I have to agree with ranger, either you were not around before 2010, either you are just really ignorant / or a boot-licker.
There was way more teams, which means way more challenge and better players.
Concerning how dp evolved since this time, i don't agree with you getek.
The game has changed, the jumping has changed, in before, you would slide on anything that is a slope so you couldnt control your movements once you were on a slope, which means you had to be on the right angle with the good amount of speed before jumping. Also the aiming was more easier since the bullet speed was a bit faster and was going further.
So the jumping was harder but the aiming was easier, which is why nowadays people are better jumpers than aimers.
About the matching scene, i would say that NA was better back then, only few EUROPEAN teams made it to the top.
Overall, European teams were split between countries pretty much (there was this team, this team and this team only made up with czech players, same for germany and france) It was really " country focalized " for obvious reasons. Only few teams were internationals.
The game had so much era, that you can't really do a comparison and claim that one team would shrekt the others because thats wrong ( the game had few mechanic changes ) and there was multiple teams dominating on each era.
I was around when exii had a good era, and was actually a top tier team ( if i remember correctly i was in exii in 2008/2009) (i've been to alot of teams #clanhopper), but keep in mind that the wheel/era keep on changing years after years.
Anyways, had fun times on this game ;p