A team rebuilt

Captain America

"NA just does not have capable leaders in the scene. There are also way less players and many other distractions that other regions just don’t encounter. Someday someone else will come along and start another great team. The talent is there, its the “want-to”and the “how-to” brought on by a strong leader that is missing."

"They trust me and I trust them. Being on the same page is one the hardest things a Dota team can work towards and I think that players find this daunting task easier with a strong leader."

”After we lost to Vici we realized how pessimistic we were being and we had no idea why. We were a brand new team and should be more than pleased with the success we had already obtained in such a short time. When we reached the finals we had zero pressure on our backs and just did our best.”

Moving forward

”Training for months and months on end isn’t going to make you necessarily better than a week or two of practice would. As long as you understand HOW to win and can attempt to slot that into how you play you can find success.”

”2015 is going to be a great year for Dota and it will continue to succeed and grow, people jump to conclusions to quickly on the internet, let’s not forget that this game has been around for over 10 years.”

Evil Geniuses found themselves in unfamiliar territory to start off 2015. Having been the most successful non-Chinese team throughout 2014 with five gold medals around their necks, as well as countless top three placements (including a 3rd place finish at The International 4, which netted them a total of 1 million dollars) there was little to no reason to believe that the star-studded roster wouldn't keep on trucking.But as it would turn out, fate had a different plan in mind and saw the squad's two youngsters Ludwig "Zai" Wåhlberg and Artour "Arteezy" Babaev leave the golden goose to join one of EG's biggest rivals: The european super team Secret. The western scene wouldn't be quite the same once again, and the doubt showered upon the new EG roster, no matter the replacements, would be massive.When the decision then came to see Arteezy's, one of last year's most celebrated players all-together, replacement come in the form of 15-year old Syed "SumaiL" Sumail Hassan many eyebrows were raised given the young players close to non-existent track record in competitive gaming. "We didn’t have too many choices, Dager says. Most of the players we contacted had no interest in playing with us as they saw us as the weakest link of the western reshuffle."The "western reshuffle" as it's been dubbed has become a bi-annual occurrence closely tied together with the latter half of the year, following the conclusion of Valve's mega-event The International. Both the Chinese and western scenes use this time as the off-season to either trade, release, or recruit new talent to the many organisations looking to compete in the upper echelons of competitive Dota. A common trait following this though is that many rosters simply disband in the shallows following this titanic restructuring of the teams, and has given rise to the image of Dota 2 being one of the more cut-throat esports around.To put it mildly, when the highest rated team in the western hemisphere finds itself having a hard time to find replacements, the precedent the shuffle has established can make or break any team of any size. Not shying away from calling the recruitment of Hassan a risk, Dager saw it as a necessary step given the cards he had been dealt. "Arteezy, Zai, and I were all rookies to Dota when we started [in EG] and many of the struggles we went through being new players I see in SumaiL as well. It was a risk to play with SumaiL, yes. But you won’t go anywhere without taking a couple."This risk paid off big-time for the already firmly established Evil Geniuses Dota 2 division. Along with the addition of Hassan, well-established Canadian support player Kurtis ”Aui_2000” Ling also joined the squad. Together with this new roster they managed to, after a disappointing opening tournament for the line-up in Las Vegas at the D2L Season 5 finals, take the second largest esports tournament of all time in terms of prize money by storm. This gambit netted them net 1,2 million dollars, which has effectively solidifying PPD within the top 10 of all-time esports players in terms of prize money earned.”Everyone that I’ve played with values winning over everything else”, says Dager when asked about whether his astronomic claim to fame has dampened his desire to improve at the title: ”I’d be lying that a taste of success isn’t great, but to be entirely honest I just want more.”Similar words were shared by the aforementioned Arteezy when he explained on his personal stream why he decided to leave the most established western Dota 2 franchise after barely a year. ”EG needed to be reborn through a roster change to be good again. With the same 5 players we'd hit a fucking wall.”The North American captain, who claims to have been ”surprised to lose them” when he addresses the departure of Arteezy as well as Zai. More surprisingly he even adds that he felt there was little effort to solve any of the ”disagreements” within the team. He admits that he's not one to hold grudges about such situations today, however and that each team will face similar situations due to players wanting to strive towards what benefits them the most. ”I acknowledge it as just the way things are.”What has come to distinguish PPD has been the young americans ability to guide the EG roster throughout the games and act as a leader as well as lightning rod for the team. Explained as a ”calm and supportive” leader by Jacky ”EternaLEnVy” Mao, who acted as a stand-in for the team during a period in 2014, the captainship of PPD has many times been cited as one of the primary things that managed to catapult EG to international stardom throughout 2014, something according to Dager that is sorely lacking in his native region:The latter part of the above quote is definitely what has separated PPD from many of his peers within North American esports. Having played Heroes of Newerth at the highest level for close to a year with compLexity Gaming, he has always been seen as a devout practitioner of any of the disciplines he's competed in. Something that has at times been viewed through a negative lens in the eyes of spectators. ”I have an overly assertive personality. I am honest, arrogant, and determined. I am not afraid to step on toes or be the bad guy.”Despite his appearance on social media may come across as careless and disregarding, accompanying the above description of himself very accurately, his approach to aiding his team mates differs, and that is completely based on a fundamental trust between him and his players.This style of leading was put to the test during the aforementioned Dota 2 Asian Championships. Having reached the winner bracket finals where the highest rated Chinese team in Vici Gaming awaited them, EG were dispatched by the Chinese juggernaut in two straight games. This meant they would have to fight through the lower bracket final in order to have the chance to once again face Vici in the finals of the massive tournament.And like the script of the inspirational sports movie, the north american team would be playing against familiar faces in the lower bracket final, as Arteezy and Zai was what was standing between them and the grand finals. EG held nothing back and impressively swept their former team mates and advanced to their rematch against Vici. In a freakish display, the Chinese team fell in three straight maps to an on fire EG line-up.What turned the tide in the end was to take a step back, and build up his players.Since the success at DAC, the team has been competing less, choosing what tournaments they compete in carefully. In the world of esports the amazing amount of tournaments appearing to fill the rapid demand of fans and players alike has created a situation some dub as over-saturated. With more games to play than there are hours in a day, the distance is understandable for a team that has managed to advance to the top of its export world of choice.With this practice itself can be a rarity in the world of EG, something that seemed to define them even during their most successful times. This seems to tie in perfectly to Dager’s own philosophy as a player and captain.Winning is the least of EG’s worries at the current time, with their incredible feat at DAC still fresh in peoples minds, people are all but sure that EG will be reprising their attendance at the upcoming TI tournament, which is looking to exceed that of previous year’s, which featured more than 10 million dollars in prize money, a world record that saw it eclipse regular sporting events like Tour de france and the 2014 US Masters. Despite concerns of the Valve-sponsored tournament being of too much importance, as well as the sustainability of the game’s eco-system itself, Dager presents an optimistic outlook.