Same here. If you don't mind, I think I'll write an essay on how much this game influenced me.
I can't even remember when exactly I first saw the show as dubbed by 4Kids, but I quickly fell in love with the game. Though I was curious as to how everyone knows what all the cards do, seeing as though they have no text on them. I figured the card abilities must have been in the rule book, and dreaded seeing for myself. The best character to me was Kaiba and his Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
In the fall of 2002, when I was in the 5th grade, I got a copy of Starter Deck Kaiba. I was surprised to see text on the cards, and it wouldn't be till years later that I would know why this was the case (as well as why the cards did look like the real one in the Pyramid of Light movie)
There was one major problem. My school was one of the many that cracked-down on Pokemon and the like. And while Yu-Gi-Oh was not amung of the games banned, I was practically the only one in, at least, my grade range that played.
I did have my brother as an opponent, but he wasn't as interested as I was. There was a Duelist League at my local Toys R Us, but that dried up eventually.
around 2008, I was half-way though High School, and I finally found another league. by this time, Light of Destruction was out, and the meta of the day was Lightsworn Vs. Gladiator Beasts. This was also my first taste of true competitive play... and I got crush thoroughly. Up until this time my card collection consisted of what little boaster packs and new starter decks my parents would get for me, so my collection was quite small, and hardly consisting of powerful GX era cards.
However, it was around this time that I discovered online dueling outside of Yu-Gi-Oh online. the first duel system I ever used was called the "Kaiba Corp Virtual Duel System" (or KCVDS for short), and this was the first time I was able to satisfy my hunger for human opponents in the game. This would be the main duel system I would use until discovering the numerous ones in the "Byond" game engine, Dueling Network, YGOPro, and most recently, "Dawn of a new Era".
But soon the 5D's era came in, starting with the Duelist Genesis set, and everything changed. I was soundly bested by a Goyo Guardian, and it was at that moment, that I wanted to utilize to power of Synchros in my deck. (However, once the Synchro era came about, my brother found that, for him, the games pace became to fast, combined with the rudeness of the competitive scene, and retired from the game altogether)
Collage was where I finally hit my stride in my dueling career. with a job that allowed me to buy all the card packs I wanted, or at least have collateral to trade for what I needed, I was able to finally build the Synchro deck that I wanted to play in real life. I was one of the best at the game lounge, and it honestly seemed like everything came together, and would stay that way...
...then Zexal came around...
As soon as Generation Force came out, the game immediately turned Synchro-hostile. I lost all support for my deck for about the next 4-5 boasters. I started shifting my buying habit to pre-ordering 1 box of boaster packs per set in the hopes of getting really rare cards to trade for what I might need, but that didn't work, the meta was also shifting too fast. I couldn't keep up. And with my class scheduled keeping me from the lounge for some time, I figured a break would be a good idea.
If the Synchro-era was too much for my brother, the XYZ-era was a bit much for me. However, after graduation, I thought it was time to dive back in. That was when I saw the tutorial video for Pendulum Summoning, and I metaphorically "flipped the table". I closed the Yu-Gi-Oh website, and retired from the game myself.
There is so much more I can say on this subject, but perhaps those thoughts are best left for when they cam come up in other posts here.