I first discovered DotA when it was a map on Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne known as DotA All Stars. US West days were the days I would play fun maps because I sucked at the regular game and didn't care much for learning it. Come to think of it, I don't even know how I made it through the Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne campaign...oh wait I used 'whosyourdaddy' and 'greedisgood 999999' and StarCraft was my Defense Map engine, so I never really played anything strategical except for SOCOM but that is a whole other story for another time when SOCOM becomes relevant again.
When I joined my first DotA All Stars game, I had no idea it was a map that was taken seriously. I was accustomed to cool looking maps to be fun, even the co-op RPG maps. Since most maps with heroes had you pick the from a few taverns, it wasn't too tough for me to choose which one; At the time I would still refer to the models by their default hero names, in this case it was Crypt Lord otherwise known as Nerubian/Nyx Assassin in DotA All Stars and DotA2 respectively. As soon as the match started, I did what mostly anyone would do in an RPG map which was scout the surrounding area. Walking into the field that day like the way I did was treated like a life threatening mistake, everyone on my team started leaving and everyone was calling me a noob for it. I just didn't care because there were plenty of people to play with on “funner” maps. After that day I ignored DotA All Stars for a while.
Many years later during High School I wanted to play Warcraft III, but I couldn't find my CD key and was frustrated looking all over the house for it. I learned that one could play Warcraft III over a program called Garena and it was for free. After I finished setting my account up and the program was installed, I immediately hopped on the Frozen Throne channel. I looked for maps to play and all I could find was DotA All Stars maps and a few RPG maps that had already started. I decided to start my own lobbies and had people join them, I even met some people there that were also there only for the fun maps. As I played and eventually got over the hype for RPG maps, I looked for another type of map to play. There was none however. While I searched and searched, all I could find was DotA All Stars lobbies. I told myself “FINE, I'll give it another chance!”. As you can already guess, history repeated itself. This time though, the Garena players were nice enough to ask if I was new with me replying “Yes”. In the new lobby, everyone was talking about all sorts of strategies and giving me tips about what to do at the beginning of the game. So we played, I had a little bit more fun this time than a few years ago on US West. Even though I never got a kill in that match with the Garena players, it was only a few times when they would get annoyed at me dying. Even after that match, I was still left with a bad taste left from my first experience so I never played DotA All Stars again. Or did I? I did play DotA All Stars earlier this year when my internet went out and I wanted to play some DotA but played with the creeps alone.
When I joined my first DotA All Stars game, I had no idea it was a map that was taken seriously. I was accustomed to cool looking maps to be fun, even the co-op RPG maps. Since most maps with heroes had you pick the from a few taverns, it wasn't too tough for me to choose which one; At the time I would still refer to the models by their default hero names, in this case it was Crypt Lord otherwise known as Nerubian/Nyx Assassin in DotA All Stars and DotA2 respectively. As soon as the match started, I did what mostly anyone would do in an RPG map which was scout the surrounding area. Walking into the field that day like the way I did was treated like a life threatening mistake, everyone on my team started leaving and everyone was calling me a noob for it. I just didn't care because there were plenty of people to play with on “funner” maps. After that day I ignored DotA All Stars for a while.
Many years later during High School I wanted to play Warcraft III, but I couldn't find my CD key and was frustrated looking all over the house for it. I learned that one could play Warcraft III over a program called Garena and it was for free. After I finished setting my account up and the program was installed, I immediately hopped on the Frozen Throne channel. I looked for maps to play and all I could find was DotA All Stars maps and a few RPG maps that had already started. I decided to start my own lobbies and had people join them, I even met some people there that were also there only for the fun maps. As I played and eventually got over the hype for RPG maps, I looked for another type of map to play. There was none however. While I searched and searched, all I could find was DotA All Stars lobbies. I told myself “FINE, I'll give it another chance!”. As you can already guess, history repeated itself. This time though, the Garena players were nice enough to ask if I was new with me replying “Yes”. In the new lobby, everyone was talking about all sorts of strategies and giving me tips about what to do at the beginning of the game. So we played, I had a little bit more fun this time than a few years ago on US West. Even though I never got a kill in that match with the Garena players, it was only a few times when they would get annoyed at me dying. Even after that match, I was still left with a bad taste left from my first experience so I never played DotA All Stars again. Or did I? I did play DotA All Stars earlier this year when my internet went out and I wanted to play some DotA but played with the creeps alone.