History Main / BrokenStreak

* As noted below in the Exceptions section, Cleveland has had an infamous streak of sports championships as a whole since the Cleveland Browns won the NFL championship in 1964. ''That is 52 years of futility, close calls and heartbreak.'' It had gotten to the point that sports columnist BillSimmons as well as beleaguered Cleveland fans sending him fan letters made a RunningGag in his columns about how God hates Cleveland whenever the Browns, Cavaliers or Indians were mentioned, especially when it comes to year of mediocrity in which the city has been mired for all these years or sad memories surfaced in said years. Finally, LeBron James rallied his teammates around him and came back from a 1-3 series deficit to defeat the Golden State Warriors in the 7th game in dramatic fashion to win the NBA championship. James finally delievered on his promise of winning a major title for Cleveland. This gets bonus points because it happened on Father's Day, of all days and James himself is a father of 3 kids!

* As noted below in the Exceptions section, Cleveland has had an infamous streak of sports championships as a whole since the Cleveland Browns won the NFL championship in 1964. ''That is 52 years of futility, close calls and heartbreak.'' It had gotten to the point that sports columnist BillSimmons made a RunningGag in his cloumns about how God hates Cleveland whenever the Browns, Cavaliers or Indians were mentioned, especially when it comes to year of mediocrity in which the city has been mired for all these years. Finally, LeBron James rallied his teammates around him and came back from a 1-3 series deficit to defeat the Golden State Warriors in the 7th game in dramatic fashion to win the NBA championship. James finally delievered on his promise of winning a major title for Cleveland. This gets bonus points because it happened on Father's Day, of all days!

** For starters, Ash and Pikachu do ''not'' reset in competence/power this series. Ash's XY incarnation is note to be extremely skilled from the get-go, with all his friends singing his praises, and Pikachu is Ash's ace mon for the first half of the series, defeating the opponents the rest of Ash's team couldn't hope to face at the time.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' episode "Operation: C.A.K.E.D.-F.O.U.R." Tommy breaks his family's Tube-a-Thon Losing streak, despite his brother losing.

* Tracy Lawrence had a #1 smash in 1991 with "Sticks and Stones", the first of 19 consecutive #1 hits for him. But after some domestic dispute issues and an ensuing lawsuit, radio dropped him like a hot potato, blunting his 1997 single "The Coast Is Clear" at #26. While he did spordically return to the charts afterward, his momentum was gone.

* The [[RollerDerby Gotham Girls Roller Derby All-Stars]] won every sanctioned game they played from November 7, 2010 to November 7, 2015 when the [[AwesomeMcCoolname Rose City Rollers Wheels of Justice]] defeated them by a score of 206-194, [[WinOneForTheGipper two weeks after the death of longtime team coach, Rob Lobster.]] The team posted to Twitter, "We did it, Robin," sending the entire [[FanCommunityNickname Derbyverse]] into an [[InelegantBlubbering Ugly Cry]].

* Music/OneDirection's streak of albums debuting at #1 was ended at ''Made in the A.M.'', when Music/JustinBieber's album ''Purpose'' debuted at the pole position for the week of November 13, 2015. It's especially ironic because Bieber was coming back from a massive popularity drop -- one that began by 1D's meteoric rise to fame and takeover of Bieber's tween/teen demographic.

* Music/OneDirection's streak of albums debuting at #1 was ended at ''Four'', when Music/JustinBieber's album ''Purpose'' debuted at the pole position for the week of November 13, 2015.

* Music/KennyChesney's 2013 album ''Life on a Rock'' is his first album since his little-known 1994 debut ''In My Wildest Dreams'' not to be certified gold.

%% Misuses of this trope are commented out, pending TRS decision.

%% * ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' broke the three-generation streak of final evolution Fire/Fighting starters with the Fire/Psychic Delphox. The other two starters are Water/Dark and Grass/Fighting, embedding a second elemental trinity. Additionally, this generation's Grass starter line is the first to be mammalian in appearance, rather than reptilian. [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Cynthia]] is nowhere to be seen despite appearing all games in the last two generations, The Rock gym is the second gym rather than the first like it usually is, and the Ice gym is docked by one being the 8th gym rather than the 7th. The pseudo-legendary is a single typed Dragon and is more defensively oriented. There are only three new Legendaries in the game with it reusing the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue first 4 legendaries]] instead of a new duo and secondary trio, all the legendaries are shinylocked instead of just the plot-relevant ones and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking this is the first game in the Pokemon Franchise to have a worldwide release.]] This generation is also notable for being the first in which you can battle the regional professor.

%% * A non-competition example: Pope Francis, the first pope since 913 to have an entirely new name, first Jesuit and American pope, and first non-European pope since 741.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' broke the three-generation streak of final evolution Fire/Fighting starters with the Fire/Psychic Delphox. The other two starters are Water/Dark and Grass/Fighting, embedding a second elemental trinity. Additionally, this generation's Grass starter line is the first to be mammalian in appearance, rather than reptilian. [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Cynthia]] is nowhere to be seen despite appearing all games in the last two generations, The Rock gym is the second gym rather than the first like it usually is, and the Ice gym is docked by one being the 8th gym rather than the 7th. The pseudo-legendary is a single typed Dragon and is more defensively oriented. There are only three new Legendaries in the game with it reusing the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue first 4 legendaries]] instead of a new duo and secondary trio, all the legendaries are shinylocked instead of just the plot-relevant ones and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking this is the first game in the Pokemon Franchise to have a worldwide release.]] This generation is also notable for being the first in which you can battle the regional professor.

* A non-competition example: Pope Francis, the first pope since 913 to have an entirely new name, first Jesuit and American pope, and first non-European pope since 741.

* The longest winning streak in the history of any sport is the one held by the Americans in the America's Cup yacht race. The American yacht won every race held between 1851 (the year of the original America's Cup race) and 1983 (132 years of consecutive wins) when the Australian yacht ''Australia II'' won the race. The Americans won the cup back in the very next race, and have continued to be the dominant force in yacht racing (winning six of the eleven America's Cup races since 1983), but since 1983, no single nation has been able to establish the same sort of win record since the American streak was broken.

* The [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Boston Red Sox]] in 2004.
** And the Chicago White Sox the year after. The San Francisco Giants five years later too.
** For the NationalHockeyLeague, the New York Rangers in 1994.

* After winning his ''WebVideo/MovieFights'' eight times in a row, Dan Murrell finally loses his title of "''Undefeated'' Movie Fights Champion" during the "''Film/JurassicWorld -- Fun or Failure?''" battle.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerofAzkaban'', Harry fails to catch the Snitch and lost in a game of Quidditch for the first (and only) time in the series.

* After winning his ''WebVideo/MovieFights'' eight times in a row, Dan Murrell finally loses his title of "''Undefeated'' Movie Fights Champion" during the ''Film/JurassicWorld'' battle.

* In ''InitialD'', Takumi breaks the winning streak of Ryosuke Takahashi, who had previously been considered the best street racer around. In Second Stage, another opponent appears who had wanted that honour for himself.

* The losing streak of [[{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown's]] softball team is legendary. Most of the times they start winning have been when he wasn't able to play for some reason, with the winning streak ending the moment he returned. One exception to that general rule was a winning streak caused by a bug going around that affected every team in the local league except Charlie Brown's, which ended the moment the other players recovered. Prior to that, they had won two games in a row after the other teams forfeited due to bad weather, and one when Charlie Brown stayed home.

* The losing streak of [[{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown's]] softball team is legendary. Most of the times they start winning have been when he wasn't able to play for some reason, with the winning streak ending the moment he returned. One exception to that general rule was a winning streak caused by a bug going around that affected every team in the local league except Charlie Brown's, which ended the moment the other players recovered. Prior to that, they had won two games in a row after the other teams forfeited due to bad weather.

* Cleveland sports as a whole has been teased with championships since the Browns won the NFL championship in 1964. The Browns were in four AFC championship games in the 1980s, going down to memorable moments like Red Right 88, the Drive, and the Fumble. The Indians had their try in the '90s, reaching two World Series, but losing both (in 1995 to the Braves, and in 1997 in a memorable 9th inning collapse in the 7th game to the Marlins). The Cavaliers have had chances with Lebron James, but were swept by the Spurs in their first Finals appearance in 2007, and after several near misses, one Decision, and one reconciliation, the Cavs and Lebron are back in the Finals again...

* In a HalloweenEpisode of ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'', America (whose [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes only fear is the supernatural]]), finally defeats the occultist England after 87 losses in their competition of seeing who scares the other first.
** It should however be noticed that it was probably only because he enlisted Japan's help.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'', the protagonists break Slytherin House's seven-year winning streak in the House Cup. Dumbledore gives the ThreeAmigos enough last-minute points to put Gryffindor in ''joint'' first place, and then awards Neville "Why is it always me?" Longbottom another ten for being brave enough to stand up to his friends ([[DisobeyThisMessage the same ones who taught him to stand up to people in the first place]]) when he thought they were making trouble.

* ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'': Harry makes an impromptu overhaul of a university football coach's strategy during their homecoming game...and then the team goes on to take the win.
* ''DawsonsCreek'': Also involving football.
* Usually the protagonist is trying to break the streak. In the case of a ''BoyMeetsWorld'' episode, Cory is trying to ''sustain'' Mr. Feeny's streak at a geography competition (the resident egghead is uninterested since they're not giving out the usual prizes this year). In the end, Feeny's streak is broken, while the winner spazzes out upon finding out she's getting a different prize from the norm. However, Feeny decides to pin up Cory's A on a geography test where his previous wins had gone.
* ''FatherTed'' - where [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption failure (to get off the island) is the only option]] - broke their losing streak... in such a fashion that Bishop Brennan was about to [[GoneHorriblyRight reassign them somewhere even worse]]. Therefore a success was required to maintain the [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]]. [[spoiler:They blackmailed the Bishop about his breaking his vows of celibacy.]]
* Subverted in ''OnlyFoolsAndHorses''. In one episode, Del constantly says to Rodney that the reason he keeps losing money to Boycie at poker is because he is on a "losing streak" which he feels is about to come to an end. Its actually because Boycie cheats. Del does end up winning a lot of money off of Boycie, but the reason he does so is by cheating ''better''.

* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'''s yearly pranks with rival Gary's Olde Tyme Tavern.

* Music/BradPaisley. Between 2005 and 2009, he had an impressive streak of ''ten'' consecutive #1 hits on the country charts. This included a five-straight streak for singles off his ''5th Gear'' album, tying Rodney Crowell's ''Diamonds & Dirt'' for the country album with the most #1 hits (although one of Paisley's songs was a re-recording that was only added to later presses of the album). Then in 2009, after the mega-hit "Then", both "Welcome to the Future" and "American Saturday Night" stalled out at #2. (He's had four more #1's at ''Billboard'' since.)

* Wrestling/{{Goldberg}}'s 173-win streak (the longest in the history of pro wrestling) finally ended when he got tasered behind the EasilyDistractedReferee's back, courtesy of Wrestling/ScottHall and opponent Wrestling/KevinNash and their [[ExecutiveMeddling new booking [=superpowers=]]].
** The losses he suffered before the streak storyline begun were [[{{Retcon}} Retconned]].

*** [[spoiler: You can also [[SubvertedTrope subvert this]], in that the good ending also allows you to save Maya and ''still'' get a "Not Guilty" verdict... at which point your guilty-as-sin client willingly pleads so and goes behind bars anyway, since the alternative was being marked for death by a world-famous assassin.]]
* ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' broke the three-generation streak of final evolution Fire/Fighting starters with the Fire/Psychic Delphox.
** That's not the only trend they broken. There is also the other two starters Which are Water/Dark and Grass/Fighting embeeding a second elemental trinity. Additionally, this generation's Grass starter line is the first to be mammalian in appearance, rather than reptilian. [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Cynthia]] is nowhere to be seen despite appearing all games in the last two generations, The Rock gym is the second gym rather than the first like it usually is, and similarly, the Ice gym is docked by one being the 8th gym rather than the 7th. The pseudo-legendary is a single typed Dragon and is more defensively oriented. There are only three new Legendaries in the game with it reusing the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue first 4 legendaries]] instead of a new duo and secondary trio, all the legendaries are shinylocked instead of just the plot-relevant ones and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking this is the first game in the Pokemon Franchise to have a worldwide release.]] This generation is also notable for being the first in which you can battle the regional professor.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', "Road Trip": Helga's mom needs $500 to repair her car. Enters bull-riding contest with $500 prize. Rival has won 5 years running. Turns out she was [[SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat state bull-riding champion]], and she takes the money.

*** There was also the time he had a two-game winning streak, but that time it was because both opposing teams couldn't make it, and thus forfeited.

* After 11 films from {{Pixar}}, all certified fresh on Website/RottenTomatoes, they released ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} 2'', which is currently at 38% on the Tomato-meter. Also, all Pixar films released since the establishment of the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Animated Feature in 2001 have been nominated for it, except ''Cars 2'' and ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity''.

** ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' ended the studio's #1 Openings streak as ''Film/JurassicWorld'' beat it out on its opening weekend. To be fair, ''Jurassic World'' exceeded even the most optimistic box office predictions and ''Inside Out'' managed to open with $90.4 million in the US and Canada, which is not only Pixar's best opening weekend for an original film by almost $20 million (beating out ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''[='=] $70.4 million opening weekend), but the biggest opening weekend ever for an original film, besting ''{{Film/Avatar}}''[='=]s $77 million debut. The film did go on to take the #1 spot in its third weekend, though.

* ''AsToldByGinger'', "Next Question": Ginger's school Lucky Jr. High up against 9-time winner Furnace Brook in a televised quiz contest. Ginger asks her quiz team coach out on a date (!) right on the air (!!), resulting in Furnace Brook continuing their streak.

* Used in ''RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'', when Rosencrantz spends the first ten minutes of the play desperately trying to break a streak of turning up heads every single time he flips a coin. He can't. It's their first clue that reality is warping, and that they're stuck in something powerful that they might not be able to escape from by following any of the usual rules.

* After 11 films from {{Pixar}}, all certified fresh on Website/RottenTomatoes, they released ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} 2'', which is currently at 38% on the Tomato-meter. Also, all Pixar films released since the establishment of the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Animated Feature in 2001 have been nominated for it, except ''Cars 2''.

** ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' ended the studio's #1 Openings streak as ''Film/JurassicWorld'' beat it out on its opening weekend. To be fair, ''Jurassic World'' exceeded even the most optimistic box office predictions and ''Inside Out'' managed to open with $90.4 million in the US and Canada, which is not only Pixar's best opening weekend for an original film by almost $20 million (beating out ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''[='=] $70.4 million opening weekend), but the biggest opening weekend ever for an original film, besting ''{{Film/Avatar}}''[='=]s $77 million debut.

* The losing streak of [[{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown's]] softball team is legendary. Most of the times they start winning have been when he wasn't able to play for some reason, with the winning streak ending the moment he returned. One exception to that general rule was a winning streak caused by a bug going around that affected every team in the local league except Charlie Brown's, which ended the moment the other players recovered.
** They did win on their own once in the early 1970s... at which point, one of their players was revealed to be a gambler. And their win was forfeited.