I want to gush for a moment on how fantastic this site is. This truly is the de facto home for all things starcraft. This site is home to the best tournaments, from weekly cups to major events, I don't even watch the streams on twitch but rather embedded on TL. I've been watching the streams here since about the time Justin.Tv began, and not everyone had migrated over to the new platform. Through streams I felt like I was part of the community, the Day[9] daily was very personal, HasHe had the best music of all time, and Empire.Kas was the king of the Stream Hours * Viewer Count statistic leader board.
The strategy forum was locked down by Chill, then helmed by Monk and his crew. Teo, Jer, Zeromus. Many of my posts are in that forum. I think I wrote my first guide in 2012 or something like that. The strategy forum was fantastic as semi-pros and even the rare pro would post there. The level of discussion on that forum was amazing. It was hard to keep up with all the posts.
The random pics that make you laugh, blog section, and [Guide] Sex brought many smiles to me over the years. The hidden forum that I tricked an admin to letting me into also allowed me to contribute some stupid humour as well.
I may yet begin to play Starcraft again, who knows. Even when I hadn't touched the game for a 2 year stretch I was browsing these forums daily, and continue to do so. I can't seem to get away from it.
While I think it would be typical to praise the community in posts like these describing teamliquid, I do think it's important to recognize that it is the admins and the community heads that made this community special. Without Nazgul and R1CH this site wouldn't be the home it is. Without Day[9] it is entirely possible that many casual players would never be introduced to competitive starcraft. Without our glorious admins (too many to name) swinging their banhammers with impunity the quality of the forums would not be what it is today. Whoever decided to ban twitch memes and image posts in particular is a personal hero of mine. Without Waxangel's giant head, we wouldn't have a 150cm tall lichter. That head absorbed whatever height lichter may have had. No Plexa? No TLMC. No map prizepools. Without him we'd probably still be playing on Xel'Naga caverns.
So, thanks to the community for being welcoming to posters like me who bring down the average IQ of the site, and thanks to the admins who make this site the quality that it is. The massive growth of teamliquid was borne on the back of teamliquid staffers who hyped GSL matches, and before that the OSL and Proleague, and the consistent commitment to quality that most forums on the internet are envious of.
Hopefully I'll make it to 2,000 in the next 5 or so years. Just need to make sure I don't get banned in the meantime.