More recently our local community has been growing. I know that may seem hard to believe, but it's true. It is a mix of true fresh blood, people who had stopped playing but came in to see whats up and realized that the game can still be fun despite the constant doom and gloom people see online, and also a few players who have moved into the area. We love new and returning players, but it is the last group, people who moved from other metas, that is always an interesting one. Our group tends to enjoy it as they bring a taste of what their last meta was like, and it will breathe a bit of freshness into our group.
For example our meta is flyer light. Sometimes people will bring 1-3 flyers. A guy came from a meta where everyone ran flyers and FMC all the time. This was interesting because it started a bit of a mini arms race of air/anti air. Long story short he's fun to play with, never minds when people ask if he tones down the flyers or if they can adjust their list a bit to have more anti air (in friendly games), and our meta balanced back out to flyer light.

Now there are guys who move to our meta from hyper competitive groups. Groups where everyone goes all out all the time, and it has been drilled into them that there is no point in playing if you're not winning at all costs. Most of the time these guys will crush a few unexpecting players, then gravitate to only playing those of us who can come prepared for such a list (call it cheese if you will). They usually tone it down after a while in order to get more games in and thus adopt our meta. This in itself isn't negative.

What is?
We had a guy, lets call him Bob, come to us from what must have been a truly toxic community. Bob was not a nice person. He would watch games and criticize or even berate the players for their list choices or in game decisions. Not in a "did you know unit x out performs unit y for the cost" kind of way, more in a "omfg scrub why would you run that!?" way. He would argue every move or rule you used, talk down to you the whole game, and rub in his wins. Bob was the kind of player who would crank it up to 11 and sprinkle some WAAC "rule bending" to all of his games. He would then take this play style and intentionally go after newer of more inexperienced players. As people caught on, they would either match him for cheese or avoid playing him. I think you get it.

Now we have this new player who is playing DA, lets call him little Timmy. He is younger, around 15ish I'd say, and a good kid. I kind of took him under my (raven)wing when he first joined us when I saw the twinkle in his eye watching me field my ravenwing in all their glory in a great game against a tough eldar player. I lost, but it was fun. After the game he was really excited, asking me all kinds of questions, it was pretty great feeling.

Now what you all saw coming. A game between Bob and little Timmy. I came into our store ready for a fun day of warhammer just in time to see the end of turn 3 where little Timmy was being utterly crushed by Bob. Not just on the table, but in spirit. I hung off to the side and watched Bob finishing up what could barely be called a game while talking to a few of the locals. According to them, Bob had been playing a pretty dirty game, and whenever people would intervene he would get defensive to the point of borderline hostility. I watch what is left of the game and get ready to go 1% on this guy.

As Timmy is packing up, I start a separate conversation with him. Making sure that a few comments are loud enough for Bob to hear. After a few, Bob takes the bait and joins our conversation, going on about how Timmy was terribad and needs to L2P, you know that garbage. I made a few comments about how Timmy's list could beat his once Timmy is more familiar with the game, yada yada. Bob scoffs at the idea, saying no amount of skill could overcome his all winning list. I offer Bob a game using the same lists, and he thinks he just secured a second easy win and accepts.

Now what followed was not pretty. Bob didn't face the same list. As I explained to him, I didn't see the first 3 turns, so I took some liberties assuming what would have been in the list. 1850 points of ravenwing, with whitescar librarian conclave, invisible RWCS, 2+ rerollable jink everywhere, with a much tailoring to what he had as possible. I truly tfg list. I see it in Bobs eyes. He knows this list is much better than the one he brought. We both know that this list is going to roflstomp his all over the board. We play the game, the whole time I give him a taste of his own poison. "That move made no sense", "why are you even running those", "that die is cocked, better reroll it", the whole time calling him on every tiny rule "mistake" with snide comments like "I thought you knew this game" or "even Timmy knows that". The game ends turn three, Bob pulling his hair out, and me with a eating grin plastered on my face. I offer him a hand shake with the most sarcastic "good game" I could manage, and watch him pack his stuff in a flustered rush. I take a few minutes to revel in my glory.

Now I turn to little Timmy, expecting to have a few good laughs about how I got his revenge. Instead, Timmy looks at me like he had just watched me slaughter the younglings. With a sigh I go and talk to Bob. Apologize for the terrible game I just gave him, and we have a good talk. Now this doesn't turn into some sappy story where Bob learned his lesson, and we became best friends braiding each other's hair while thinking of starting a joint rainbow marines army. But I did have a good chat with him, and he at least heard me out, and told us he would work on it. He kind of did, but eventually he just stopped coming.