History Main / InternationalShowdownByProxy

* TheMightyDucks II has the Ducks becoming an international hockey team and playing every other nation, climaxing with Iceland. It's an egregious example of the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil when this is the plot of the sequel, and the original movie had an OpposingSportsTeam made of perfectly ordinary boys.

* The second ''Literature/RedDwarf'' novel, ''Better Than Life'' has this as part of the backstory for the [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke GELFs]]. When humanity becomes too good at their favourite pastime (War), scientists shift their focus onto sport (Described as the new war), firstly through chemical enhancements, then through genetically engineering purpose-built athletes for different sports. Of course, [[ObviousRulePatch limits are put in place]] after the Scottish football team fields a goalie in the WorldCup who was nothing more than a massive oblong of flesh that is [[SarcasmMode coincidentally]] the same dimensions as the goal.

* TheWorldCup.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' this same principle is used to determine the fate of planets. Conqueror Vilgax has conquered ten planets by defeating those planets' champions.

* In ''Film/LazerTeam'' four nobodies are "chosen" to be Earth's champions and must due battle with a Worg warrior. [[spoiler:Losing team has their planet destroyed.]]

* In ''Film/LazerTeam'' four nobodies are "chosen" to be Earth's champions and must due battle with a Worg warrior, with the battle deciding the fate of Earth.

* UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace - relatively non-violent, and used repurposed military technology. Accusations of cheating were surprisingly few. Culminated in he [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo-Soyuz_Test_Project Apollo-Soyuz joint flight]].

* The OdaNobunaga Tournament in ''Manga/{{Yaiba}}'' includes participants from all over the world, and Yaiba even fought a European Knight. However it ended up with only Japanese Finalists.

** The EuropeanChampionship as well, especially when the Soviet Union played in the 1964 final against Spain.

* The OdaNobunaga Tournament in ''{{Yaiba}}'' includes participants from all over the world, and Yaiba even fought a European Knight. However it ended up with only Japanese Finalists.

* Played for laughs in ''[[Literature/EarthCentAmbassador Alien Night on Union Station]]'' when the human characters realize that several alien cultures have taken the SeriousBusiness of a hot new virtual reality {{MMORPG}} (something like ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'' on steroids) to the point where they think the Earth government is trying to use the game as a way to get around the Stryx ban on interstellar warfare. (They aren't, it really is just a video game to the humans.)

* ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'' is basically summed up with this trope, plus with earth as the battlefield and the rest of the population in space, the winner would literally be the strongest, and only, person on Earth.
** In fact the Gundam Fight was created to provide a (comparatively) peaceful alternative to war. The country whose representative wins the fight gets to rule over all the colonies for the next four years.

* Downplayed considerably in ''Film/ChariotsOfFire'', in which the national teams are [[FriendlyEnemy more amiable]] toward one another then [[OpposingSportsTeam might be expected]]. Probably TruthInTelevision, as PatrioticFervour was ''very unfashionable indeed'' for many years after after WorldWarOne.

[[caption-width-right:350:Rocky and Ivan resolve the UsefulNotes/ColdWar [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen like gentlemen.]] Well, almost.]]

* ''HajimeNoIppo'': The match of Takamura against Bryan Hawk for the world title. It takes place in a Japanese boxing hall, so basically the entire audience is rooting for Takamura. It helps that Bryan Hawk is blatantly racist against the "weak" Japanese.
* The World Youth Cup arc in ''{{Eyeshield 21}}''.

* The world tournament series of the anime ''{{Medabots}}'' contains a truly stunning amount of cultural clichés (to be fair Team Japan don't get off lightly either) but the worst by far were Team France, who all sported twirly moustaches, spoke in exaggerated French accents and crept around in black cloaks lying and cheating their way to victory. This was so blatant it might possibly be considered a parody of the trope.

* UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace - relatively non-violent, and used repurposed military technology. Accusations of cheating were surprisingly few. Culminated in he [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz_Test_Project Apollo-Soyuz joint flight]].

** Might serve as something of a TakeThat at the American tendency to describe the American Champion as the World Champion, since his JerkAss brother is the "World" (ie. American) Champion and declares his intention to go to Taiwan(!) as the Thais invented the sport. Following the Champ's humiliation, his humbler (Belgian!) brother learns how the Thais fight and (Spoiler!) avenges him.

* Ayako Hamada is Mexican, but since she's the daughter of a legendary Japanese wrestler, the LLF card read Mexico vs Japon when she brought Emi Tojo from J'd to serve as [[TagTeam her partner]] against Polly Star and Princesa Sugey.

* Canada-USA-Mexico hostilities are a calling card of Monterrey based LLF. It started because so many luchadoras were discouraged or blocked from working for LLF when it began due to more established area promoters being hostile to it, that LLF ended up contacting groups north of the border such as Special Events and Glory to fill its locker room.

* In the World Wrestling League's lead up to crown its first champion of the Americas, this ended up being the case between Phenomenal BJ (Puerto Rico), Joe Bravo (Dominican Republic) and Laredo Kid (Mexico). Each even got to be the hometown {{face}} for a while, since the promotion ran shows in all three areas.

* This happened in real life with SuperSmashBrothers at a huge tournament called Genesis, where the best North American player (and up until that point generally considered best player in the world) came one hit away from losing the grand finals to Europe's best player. Watching the matches, it comes down to a lot of cheering on both sides for their respective player/country.

* USA-Canada-Mexico hostilities are a calling card of Monterrey based LLF. It started because so many luchadoras were discouraged or blocked from working for LLF when it began due to more established area promoters being hostile to it, that LLF ended up contacting groups north of the border such as Special Events and Glory to fill its locker room.