History Main / InternationalShowdownByProxy

* Football is notorious for [[FootballHooligans rioting and fights]] breaking out at games. Disputed matches between countries where both the sport is [[SeriousBusiness extremely popular]] and [[PatrioticFervour national feelings run high]] have led to ''hundreds of deaths,'' especially in Latin America.

** Though not quite at the level of the above, the [[UsefulNotes/ScottishPremierLeague Old Firm]] rivalry between UsefulNotes/{{Glasgow}}'s two biggest clubs, Celtic and Rangers, sadly operates much this way with respect to [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Northern Ireland]], seeing that the two parties are, respectively, traditionally supported by Catholics and Protestants. In fact, Old Firm matchdays are nearly as volatile in Northern Ireland as in Glasgow itself, with arrests spiking several-fold during those days.

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

* Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky in Iceland for the world TabletopGame/{{chess}} championship in 1972. Pity Bobby was insane and Spassky was not a serious Communist Party member. (Unlike Anatoly Karpov, who took over after Bobby went into hiding.)

* The British media treats all competitions between England and either Germany or Argentina as this. They still won't let Germany forget that they beat them in the World Cup final in 1966. For the most part, Germans and Argentines just tend to ignore it.

* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' takes this trope and [[UpToEleven creates a world where all international conflicts are conducted through]] [[SeriousBusiness games of table tennis]] in their [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/6/25/ Paint The Line]] story.

* The UsefulNotes/OlympicGames. Turned UpToEleven in 1936 by Nazi Germany, but the overtones of [[UsefulNotes/MisplacedNationalism national dick-measuring]] never really went away afterwards.

* The World Youth Cup arc in ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}''.

* The second boxing match between American Joe Louis and German Max Schmeling was very much one of these. The bout happened just a little over a year before the start of WWII, and Schmeling had become a huge propaganda hero in Germany both for briefly holding the world title and defeating Louis years earlier. With the coming conflict seemingly inevitable, the eyes of the world were on the bout, which was viewed as a showdown between America and Nazi Germany. (Even if Schmeling himself was very much ''not'' a Nazi, and in fact lost favor with Hitler after shielding Jewish children from the Nazi regime.) The result was an epic CurbStompBattle where Louis crushed Schmeling in a single round and was seen as a vindication for American and a blow to Hitler's "master race", all the more so because Louis was black.

[[folder:Anime]]

* In an early ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' story, a war between Mega-City One and a [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp Sov-controlled East-Meg One]] is fought by fielding small four-man teams from each Mega-City against one another in an Olympics-style competition...to the death.

* Cyberpunk BMovie ''Future Sport'' (starring Dean Cain) has two teams of a HoverBoard RollerBall rip-off (one representing the US of A, one representing a consortium of Asiatic nations) battling over sovereignty of Hawaii. Of course, the consortium players were not above kidnapping and assassination to get an edge...

Used in different mediums for different reasons. Often used patriotically, because the main character lives in your country, and they win! Sometimes used to introduce a new archnemesis and spice up the show's competitors. When the competition is ''literally'' an alternative to war between nations, see MakeGamesNotWar. This is probably a trope because it tends to happen in RealLife. See also CombatByChampion.

Used in different mediums for different reasons. Often used patriotically, because the main character lives in your country, and they win! Sometimes used to introduce a new archnemesis and spice up the show's competitors. When the competition is ''literally'' an alternative to war between nations, see MakeGamesNotWar. This is probably a trope because it tends to happen in RealLife.

* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in the form of a hyperbolic advertisement for an upcoming soccer game;

* Soccer is notorious for [[FootballHooligans rioting and fights]] breaking out at games. Disputed matches between countries where both the sport is [[SeriousBusiness extremely popular]] and [[PatrioticFervour national feelings run high]] have led to ''hundreds of deaths,'' especially in Latin America.
** Actually, in 1969 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War the start of a real WAR]] occurred during riots following a heated game of soccer.

Used in different mediums for different reasons. Often used patriotically, because the main character lives in your country, and they win! Sometimes used to introduce a new archnemesis and spice up the show's competitors. This is probably a trope because it tends to happen in RealLife.

* {{Manga/Naruto}}: A number of Shinobi Villages intentionally and explicitly set up their Chunin Exams as a “war in miniature” between those on good enough terms to participate. The point is essentially to advertise their new crop of young Shinobi, and by extension the rest of their village, to potential clients for their mercenary industry.

* 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.]]
** That's not to say cheating didn't happen. The original first few Soviet space flights are technically invalidated because the pilot parachuted out of his craft once in atmosphere (aviation records must require the pilot to be in the craft in order to qualify) and the first life form in space never made it back (not because of design flaw... it was never intended to make a return trip...).

* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'': Takes this trope and [[UpToEleven creates a world where all international conflicts are conducted through]] [[SeriousBusiness games of table tennis]] in their [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/6/25/ Paint The Line]] story.

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

* IronMan's first encounter with DirtyCommunist villain the Titanium Man was in the context of a televised battle on neutral territory agreed upon by the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

* Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky in Iceland for the world TabletopGames/{{chess}} championship in 1972. Pity Bobby was insane and Spassky was not a serious Communist Party member. (Unlike Anatoly Karpov, who took over after Bobby went into hiding.)

** Actually, in 1969 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War the start of a real WAR]] occured during riots following heated game of soccer.
* The buildup and aftermath of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots Nika riots]] of Constantinople make this OlderThanPrint, though in this particular case it was more akin to a showdown of political parties.

* The so-called "Miracle on Ice", both in RealLife and the movie they made about it.
** Less known but no less awesome is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Series Summit Series]] between Canada and the Soviet Union, an invitational tournament consisting of eight exhibition games. Canadian Paul Henderson [[DownToTheLastPlay scored the winning goal of the last game (until then, the tournament had been a tie) with under a minute left to play.]]

* The infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_in_the_Water_match "Blood in the Water"]] polo match between Hungary and the USSR. Right on the heels of a Soviet invasion to put down a rebellion, the game degenerated into one of the most violent and emotional sporting events of the time.

* Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spasky in Iceland in 1972. Pity Bobby was insane and Spasky was not a serious communist party member. (Unlike Karpov who took over after Bobby went into hiding.)

* The British media treats all competitions between England and either Germany or Argentina as this. They still won't let Germany forget that they beat them in the World Cup final in 1966. For the most part, Germans and Argentinians just tend to ignore it.

* [[Manga/Naruto]]: A number of Shinobi Villages intentionally and explicitly set up their Chunin Exams as a “war in miniature” between those on good enough terms to participate. The point is essentially to advertise their new crop of young Shinobi, and by extension the rest of their village, to potential clients for their mercenary industry.

* Fighters from the Japanese military were the primary villains in ''Film/IpMan'', and Twister, the villain of '' Ip Man 2'' was essentially a British version of the above mentioned [[Film/RockyIV Ivan Drago]].

* The UsefulNotes/OlympicGames. Turned UpToEleven in 1936 by Nazi Germany, but the overtones of [[MisplacedNationalism national dick-measuring]] never really went away afterwards.

->'''Walter Decoursy:''' It really doesn't matter who comes out on top.'''
->'''Alexander Molokov:''' Who gets the chop.'''

* A short story by BernardWerber takes this trope and combines it with BloodSport. In the future, ''all'' international situations are resolved by televised soccer matches where anything goes (up to and including killing players), turning the stadium into a multi-biome obstacle course, allowing the use of jetpacks, radar and mixed-gender teams... The only rule remaining is that you can't touch the ball with your hands. The name of the story? BreadAndCircuses.