I was a huge fan of Planet Half-Life and there was a time when the site was pretty busy covering news about everything Half-Life related, including mods and their releases.
Back then, the reviews of the Orange Box started to pop up everywhere, but one particular review caught their attention, a so called "Zero Puncuation" and they linked the video. That was the very first review I've ever seen of ZP and yes, ZP introduced me to The Escapist.
Then a few days/weeks later, a new story related to ZP appeared, about Valve inviting Yahtzee himself to their headquarters.