Reading this title, instantly thought of watching my older brother play wc3 as a 5 year old, and it being the defining game of my childhood and teenage years. Easily 10k hours of having that game open if not playing.
The comparison of lightning in a bottle that I've heard is so apt. og Dota, etc, countless custom maps that countless people put their souls into creating, out of passion. the "programmers", texture/map designers, all working together or by themselves to build and improve these incredibly complex/deep works of art. For MOBAs, being the progenitor grounds of the genre!
Blizzard killing wc3 with reforged was the day I told myself I'd never buy another one of their products again. Impossible bosses (GORGEOUS mod), metastasis, war in the plaguelands, battle for middle ... you get it dude. meeting mapmakers in lobbies! Wc3 was every genre you could imagine in a birds eye view game wrapped into one.
& I concur about sc2. Graphically looked newer, but the custom game scene pales in comparison, even today, with a more "powerful" map engine. I got into league because of friends a couple years ago, and controlling 9 heros as the fellowship or nazgul in bfme, in pitched 5v5 wc3 battles with massive custom designed lotr armies with lore accurate, non revivable heros and named units, in a spawn based map, with an insane amount of coded events... well, league never hit the same in terms of that feeling of sheer scale and epicness :/ always seemed... too easy?