Started just before 1.0 was released so some time in 2000. Times were much simpler then, mostly played Dust or assault on American servers rocking a 56k. After a while we upgraded to ISDN and played on mostly UK / European Servers, Jolt 7 be the best public server iirc. ISDN is the ultimate gaming connection, relatively low ping at the time at around 60 - 90 but basically unhitable. At this time I became friends with the guys that ran the Landed Lans in Oxford and moved in with them, easily the most fun time of my life. Met the SK guys (HeatoN, bds etc) when they came over to the UK which is the equivalent to chatting to Messi, Ronaldo et al.
1.0 was always my favourite version because bunny hopping wasn't neutered, you could also pull off some seriously sick jumping shots which, although unrealistic were massive fun. 1.3 was good fun, 1.5 was polished and then 1.6 was part of the biggest shift in PC gaming with the move over to Steam. Anyone that complains about Steam in anyway today has simply no idea just how bad it used to be, it was awful. I am however rocking a nice low 5 digit SteamID (0:0:14750), I plan to sell it for millions in 30 years.
I miss it deeply.