PPD

There’s a tension in the air. Can you feel it? The Shanghai Major begins very very soon and most of the teams are already in China. Everyone is just waiting for what is undoubtedly going to be a stellar tournament. BUT nothing has happened yet so all we had to watch recently was MoonDuck’s captains draft tournament so we’re going to focus on the leader of the winning team EG.

PPD. PehPehDeh. PJSalt. The Salt King. Peturrrr. But if you got trapped in an elevator with him you would call him Peter Dager.

Peter is the captain of the American team EG. Easily one of the best teams in the world. He’s a very strong captain from an area which is known to be lacking good leaders, so this may be the reason that EG is one of the only really good NA teams.

So let’s learn more about him. Peter started his professional career in Heroes of Newearth where he made a name for himself. Eventually though he and Zai moved to playing Dota 2 because theres actually no money to be made in HoN. He played on a few minor teams and was earning a name for himself as a strong player and captain around the time of Ti3. After Ti3 his team disbanded and he formed the team SadBoys with Fear, Universe, Zai, and RTZ. This is basically the EG we know and love today. But they didn’t become EG until after they won the Electric Shock Therapy Cup and the organization decided these were their guys.

Peter has been on EG ever since while other players have rotated in and out around him. They’ve had their highs and lows but generally have been very successful. Most of this is because of Peter himself and how strong of a drafter he is. He’s actually known for being able to predict where your draft is going and counter it instantly. I’m not saying he’s never made a mistake in the drafting phase but when that does happen it is rare.

This is part of what won them Ti5 is that they knew where CDEC was going to take their picks in the finals, so they let them pick what they wanted then countered it. Because of that we had the amazing 6 million dollar echo slam in the final game. When I was watching the finals and saw that play I just started yelling as loud as I could. You know what I’m gonna embed that clip.

How amazing right? I couldn’t have done that. Nope never in a million years would I have had the heads up awareness to make that play.

He’s not just a great head coach though he also posts so much content for us viewers. He’s been posting things pretty much daily on his youtube channel recently and he’s never afraid to say what needs to be said on social media. That’s another thing about him, Peter is brutally honest. He never fails to share his opinion with everyone and it is rarely nice. He says it how it is and while it can occasionally be insulting PPD always stands by what he says.

He leads his team to victory. He single-handedly brought Treant Protector into competitive play. And he never fails to be a presence on social media. PPD is one of the best kinds of players because he’s great to watch in game and out. This is why he is one of my favorite Dota 2 players.

 

-David Wintrode