When i was learning how to play Dota, i didn't really put too much effort about it and just stopped for around 2 months because i cant even learn anything. When i returned from playing it, i decided to work really hard and understand each hero and items, and that took me around a year to memorize them all. I thought Dota is just a game that everybody plays in cyber cafes with 10 people in our country not knowing there are teams around the world that plays dota. The first person i ever knew that plays Dota professionally was YaphetS or PIS. My friend just showed me a video of his plays in youtube and i just got inspired my his plays so i decided to work hard on playing Dota to rekt my friends. Also when i found out about WoDotA, i just watched every video of those and try to copy their plays. I was a total noob that time sadly.
After learning about Dota, my friends introduced me to some kids about our age that plays dota as well. Then we just started playing together as 10. I remember we would gather around and wait for everybody to show up and go play on a cyber cafe together, the best player on our group just rekts us all, we would have like 3000 net wort in 8-10 mins while he would have 7000 or so. But eventually we stopped playing together, and i found out about HoN and started playing it and adapt some skills in Dota to that game, then TI1 started in 2011, i just got inspired again by the game and how its improving around those years. 2012 spring before TI2 is when i got my beta key to Dota 2. It was really fun playing in the beta for sure.