EPTI entered E-sports for the first time around November 2009( I remember because I built my gaming computer then in part with money I’d got from my birthday). The allure of FPS’s is that everyone and their dog knows about them and talks about them, having previously pub’d COD4 and with several mates from college playing I jumped it and dedicated much of my life to it until around January this year.
COD4 was at a plateau when I started playing seriously, it had declined and was declining no further without ever getting better. The super teams such as Paradox and Tek-9 had disbanded and prize pools were huge if they reached £10,000 (around $5,000), to me this seemed glamorous and huge, bad management of tournaments struggling to fill up all its slots until hours before seemed normal and natural to me, this being my only e-sports experience. How naive I was.
COD4 is still fairly well supported across Europe, it’s a game run by a community and the community run by an organisation called vita nova that regulate which teams are in which bracket of standard and generally attempt to run the game. The community convenes on a site called Tek-9 (A warning here: I am in no way attempting to insult tek-9 in the following text). It’s a site dedicated to trolling, flaming, internet memes and “my dad could beat up your dad” style ‘conversations’. An example of which being: http://www.tek-9.org/forum/call_of_duty_series-46/call_of_duty_4-13/benzx_busted_updated-77115.html?page=2
The site is poorly moderated, users getting away with murder, no free exchange of ideas takes place (although I wonder if they met each other the free exchange of faeces would), simply a collection of egos, and 12 year old chavy ones at that.
Since I started playing SC2 my eyes have been opened to a whole new world, a world where esports is huge, Dreamhack, MLG, NASL, GSL, I’ve watched them all and loved them. These 80,000 viewed shows happening seemingly bi-monthly was something I couldn’t of dreamed of watched the 200 viewed, £200 prize pot just months earlier. The game is better, the community is better and I think a lot of that can be traced to team liquid.
A site that doesn’t take trolling bullshit, that doesn’t allow idiots, but is welcoming to newer players with less experience. A site that’s moderators care for what they’re doing, care for their image and strive to improve everything for everyone involved. I can’t remember a time where there has been less than 20 streams live at any part of the day. Team Liquid has enabled me to get involved in the community in the minor ways I’m able to, has vastly greatened my knowledge and has given me a love for the game I never thought I’d have when I first picked up the game on launch and dismissed it after the campaign (which I did enjoy by the way) having struggled in matches. I think we all owe a lot to Team liquid for setting itself apart from the Tek-9s of this world and allowing us to experience the game we love in the best possible way.
Team liquid and all its many admins and it’s great community: I thank you.
We stay away from Internet memes and TL actually manages to give decent advice/strategies, something many other forums are unable to do. TL Admins, you are awesome. 
