ppd retires from Dota

The captain of Ninjas in Pyjamas has announced in a TwitLonger post that he'll be stepping away from competitive play. The TI5 winner and ex-CEO of Evil Geniuses has had a long and illustrious Dota 2 career with many twists and turns, and looks like he's ready for a new stage in his career.

The most evil genius

Peter "ppd" Dager is one of the select few whose names are etched onto the Aegis of Champions, making his retirement a watershed moment in the Dota world by default. His story will be inextricably linked with Evil Geniuses, playing a key part in the brand's revival after the org picked up the S A D B O Y S roster he was a part of at the time. Despite being the favorites for TI4, they had to accept a bronze medal at the end of the event, having to wait until the inaugural Dota 2 Asia Championships and the next International - now with SumaiL on the team - for their glory.

Notably, ppd has also had a stint on EG as their CEO, with a chaotic period around 2016 culminatign in him stepping down from the active roster in favor of a managerial role at Evil Geniuses and Twitch. When EG and Alliance became independent player-owned organizations, he was named as the CEO of the former organization.

A man of many roles

From that point on, it was an odd mishmash of various roles, as he joined WanteD as a part-time player and took the occasional casting and panelist roles at big events. Eventually, he stepped down as the CEO of Evil Geniuses after The International 7, returning to professional play with a team that would eventually be signed up by OpTic Gaming. A 7-8th place at TI8 showed the merits of the project, from which he then went on to join NiP in the autumn of 2018, establishing a new roster.

In his TwitLonger post, he has cited a lack of motivation for the grind as he "find[s himself] focused on personal growth rather than competition" after spending most of his twenties in the Dota 2 arena. With such a versatile set of experiences under his belt and, of course, the legendary TI5 title, it likely won't be long until the community hears from him again.