Melee god PPMD departs from Evil Geniuses after nearly seven years

Super Smash Bros. Melee content creator Kevin “PPMD” Nanney has announced he is parting ways with esports organization Evil Geniuses. This marks the end of PPMD’s nearly seven-year partnership with the first and only organization to ever sponsor him.

PPMD revealed the news in a video posted to his YouTube channel on Jan. 15. Interestingly, Evil Geniuses did not put out a statement confirming PPMD’s departure from their roster. Instead, they shared a video on Twitter paying homage to PPMD’s legacy as one of the five gods of Melee. Notably, neither party has revealed specific details about the reasons for which they have parted ways.

Thank you, @PPMD for being part of the Evil Geniuses legacy, and having an extraordinary impact on the Smash community. As one of the "Smash Gods", you’ll forever have a spot in our Hall of Champions. pic.twitter.com/p2C8ggY1WE

— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) January 15, 2021

In his announcement video, PPMD thanked his former team for their support throughout his competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee career. He noted that Evil Geniuses was one of the first professional esports organizations to support any Smash player. Thus, they helped to legitimize Melee within the broader esports scene.

More about PPMD and Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses signed PPMD on May 9, 2014, just three days after Joseph “Mang0” Marquez joined Cloud9. With their support, PPMD finished 2014 ranked No. 3 in the world. Early the next year, he earned perhaps his most iconic tournament victory ever at Apex 2015.

However, PPMD began to experience health problems brought on by low hormone levels. After a disappointing performance at Battle of the Five Gods in early 2016, PPMD stepped away from competition. Besides a one-off Doubles tournament in mid-2017, he has not yet returned.

Notably, PPMD remained a member of Evil Geniuses during a roughly three-year period where he was neither a player nor a content creator. With some encouragement from the organization, PPMD began streaming on Twitch in April 2019. Since then, he has done commentary at tournaments like Genesis 7 and the LACS 3. In addition, PPMD began daily uploads to his YouTube channel at the beginning of 2021.