PPD and Alliance Part Ways with Each Other

PPD has announced via his Twitter handle that his time as Alliance’s coach has come to an end. This is certainly a surprising development since he had joined Alliance only a month ago, on May 6, 2021. Peter "PPD" Dager thanked the European organization for this opportunity while mentioning that he is passionate about the coaching role and hopes to join another team in the future. As of now, the North American veteran intends to return to streaming Dota 2. The departure of PPD follows Alliance's poor showing at the WePlay AniMajor, where they finished in 9th-12th place without winning a single series.

A look at PPD’s journey with Alliance

A little over a month ago, PPD had stepped into the role of a coach for the first time in his Dota 2 career. Unfortunately, it was short-lived, as he has now left.

PPD had quite a successful coaching debut at Alliance, having won the highly competitive Upper Division of EU DPC Season 2, which earned them entry directly to the WePlay AniMajor Playoffs.

However, all was not rosy during the second DPC season as the team faced backlash for using a “new coaching role” to its advantage. This rule change that was communicated to the teams in an email from ESL and Dreamhack, the organizers behind the EU and CIS DPC, had allowed coaches to communicate with their teams in-game. PPD was heard assisting the team in-game during one of the DPC matches after which many, primarily OG members, had come hard at them. Later, the matter calmed down and the rule was retracted.

The 2021 Dota 2 journey of PPD has been highly unpredictable overall. He came out of retirement at the start of the year to join Sadboys to compete in the NA DPC. However, he found himself out of the roster after a mediocre showing in the first season.

As the TI qualifiers approach, we may see him joining another team since there are many NA and SA teams without coaches. His long-time ally and friend, Fear, also recently departed from Sadboys to join Thunder Predator as its coach.