Long story short, players who should have been the game’s best ambassadors (top players, notable streamers) instead spent their time and platforms complaining about the game and how much they hated XYZ. As in play one match, complain for 45 minutes, play another match, complain for an hour (this is an actual example, not hyperbole). This mentality bled into other showcases of the game, manifesting in terrible Twitch chats wherein acolytes of said players would then spend entire tournaments ■■■■■■■■ to the devs (who regularly tuned in and participated in tourney chats) how “dumb” or “cheap” ABC was instead of just watching and enjoying the games. One memorable conspiracy theory that refused to die was that a well-heeled fan was literally paying the devs to not nerf a particular character.
I’m disinclined to go more into detail, but this post is a pretty decent summation of where I also was personally at with respect to much of the KI community:
And this post here is a good summary of a long-form article that was written about KI and its community. I recommend the whole thread actually if you’re genuinely interested in the topic.
And the article itself: Loose Screws – Communication, Killer Instinct, and the Struggle to Fight Negativity – Them's fighting words!!
It’s long, but Hippo actually talked to a lot of people still in the community when writing it (full disclosure: I was one of those people), and has lots of links to other examples of the kinds of stuff that were happening.