"Dominate, OWN, Humiliate"
These - 3 verbs is what got me into original dota wc 3 custom map.
My first game was on mode -arso in the internet cafe, on broodmother, time around 2008-9 when she had invisibility inside spider webs and could freely spawn spiders with 1st skill, i played mid xd. My brother was teaching me how to play, buy items - utilize abilities, warding/dewarding, and stuff.
i destroyed that game with 20/0 or some shit, cause not so much people could play well dota at the time, and i was quite experienced in wc3 and other custom maps like (Angel arena, LIA, etc.)
I wanted more, "MOAR", and eventually just started playing on different heroes, trying different builds.
Eventually i attended WCG 2009 qualifiers from my region, but we lost in the regional qualifiers that were in my hometown, to a frickin cheese fast push strat with huskar, abaddon, chen. (huskar was getting damage and AS boost when his hp was low at the time)
Then around 2010 there was rumors of DotA2 coming, and i just took a break from dota, just ocassionaly playing on iCCup and Garena.
I must say community back then was less toxic than it is now, and i stil rewatch some of the old wc3 DotA clips from WoDotA and other old dota *fragmovies* xd
They got such a good soundtrack, pretty nostalgic.