Former TI champion reveals plan backed by pros to save Dota 2 esports

Peter ‘ppd’ Dager, a TI5 champion with Evil Geniuses, has revealed a plan he made in 2018 to revitalize the Dota 2 esports community. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

Valve has announced that the DPC is ending after TI12, and the entire community is waiting in anticipation to find out what the future has in store. With the upcoming event likely to have the lowest prize pool in many years, many are fearing for the future of Dota 2 esports, but ppd came up with a plan several years ago that he believes can help the community and the game to thrive.

The former TI champion posted a video on Twitter/X sharing a plan that depended on a ‘player-led tournament initiative.’ The 31-year-old claimed that several fellow pros were on board with his ideas but that the plan had to be scrapped due to the DPC’s progress.

Let’s dive in and check out ppd’s plan for the Dota 2 esports community and which players were on board with the idea.

Dota 2 veteran ppd’s plan for the esports community and pro scene

The former Evil Geniuses captain spoke at length about the plan he made for sustaining the Dota 2 esports scene even without the influence of tournament operators. “[They] run events but only because they don’t have any more lucrative options,” he said. “When those options are available, they will follow the money, and we will be left behind.”

Back in 2018, I dreamt of a grander vision for Dota 2 esports. We settled for what Valve offered instead. With the DPC chapter closed, can we seize our true potential this time?

Would you back a player-led tournament initiative? #dota2 #esports pic.twitter.com/C0bUKdSumZ

— Peterpandam ⌐◨-◨ (@Peterpandam) October 3, 2023

Because of this, ppd formulated the idea of a Dota 2 player’s association that would be run independently from Valve. This would force all tournament operators to work with the association when hosting Dota 2 events.

The result of this, pdd believes, would be more control in the hands of the players as they are the ones driving viewership. However, the plan did not come to fruition as Valve introduced the DPC structure.

Here’s a list of all the players who were supportive of ppd’s plan:

• Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein
• Sebastian ‘Ceb’ Debs
• Quinn ‘Quinn’ Callahan
• Jimmy ‘DeMoN’ Ho
• Jonathan ‘Loda’ Berg
• Rasmus ‘MISERY’ Filipsen
• Saahil ‘Universe’ Arora
• Arif ‘MSS’ Anwar
• Avery ‘SVG’ Silverman
• Kanishka ‘BuLba’ Sosale
• Gustav ‘s4’ Magnusson
• Yawar ‘YawaR’ Hassan
• Roman ‘Resolut1on’ Fomynok
• Sivatheeban ‘1437’ Sivanathapillai

In addition to these players, the entire Virtus.pro organization was also behind this plan. Whether it has any chance of happening or not is something that can only be confirmed when Valve provides more details for the upcoming season of Dota 2 esports at TI12.