Dota 2 pro PPD calls out “toxic” player after his old team is eliminated from TI9

ESL/Valve/EPICENTER

After a former Virtus.pro player took to Twitter to rub salt in the wounds of his former team, Ninjas in Pyjamas captain Peter ‘ppd’ Dager took it upon himself to call out the player on his “predictable toxicity.”

Most of us are past the point where we’re wishing ill will upon our exes. Unfortunately, no one told that to Ilya ‘Lil’ Ilyuk, a Dota 2 player who currently plays for Winstrike Team, and used to play for Virtus.Pro. Lil played for VP for a number of years across three different stints, and together they won a lot of tournaments and a lot of money.

Article continues after ad

But Lil was kicked for the last time in February 2018, and it seems he’s still upset about it, and thoroughly enjoyed watching his old team exit from The International 2019 early.

The full post does not translate very well from Russian to English, but here are some key quotes:

“As you know, Virtus.pro took off from [International] today, taking 9-12th place. I am glad. And I’m glad not that someone won, but someone lost. And the fact that it all finally ended.”

Article continues after ad

“The day when they kicked me was one of the worst in my life, today is one of the best.”

“A year and a half ago, when I heard the news about my breakup with the team while sitting on the bootcamp, the last thing I heard was ‘We won’t win the Int with you.’ Well, without me you won’t win it either :)”

Clearly Lil does not handle his breakups well, which likely explains why “ex-VP/NaVi” is in his Twitter bio. From the rest of the post, it seems like he’s blaming VP for issues with other teams and for his perceived notion of being toxic. 

Article continues after ad

But have no fear, NiP captain and former International winner ppd jumped in to administer some extra tough love.

Well, I guess that clears that up.

Based on some of the reactions seen on Twitter and reddit, this isn’t the first time that Lil has placed the blame on a former team rather than take on the responsibility himself. There’s some consensus that how Virtus.Pro handled things wasn’t great, but Lil hasn’t done himself any favors since that happened. 

Article continues after ad

Unfortunately for him, this won’t help his image either, and apart from their woes at The International, Virtus.Pro have been doing more than just fine since kicking him, winning several premier events including two majors.

What makes this extra confusing is that he apologized to some of his former teammates earlier this year:

“Sorry guys, I was wrong. I acted like a child, I’ll try to be wiser in the future. I’d also like to apologize to everyone I hurt with my words. I wish you all the best.”

Article continues after ad

Why go through all the effort of repairing a bridge just to burn it down again?