EPTBack when I was a kid, I really enjoyed gaming. However, I always seemed to be one step behind everyone in terms of consoles. What I mean is that when everyone had a PS2, I was still stuck on a PS1, and when everyone had a GBA(GameBoy Advance) I was still stuck on a GBC(GameBoy Color).
I remember envying all my friends as they get to play newer, better games on more advanced consoles, and I was stuck playing Pokemon R/B/Y(great games, nonetheless) on my GBC. Nevertheless, once I discovered the world of PC gaming, I never looked back.
The first ever online PC game I've played was Runescape. Back then, it was all the rage in my school. I would grind mobs with my friends for hours on end, "raiding" bosses together and just having loads of fun. Back then, I was only 9, and Runescape was literally my life. Soon after, I discovered a Korean MMO called Survival Project which had a SEA version(awesome game, sad that its no longer available here), and my friends and I decided to try it. We got hooked on it pretty fast, and we were playing it hardcore for nearly a year. We even had a clan in it and got really involved with the community back then. That was when I first had the notion of "competition" in an MMO, where it wasn't just about playing to have fun, but playing to compete and defeat others.
Then, around the age of 10/11, I bought a copy of Warcraft III:Reign of Chaos. At that time, I didn't buy its expansion, The Frozen Throne, because I was a poor kid T.T and so I was stuck with the vanilla WC3. After playing campaigns for awhile, I tried b.net and discovered the wonderful map that is Defense of the Ancients. Back then, RoC DotA was FUN AS HELL. Although not as balanced as DotA is now, back then DotA had ridiculous heroes. Mind you, this was only RoC, so the map versions were only like 3.71 I think. Then, I discovered a map called Doomsday Stand(DDS), which was similar to DotA but, in my opinion, had better heroes. The hero pool was rather limited, but the sheer creativity of the heroes made up for it. I played it for awhile, and eventually joined a clan called Clan AmL(AnimaL). During this period, I struggled to keep up with the clan due to timezone differences(I was playing on the US West server), but eventually I made it work. DDS has a reaaaally small community back then, with only about 3-4 clans really playing it competitively, and so inhouse matches/clan matches were really tough and serious as we are playing against literally, the best players in the DDS community. After playing it for about 6 months, school and social life caught up to me and I eventually stopped playing it and moved on to TFT DotA. During this period however, I've gotten my fair share of clan action, clan politics, and organized team matches.
TFT DotA was another different beast however. It had a larger pool of heroes, and the depth of it dwarfed RoC dota in comparison. I struggled to learn the game at first, until one day I found a custom game titled "JOIN FOR CLAN", in which I met the guy who introduced me to eSports,
konadora.
Next part: My forays into competitive DotA, my first interaction with pro BW. Stay tuned for more!
P.S I would really love some feedback/criticism ~
loved reading it though.
