History Main / SecondPlaceIsForLosers

* Played straight with some of the challenge missions from ''SuperMarioGalaxy'' and ''SuperMarioGalaxy2'' where if you do not come in first place while racing other NPCs such as ghosts, penguins, or hummingbirds, then you will not earn the Power Star and lose a life.

* Fans have criticized the ''{{Pokemon}}'' anime for never letting Ash win any of the various League tournaments he enters. Such complaints ignore the fact that ''hundreds'' of trainers enter each of these tournaments, and the lowest Ash has ever finished is 16th overall. And then there's the fact that he's competed in special RunTheGauntlet challenges against groups of highly skilled trainers and won both times. The same has been said for Dawn, particularly after she placed second in the Grand Festival behind one of her best friends and sources of advice and encouragement.

* Played straight with some of the challenge missions from ''SuperMarioGalaxy'' and ''SuperMarioGalaxy2'' where if you do not come in firs place while racing other NPCs such as ghosts, penguins, or hummingbirds, then you will not earn the Power Star and lose a life.

* "You don't win silver -- you lose gold." was from a Nike commercial that ran during the 1996 Summer [[OlympicGames Olympics]] in Atlanta. Nike was roundly criticized for the line, as it was totally against the Olympic spirit. They yanked the campaign after just a few days and [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain never mentioned it again]].

** 2007 New England Patriots were undefeated in regular season play and were expected to win the championship. Analysts were calling them the greatest team of all time. Then they lost to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl and suddenly a 18-1 season just wasn't good enough to be the best.

** The Olympics can be especially prone to this sort of thing because of the one-chance aspect of winning every four years. In many sports, if you miss a world championship, there's always next year. On other sports where the winner is determined by your performance through the season, having a single bad tournament isn't necessarily a deal-breaker. The situation is doubled in cases where in non-Olympic events one athlete or team is utterly dominant but have one of their rare setbacks at the games.
* Dale Earndheart was often quoted saying "Second place is just the first loser".
** A slogan which appears on various T-shirts.

* Dave Mustaine of {{Megadeth}}, for 20 years had been obsessed with the successes of his ex bandmates of {{Metallica}}, always making him the second most popular Thrash Metal band. He hardly realized his own achievements. Now he passed that ever since he went into therapy with Metallica

** The Dawn thing was less about getting second place and more about the fact that said best friend was also her main rival, and winning against her would have brought some decent closure to Dawn's arc - just like May managed to defeat her main rival Drew in the previous GF. A lot of people, mainly Dawn fans, felt cheated that this wasn't the case: if Dawn had defeated Zoey in an earlier match and then lost to, say, Nando, her getting second place wouldn't have raised such ire.

* Averted in Mario Kart games where the top 4 places are the only ones that cause your character to do a winning pose and you get points. It's possible to win an entire grand prix by getting second place in everything. First Place is easier though.

* Averted in FiredUp, in which a perpetually losing squad [[spoiler: ends up thirteenth in a tournament, but the captain feels it's an accomplishment, because it's ten places better than the previous year.]]

* Fans have criticized the ''{{Pokemon}}'' anime for never letting Ash win any of the various League tournaments he enters. Such complaints ignore the fact that ''hundreds'' of trainers enter each of these tournaments, and the lowest Ash has ever finished is 16th overall. And then there's the fact that he's competed in special RunTheGauntlet challenges against groups of highly skilled trainers and won both times.

* Likewise, many critics consider {{Madonna}}'s album ''Erotica'' a flop, despite the fact that it went double platinum in the US alone.
* Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, for 20 years had been obsessed with the successes of his ex bandmates of Metallica, always making him the second most popular Thrash Metal band. He hardly realized his own achievements. Now he passed that ever since he went into therapy with Metallica

This can at least feel that way to some at/Main/SecondPlaceIsForLosers?action=edithletes, who come so close and yet miss the mark. For example, many Olympians consider the Silver Medal worse than Bronze. A Bronze winner is happy to have placed at all, but a Silver winner only sees himself as second best. Often, they can take it too far and forget how well they actually did.

This can at least feel that way to some athletes, who come so close and yet miss the mark. For example, many Olympians consider the Silver Medal worse than Bronze. A Bronze winner is happy to have placed at all, but a Silver winner only sees himself as second best. Often, they can take it too far and forget how well they actually did.

** It also doesn't help that most racing games won't let you unlock the best cars or levels without finishing in first. Came in 2nd or worse? No super fast car for you! Also gets worse when a game does this and uses ThatOneLevel.

Note this trope is only about getting second place, or at least placing highly enough to get a medal/trophy/etc., and focusing on the fact that those characters still didn't win first-- it's ''not'' about a genuinely mediocre-to-poor showing. It also doesn't count if there are ''actual'' consequences for getting second place (like [[SeriousBusiness the world could end]], or when a VideoGame requires you to win a competition to advance the story), or if there really is [[AllOrNothing no prize for second place]].

Note this trope is only about getting second place, or possibly third or fourth, as long as it's about the fact that those characters still didn't win first. It also doesn't count if there are ''actual'' consequences for getting second place (like [[SeriousBusiness the world could end]], or when a VideoGame requires you to win a competition to advance the story), or if there really is [[AllOrNothing no prize for second place]].

* Happens in ''ParadiseKiss''. While the other members take it better, [[spoiler: winning the second prize in the HighSchoolFestival contest]] is the catalyst that sends George into a life crisis, believing he can't connect with the public (and thus achieve success as a fashion designer) without compromising his personal artistic vision. Yukari also takes it rather dramatically. [[spoiler: Angst ensues, they break up. It's not the only reason, but it sure creates a lot of drama.]]

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' takes this trope to [[{{Deconstruction}} the logical extreme]]. Initially, when Shinji first surpasses Asuka's synch ratio, she's just pissed at him. Later, after being [[CantCatchUp curbstomped three times in a row with Shinji always scoring the kill instead of her]], she becomes extremely distraught, due to her past: she always prided herself on being the best so that she [[IWorkAlone won't need any kind of help from anyone]]. By not being the best anymore and her rival consistently having a stellar performance, she's afraid of being put to the sidelines and as a result, her synch ratio is plummeting; seeing this, she also becomes afraid that if she drops low enough, she will be relieved of her duties which to her would be equal to being publically humiliated in the worst way possible for a human. And the best part in all of this? '''She knows what's wrong but her pride doesn't let her admit it to herself.'''

* Played with in ''TheWildOne'': one of Johnny's gang steals the second-place trophy from a local motorcycle race and gives it to him; Johnny complains, "Why didn't you steal first?" "It was too big." Johnny displays the trophy prominently on his bike.

* In ''TonyHawkProSkating4'' (and probably several other games in the series), there were several competition missions in which you "only" had to be 3rd so get a "mission complete" status. How many players do you think would keep redoing the mission until they actually got a 1st place? Heck, this troper would often restart before it was finished, if it looked like he'd be number 2.

** Prime example: The Buffalo Bills. They made it to the {{Super Bowl}} four straight years, only to lose all four times. Instead of being thought of as a team that dominated the American Conference by winning it four straight times, they're thought of as chokers.

* Olympic bronze medalists are said to be happier with their lot than Olympic silver medalists: A bronze medalist was close to not medalling at all, while the silver medallist ''could have had gold''.

* Dale Earnheart was often quoted saying "Second place is just the first loser".

* Hong Jin-Ho has made it to the finals of many Starcraft tounaments just to lose...

* This applies to Canoe Racing in Canada - The Junior category is anyone who hasn't won 1st or 2nd in the last 4 years in Junior. So if you get second, you can't race for the same trophy for 4 years. Especially relevant in the case of the J.W. Black Trophy for Junior Mens Canoe 4s, which is the most coveted Canoeing trophy in Canada, if not the world (also holds 52 or so beers, which helps). Canoeists even have a word for this trope - being Blackwashed.
* Not sure if this necessarily fits, but MichaelJackson was constantly nagged for almost his entire adult solo career for not outselling Thriller. This is despite his follow up album Bad was the second highest selling album in the world for a number of years and Dangerous eventually outsold Bad worldwide. Keep in mind that Thriller is a biggest selling album in the world which by logic means that every music artist is a failure since most of their entire back catalog does not even reach Thriller's numbers. His final studio album before his death, while arguably his weakest, was consider a flop because it only sold 13 million. For reference breaking the 5 million mark for almost any other artist is consider a great success. Selling 10 million is a mega album for most popular artists. Even his second to last album was consider a flop by the media and it sold 20 million worldwide and it was a double disc album which sold for almost twice the price of a regular CD.
** According to a recent Vanity Fair article Jackson ''himself'' had this attitude; wildly successful though ''Thriller'' was, he expected it to be merely a stepping stone to even greater achievements.

* Olympic bronze medallists are said to be happier with their lot than Olympic silver medallists: A bronze medallist was close to not medalling at all, while the silver medallist ''could have had gold''.

* Not sure if this necessary fits, but MichaelJackson was constantly nagged for almost his entire adult solo career for not outselling Thriller. This is despite his follow up album Bad was the second highest selling album in the world for a number of years and Dangerous eventually outsold Bad worldwide. Keep in mind that Thriller is a biggest selling album in the world which by logic means that every music artist is a failure since most of their entire back catalog does not even reach Thriller's numbers. His final studio album before his death, while arguably his weakest, was consider a flop because it only sold 13 million. For reference breaking the 5 million mark for almost any other artist is consider a great success. Selling 10 million is a mega album for most popular artists. Even his second to last album was consider a flop by the media and it sold 20 million worldwide and it was a double disc album which sold for almost twice the price of a regular CD.