It's been said that fighter pilots have the biggest egos. Why should gaming fighter pilots be any different?

I play to have fun. If I win or lose, I really don't care. I just want to play.

^This. +1

A bold claim, with no data to back it up, in response to a claim - with no data to back it up?

That is, unheard of...

(Not really )

Obviously this was bound to happen, but I think part of the reason it's become so prevalent lately is because of the number of posts essentially saying "I won a game/local tournament with X list/ship/pilot, so that means it's good."

A good number of posters (myself included) tend to view these posts as boastful, whether that's what the OP intended or not. Speaking only for myself, I tend to have this reaction because I believe that the predictive value of a single game of X-Wing played by an anonymous forum poster is essentially nil. So you won a local tournament with four HWKs? Good for you! That doesn't mean the build is good or viable or that you're the best pilot ever. It doesn't really mean anything at all.

Some people (again, including myself) tend to become annoyed or irritated by these posts, and there are a LOT of them out there. So that's why you have 6+ page threads about some guy winning a local tournament with Darth Vader and a TIE Defender blowing up into giant flame wars.

Ya it's pretty much this. You're trying to have a discussion more about what builds are strong, what the meta is etc, and you point to strong examples, such as a list winning bigger events and /or more consistently. Then either the player that won with a "subpar list" is offended or makes personal attacks that you don't know what you're talking about (especially funny when there is a certain thread with gobs of data in it). So then you might have to say something along the lines of your "credentials" but it's not like you came to the forum to brag in the first place.

At this point, regionals are done, the number of people that are going to attend gen con or worlds is about 5% of the number that played in the regional tournaments. A large % of the people that ARE going will not be swayed by forum jabber. It's time to just calm down and take a more casual approach until next spring. Get your defenders and ewings out and have some fun!