTA2

On 21^st April 2020, Peter “ppd” Dager, former captain of team Evil Geniuses, the International 2015 Champions, retires from competitive DOTA2. The announcement came as shocking news to the DOTA2 community and pro players alike. After all, many consider PPD as the face of NA DOTA, who nurtured the growth of its pro scene.

© Valve / The International 2018

Hall of Fame

To this day, Evil Geniuses still remains as NA’s strongest team. In fact, EG was the first NA team to win an Internationals back in 2015. As captain, he had his fair share of polishing new talents from the region to turn them into better and consistent players. For instance, Sumail, former EG mid player who won TI5 at the age of 16. While ppd may not be the flashiest player in the game, he’s responsible in developing a good draft for his team’s victory.

After winning TI5, ppd stayed around a little longer at EG and won third place in TI6. While it wasn’t horrible results, ppd decided to leave EG regardless. Instead, he decided to play for a different team, Optic Esports. Ppd’s new team attracted many fans as the former EG captain led the new team. Indirectly, it shed some spotlight for young prodigies in the team to shine, such as CCnC. Team Optic Gaming managed to secure a respectable 7^th place at TI8.

Trying EU for a Change

Once again, ppd left the team but this time, he ventured to the EU region instead. Many fans questioned ppd’s decision to compete in the EU region, considering it’s the toughest region to qualify for any tournament. EU is home to some of the world’s best teams such as Team Secret, Team OG, Team Liquid, Nigma and many more.

Yet, after a long DPC season, Ninjas in Pyjamas, still managed to pull through and secure their spot at TI9. They ranked 8^th in the DPC leaderboards. Unfortunately, despite the expectations on the seasoned veteran, NIP was upset in the TI9 group stage. With the last place in the groups, NIP was the first team to be eliminated. Although the entire NIP roster were signed off, Ppd remained to form his new team this year.

They call him Pjsalt

Hilariously, the DOTA2 community nicknamed ppd as “salt” or using the Twitch emote, Pjsalt. This became a thing after ppd himself made a series on his Youtube channel, “Ppd Salty Adventures”. However, the actual reason is because he gets angry quickly when things don’t go as intended in a game. For instance, when a team fight goes south or he misses a guaranteed kill.

Outside of the game, he’s usually well-mannered, as seen in interviews and friendly conversations. However, he’s definitely someone who isn’t afraid to justify what he considers right. Ppd has beef with CIS player, Lil, even though they never play together. After the Internationals 2019, CIS squad, Virtus.pro, suffered early elimination. Lil took it to his Twitter to share his thoughts on why Virtus.pro lost and how his former team wronged him. Ppd replied to Lil’s tweet by calling him out for being toxic every time Virtus.pro fails.

In another “civil war” situation, ppd trash-talked his former teammate, Sumail, by tweeting EG to kick Sumail instead of Universe. Sumail then went on a barrage of replies on ppd’s tweet. However, at a later time, ppd confirmed that the beef is fake after viewers asked him about it.

Missing him already

Ppd’s departure from DOTA2 is bittersweet for many fans but also players. Many pros have tweeted back at him, wishing him best of luck, such as Team OG’s Ceb and Alliance’s Loda. But the one that hits hard is from EG’s player, Arteezy.

In his tweet, ppd explained that he has spent the entire decade of his twenties, competing in Esports. At his current age of 29, he’s looking for something else that he doesn’t think he can find right now. Over the years, he also stated that he has lost the necessary drive to win competitions. Instead, he is more focused on personal growth, so he feels that this change is healthy. He also expressed his word of gratitude to all his fans and players he met.

Once again, farewell and best of luck, Peter Dager, we hope that we would see you occasionally as a talent in tournaments.

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