Okay, so I've played several hundred matches online... Allow me to sum up 99% of the experience below.

I pick Sheeva. They pick Scorpion/Smoke/Ermac (or less often Noob/Sektor/Kung Lao) They try and spam teleports and basic combos. I hilariously smash their faces in and they disconnect in frustration.

In several hundred matches, I have not seen one Sonya, Jax, Kano, Liu Kang, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, Reptile, Sindel, Cyber Sub-Zero, Jade, Sheeva, or Cyrax. Not a single one.

One of the reasons I picked Sheeva, Quan Chi, Jade, and Sindel as my mains is because I see so few people online using them. I've come to loathe Scorpion for the sole reason that he dominates 90% of the online experience, denying me fresh and exciting new faces and players to face off against. And I know there are several Scorpion players here.... and that's great you like him... but online made me want to prove a few things.

I seriously rock with Sheeva, and I challenge anyone who claims she is a bad fighter. I can dish out massive damage with Quan Chi, more so than with any other character. I can tag-team with Sindel and Jade better than any other combo.

And this is important for two reasons:

1) With online dominated by Scorpions and Smokes, I've quickly learned how to defend, counter, and punish nearly every single one of their moves. Nothing in their repertoire can hurt me unless I slip up or fail to execute the right move. Every time someone picks Scorpion, I laugh to myself... and typically win rather handily.

2) By picking an "unpopular" or rarely seen fighter like Sheeva, Quan Chi, or Baraka, your opponent has very limited (or zero) experience playing against a high-level player, having grown accustomed to fighting the same set of fighters most people play as. But suddenly that all changes when moves and combos you are unfamiliar with start hammering you and you don't know an effective way to counter (yet), and because so few people use these characters, you never adapt and learn to familiarize yourself against them. Thus, rarely seen fighters' lack of exposure prevents others from adapting and growing accustomed to fighting them.

I'd like to know if anyone else has made a conscious effort to pick some of MK's least popular and underrepresented characters to play as online. Perhaps because you just like them? Perhaps because you want a challenge? Perhaps because you want to prove that these characters are as good as any Scorpion or Smoke? Perhaps you're just sick of fighting, or playing as, the same generic ninjas over and over?

So, give it up for the No-Shows of MK. Tell me which characters you rarely (if ever) face online, and if you're doing something to even the playing field.