EPTI first touched LoL during season 1 during early 2011. Played the game a couple of times and didn't touch it again for a long time. That was still the time where I was an avid SC2 player, thinking that LoL was an easy game, with cartoonish graphics and "unskilled", so not really being too interested in LoL wasn't a big deal. Real dealbreakers at the time were minimap on right, not being able to deselect, and not really understanding keybinds, or the game really.
Then later that year, in summer, where I went over to a friends house, and he was playing LoL. I had brought my laptop, so I decided to join him and have him and a couple other friends teach me. I think that's where I started to really enjoy the game. Just learning the game, without caring if I won or lost. Wasn't as stressful for my wrists(had some issues, still do), so I kept playing, and slowly got sucked into the game.
The first champion I ever played was Corki. First one I bought was Morg, and then a few other random picks, and then Anivia. She was my favourite champion for a long time. I didn't really know or care about TL LoL then. All I know was I played pretty much Anivia mid, Morg top, and if I didn't get that, I would hard random a "support". Played pretty much exclusively blinds/draft, while wishing to get to level 30 so I could go into ranked games.
A ton of grinding later, I hit level 30. This was also around the time where I started really paying attention to TL LoL, because I was starting to get into the competitive side of the game.
I was still a noobie then, getting placed roughly into 1100 elo when I first started ranked. It took a ton of time, but I slowly ground my way up to 1200, and then 1300, and 1400, and so on. By the time Season 2 ended, I was solidly into gold, ~1600-1700. At this time I could play about 10 champions in 4 roles with a smattering of other picks, and I also put out my first(and only) champion guide on TL LoL, for my favourite champion
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=299707
If I knew what I did now when I released that guide >.>
Still, it was a decent first effort. When season 3 came around, pretty much my entire champion pool went to shit, and while I could still win with the champions, the era of anivia skarner naut irelia and olaf(and soraka) were over. Somehow in preseason, I shot up well past the 1800 mark of platinum, and into plat 1 very soon after the release of the league system.
For pretty much half a year, all I did was play outdated picks, and yeah I would go 50% or so, but I would rarely carry and fairly often lose lane, often through none of my own fault, simply because my picks were outclassed. Never having learned to play a ranged auto attack dependant champion didn't help either(something like 20-50 in ranked S2, same %, significantly smaller sample size S3). Yeah I would sit around in GD, and talk about some random tournament/scrim or another, but I never really put in the effort to improve.
Finally S3 rewards were released. I knew I had to hit diamond before or in the first few weeks of school. For the first time since Jayce, I learned a new champion. Orianna, For the first time in almost a year, I had a safe AP pick. I didn't do too well on her at first, going something like 3/8 with 2.0 kda. But I kept at it, despite winning/losing 3-5 points every single game. That was a long 2 weeks, but I finally hit diamond after probably 150 games played in two weeks the day before school started. Since then I've only played 2 ranked games, and I'm fine with that.
Spending some time in TLIH, it's fun to see how diverse the skill levels in TL are, yet collectively are still one of the highest average skill communities out there. I think that's why I like it so much, because we drive out all the people who don't listen, and keep those who are willing to. It's the restricted openness that I like, a gated community of sorts.
I don't think I would have ever made it up here without TL LoL. Without the random diversions to costco, or the shikyo thread for when times got tough(15 game loss streak, double division drop) and the advice doled out in the various champ threads I probably wouldn't have ever made it up to where I am now. All the random knowledge bombs, and conversation kept me distracted from otherwise boring lectures, and gave me something to multitask while aimlessly copying notes. In a bit over 2 years, I went from a LoL hating SC2 loving gamer to having a much more open mind about esports, and an appreciation for the actual depth of LoL. Having played both SC2 and LoL at a relatively high level, LoL isn't as difficult mechanically. But the mental game, and depth behind decisionmaking, and the sheer amount of skill that playing a champion has is immense, and it's only when I got up to where I am, looking at the likes of Faker that I can truly appreciate how much depth a "simple" 1v1 mid can have.
