Ex-Evil Geniuses captains ppd, Fear reuniting in BTS Pro Series

Some of North America’s most credentialed Dota 2 players are set to return to action together in the very near future.

Peter “ppd” Dager has announced that he is coming out of retirement for BTS Pro Series Season 4. Joining him are a number of accomplished North American players. The lineup stands as follows:

1. Clinton “Fear” Loomis
2. dnm
3. David “Moo” Hull
4. Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu
5. Peter “ppd” Dager

Notably, this seemingly marks the end of Moo and Sneyking’s previous team, 4FUN. Under the name Team Zero, the 4FUN roster posted a shock first-place finish at Dota Summit 13 by defeating Quincy Crew in the grand finals. 

4FUN was given a direct invitation to compete in BTS Pro Series Season 4, but it has seemingly dissolved after an early elimination from Realms Collide 2. Their direct invitation has instead been handed over to this new lineup. Alongside the announcement of ppd’s new team, Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao announced that he is looking for a new opportunity on his personal Twitter account:

ppd, Fear reuniting for BTS Pro Series Season 4 as SADBOYS

The new team that includes ppd and Fear is being dubbed SADBOYS, an homage to the 2014 lineup that would later become the core of Evil Geniuses’ Dota 2 division for years to come. ppd previously assembled and captained Ninjas in Pyjamas’ Dota 2 roster before retiring after the cancellation of the Dota Pro Circuit. It is unclear whether he is truly a free agent at this time.

Dota 2 fans should be cautiously optimistic about this new team. The squad reunites ppd and Fear, a duo that previously led Evil Geniuses to a championship victory at The International 2015. The pair last competed together at The International 2016.

The team brings together two other heavily credentialed North American stars. Moo previously reached the grand finals of The International with Digital Chaos before transferring to Complexity Gaming. Sneyking doesn’t have any such singular accomplishments to hang his hat on, but he has enjoyed success throughout Dota 2’s history, competing at The International four times.

There’s a bit of new blood on the team in dnm. The 17-year-old is ranked in the top 30 on the official Dota 2 MMR leaderboards for North America. He has made one-off appearances with a number of North American squads, including playing alongside ppd on a team named Throne in the qualifiers for Dota Summit 13. 

dnm’s most notable appearances came alongside Plus One, a team that was banned from Beyond The Summit events due to match fixing accusations. dnm was not implicated in the incident.

SADBOYS will debut in the BTS Pro Series Season 4 Americas event, taking the direct invitation previously held by 4FUN.