This is why the community needs you and respects you tom, you are wise and needed by the mk community.
As competitors, no one likes to lose, I mean LBSH here lol. But when we do lose, people want to hate and rub your nose in it and this can make you get defensive. What players need to do is step back and when the haters come at you with "DAAAMNN! BLOW UP! YO BRO, WHY'D YOU LOSE AHAHAHAHA" just look at them and say "uhh.. because the other guy is a great player".
hell.. back in the old days of MK9 when the game was fucking new, you couldnt say shit LOL. "HEY TOM YOU SCRUB, WHY DID YOU LOSE TO THIS GUY AHAHAHAHA" and I would say "because he is a great player" all you got was "EXCUSES! YOU LOST AHAHAHAHAHA!". After several months, i got defensive and started to talk and thats when the slippery slope started lol. I even started getting defensive after getting top 8 in 4 consecutive majors with 100 or more players. Looking back on that I see just how dumb that was. When you start defending getting 4th and 5th at big majors to nobodies trying to blow you up for still placing top, you know the trolls are winning.
What I learned is that some people are just assholes and haters and they want to hurt you, even though they dont even know you. Yes, there are people out there that who are so childish that they actually want to hurt you all because they dont like the manner in which you play a video game. What you have to realize is that these people dont matter. Who are they? Nobodies who are too scared to ever show their face. They are a non factor unless you make them one. By acknowledging them and allowing their words to influence your decisions, your name now lends to theirs, and you give them power and their words power. You open the door for them and make their words as loud as yours. These haters sit back and laugh as they get top players to basically give them the power to kill a community by causing dumb inner turmoil.
The thing that makes the MK community the best is that while we all want to be competitive, no matter who we beat or lose to, there is always that level of respect where we KNOW who is legit at the end of the day. TYM is growing, the MK community is growing.. and even though we are getting bigger, we are a very tight knit group, almost like an MK family. Just like a family, while we may make our jokes and occasional trash talk, we will be damned if some random avg/scrub player/troll comes in and insults top players. Then, even hose who talk trash to you will have your back.
This is what makes us a great community. Dont you think if some troll said to the Vegas crew "yeah.. hahaha PL sucks and is mad over rated" that ALL of them would say "maaaaan.. STFU". But if the trolls get you PL and get him to come on and say something, thats when it starts.