History Main / FlexibleTourneyRules

** ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'' has a similar situation where the world tournament's organizer has it in for one of the protagonists and deliberately rigs their matches in order to get them eliminated. This comes to a head in the final round, where he subjects the show's CharClone, normally [[WorthyOpponent an honorable and friendly guy]], to mind control that makes him fight like a [[TheBerserker crazed berserker]].

* In ''Film/{{Tekken}}'' Kazuya takes control and suddenly declares the tournament fights to be death matches partway through the tournament. One wonders what the other corporations that provided fighters for it thought of this.

* In ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'' the fighting tournament starts out pretty flexible, with pretty much no rules on combatants save that they remain within the arena, and it's taken for granted they'll use SupernaturalMartialArts and magic. At one point a character who didn't register jumps into the area and [[FusionDance physically merges]] with another, which seemingly breaks no rules except that once the characters are separated the one who jumped into the arena isn't allowed to compete independently. Even so, Solomon gets some scorn for abolishing individual bouts mid-tournament and turning it into a [[BattleRoyaleGame battle royale]] with collapsing platforms, then disqualifying people on what are little more than technicalities under the circumstances.

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}:''
** In ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'', the rules of the Gundam Fight let the participants get away with murder - literally, in some cases. In fact, Rule 7 specifically says "Destruction of property on Earth due to the Gundam Fight is not considered a crime." Thus you get situations such as one fighter assassinating his opponents before their matches, rampant and obvious cheating, and the use of TheVirus to enhance one's abilities to the point where they're effectively immortal. The only rule specifically established to ''prevent'' death says that fighters are banned from targeting their opponents' cockpits - and LaughablyEvil PresidentEvil Wong Yun Fat eliminates that rule in the Finals, using his privilege as the host nation's leader.
** ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'' has a similar situation where the world tournament's organizer has it in for one of the protagonists and deliberately rigs their matches in order to get them eliminated. This comes to a head in the final round, where he subjects the show's CharClone, normally [[WorthyOpponent an honorable and friendly guy]], to mind control that makes him fight like a [[TheBerserker crazed berserker]].
** In the school-sanctioned duels in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'', about the only thing that is considered illegal is anything that would be considered an actual real-world crime (i.e. murdering the other pilot or using banned technology). Not only are mobile suits allowed to be blatantly mismatched in power, but there are cases of open outside interference (for instance, in one duel, one of the sides had friends activate the sprinkler system to reduce the strength of the already-power-limited beam weapons, and in another, a suit had a shutdown program activate mid-fight). In fact, the agreement the two pilots make to start a fight is more or less an implicit agreement that anything goes as long as one side wins.

* In ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'', the rules of the Gundam Fight let the participants get away with murder - literally, in some cases. In fact, Rule 7 specifically says "Destruction of property on Earth due to the Gundam Fight is not considered a crime." Thus you get situations such as one fighter assassinating his opponents before their matches, rampant and obvious cheating, and the use of TheVirus to enhance one's abilities to the point where they're effectively immortal. The only rule specifically established to ''prevent'' death says that fighters are banned from targeting their opponents' cockpits - and LaughablyEvil PresidentEvil Wong Yun Fat eliminates that rule in the Finals, using his privilege as the host nation's leader.

* ''Manga/AngelicLayer''. [[LightningLash Electric whips]] are banned. So are projectiles. Apparently ''nothing else is''. This includes ''hacking the program'', exploiting a programming error in earlier models, and modding the dolls to give them extra abilities (we've seen wings and a ''forcefield'').
** Said electric whip is illegal because it harms other players instead of their dolls, not just by some arbitrary rules. Also modding the doll is a part of the game.
* The only times someone was disqualified from the tournaments in ''Manga/DragonBall'' were the Man Wolf when he pulled a knife and Cyber Tao Pai Pai revealing his hidden sword. Otherwise is played straight, as Ranfan breaks the "no crying" rule with her WoundedGazelleGambit and nothing happens to her and Krillin throwing a pair of panties to distract DirtyOldMan Jackie Chun is fine as well. But Goku using the Kinto'un to come back is only given an one-off pass and would get him disqualified if he did it again. However, they don't seem to mind him taking off Muten Roushi's sunglasses to protect himself from Tenshinhan's Sun Fist (you'd think they'd at least question how he did that without getting a RingOut). {{Groin Attack}}s are also banned, but we see an instance where Yamcha gets nailed and his opponent isn't disqualified because it was an accident (Yamcha did a jump kick, the other guy ducked, and his head happened to impact Yamcha's crotch), like the way Shen (said opponent) defeated Yajirobe earlier on--even though it turns out [[ObfuscatingStupidity it probably wasn't an accident]]. Speaking of Shen, there's also the little bottle he pulls out to use the [[SealedEvilInACan Mafuuba]], but it's {{justified|Trope}} cause the announcer says "It doesn't look like a weapon, more like some kind of spell, let's see what happens."

* ''Manga/AngelicLayer''. [[WhipItGood Electric whips]] are banned. So are projectiles. Apparently ''nothing else is''. This includes ''hacking the program'', exploiting a programming error in earlier models, and modding the dolls to give them extra abilities (we've seen wings and a ''forcefield'').

* ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII'' has Mike Barnes explicitly break every rule in the book (groin kicks, punches to the face, surprise punches after a separation is called, etc.) in his match with Daniel [=LaRusso=]. True, every such infraction costs him a point, but he gains it right back while Daniel is busy looking for his family jewels. Indeed, this is [[ToThePain his strategy]]: to kick the living crap out of him for the full time period and then win in sudden death. But despite his blatant disregard for anything resembling competitive decorum, he is never disqualified. A cynic might believe that it is because [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney Terry Silver had just spent millions putting together a permanent arena for the All-Valley championships]] and nobody wants to disqualify his star pupil. Nonetheless, [[Series/CobraKai Cobra Kai gets a lifetime ban from tournament participation when Barnes loses to Daniel]].

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'': Shang Tsung's tournaments seem to have no actual rules. He can declare 2 v. 1 matches. Ermac, who hasn't had any match, can fight against Liu Kang, who's at at the most advanced stage by that point.

* Common in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' - Whip brings a gun to a martial arts tournament, in ''addition'' to her namesake weapon. Then again, there has yet to be a single King of Fighters tournament that [[NotJustATournament wasn't used as a front by that year's villain]], to the point the Heidern Mercenaries go on red alert every time they get an invitation.
** Considering almost every character in the series can use some form of KiManipulation, this is probably allowed because neither Whip nor Yamazaki, who has a handgun and a switchblade, have attacks like that and thus they are at a disadvantage without them.

Tendency of a TournamentArc that goes on a long time to feature an [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters increasing amount of bizarre characters]] with abilities which could technically violate predetermined rules of the event. This will be [[LoopHoleAbuse ignored or actively encouraged]]. The hero, in contrast, will not resort to these tactics; if he does he is [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin inexplicably reprimanded]].

This trope was played with in the anime-only dodgeball event, where what looked like cheating was actually using rules for uncannily specific circumstances that are rarely brought up--which the Foxy Pirate refs ''had'' to enforce faithfully, [[SeriousBusiness under penalty of death]]. This is not LoopholeAbuse either--[[LoadsAndLoadsOfRules there is a rule for practically every possible situation]], with their legality seemingly random. The rulebook is a doorstopper that took Robin the entire round to read, and she is a speed-reader.

* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'''s Vega (or Balrog in the original) uses a claw in his fights. The White Wolf RPG tried to explain this as saying he fought in a weapons-using division, but it didn't explain why he was allowed to use it against fighters who weren't pro-weapon.
** There's a simple reason. The tournament is being run by Shadoloo. Vega works for Shadoloo. Justified Trope.
** Give the guy a break. He's one of the only fighters in the game without a [[KamehameHadoken fireball]].
** Any tournament that allows martial artists to attack each other with ''fire'' -- even if they're generating it out of their own bodies -- probably has little in the way of actual "rules."
** C.Viper's use of a weaponized suit is often Lampshaded in ''Street Fighter 4''.

[[folder: Anime And Manga ]]

* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', the Dark Tournament is run by a bunch of rich men who have a mutual interest in killing Yusuke (the main character) and his teammates. Thus the rules change in order to inconvenience and/or cripple Team Urameshi... until the one member of the rules committee not interested in Yusuke's death has the other members killed.
** Even in the normal tournament battles, the team captains are allowed to agree upon a set-up that they'd think would be most interesting. The default is one-on-one with the combatants being whoever felt like going (although team captains go later in a round to conserve their strength), first team to get three victories advances (although they can go to five victories). There are also battle royales (including a five-on-one, at the solo fighter's request). Other variations shown in the Dark Tournament involves rolling dice to determine the match-ups and, when two fighters were exhausted, they were allowed to do a sudden-death match where whomever was pushed past a line lost. The referees are also allowed to delay the ten-count to give a fighter more time to get up or get back in the ring. The final round, however, is implied to be a mandatory one-on-one with each fighter only being allowed to fight once.
* Just about every duelist ever in ''Anime/YuGiOh''. Several of them claimed to have psychic powers, which should probably count as an unfair advantage even for the ones who weren't cheating and feigning magic to cover it. One duelist tried to ''kill the main character with flamethrowers'' over a [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries children's card game]]. And the main character has a ghost in his head that plays for him who can apparently rearrange his deck to draw whatever he wants, and who can destroy people's minds with his magical powers, although he usually has the decency to win the duel first.
** This is, of course, mercilessly mocked in [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries the Abridged Series]]. "Stop this duel immediately! It violates Battle City rules! ...just like 99% of the other duels that I refused to stop."
** Played with in one of the later rounds of Duelist Kingdom (at least in the dub), where Bandit Keith uses literal cards up his sleeve against Joey. When Keith is exposed at the end of the match, Pegasus reveals that he knew all along that Keith was cheating and that he let it happen to see if Joey was capable enough to win in spite of it; while ''also'' implying that if Joey didn't win he would have called Keith out and disqualified him for the violation anyway.
** Also lampshaded in Battle City. Upon seeing the BigBad Marik[[note]]Actually Odion disguised as Marik, but same principle[[/note]] arrive for the finals, Kaiba tells him he should disqualify him immediately for kidnapping his brother, but [[HonorBeforeReason lets him continue to participate]] because he has an [[OlympusMons Egyptian God Card]] that he wants to win through the tournament's ante rules. This means that he could have stopped Marik at any moment for torturing his opponents and leaving them horrifically injured, but he was too greedy and prideful to do so.
* The GX Tournament in the second season of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' attracted numerous shady characters, from the megalomanical to brainwashed minions; this was allowed, [[ThePlan because the whole thing was just a trap to fish out the person who stole]] yet another super-powerful card strong enough to destroy the world.
* Averted in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' (the original manga) where the Tournament in fact allowed almost every form of combat (non-bladed weapons, no-incantation magic, KiManipulation, and other oddball techniques) - on the one occasion where a rule was broken, the guilty [[spoiler: (Asuna, when she summoned her greatsword by accident)]] immediately lost the match. [[spoiler: Of course, the tournament was part of a conspiracy to reveal TheMasquerade, so they ''needed'' them to pull off all those super cool abilities.]]
** Both Evangeline and Setsuna later broke the no-incantation rule. Sort of, as the referees weren't able to note and call them on it. Eva immediately canceled her spell and apologized (of course, she soon started using the same spell ''sans'' incantation), while Setsuna's spell/prayer is forgivable as she thought she was about to die.
* The Kujibiki in ''Anime/KujibikiUnbalance'' is ostensibly a contest in which teams of four high school students compete to become the next student council. As we see more competitions, however (particularly in the RecapEpisode), it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that all the competitors are actually students at the same school. And one time, the heroes have to face ''seven'' opponents at once, which is [[HandWave handwaved]] as a "numerical coincidence".

* In ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'', the rules of the Gundam Fight let the participants get away with murder - literally, in some cases. In fact, Rule 7 specifically says "Destruction of property on Earth due to the Gundam Fight is not considered a crime." Thus you get situations such as one fighter assassinating his opponents before their matches, rampant and obvious cheating, and the use of TheVirus to enhance one's abilities to the point where they're effectively immortal. The only rule specifically established to ''prevent'' death says that fighters are banned from targeting their opponents' cockpits - and LaughablyEvil PresidentEvil Wong Yun Fat eliminates that rule in the Finals, using his privilege as the host nation's leader.
** ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'' has a similar situation where the world tournament's organizer has it in for one of the protagonists and deliberately rigs their matches in order to get them eliminated. This comes to a head in the final round, where he subjects the show's CharClone, normally [[WorthyOpponent an honorable and friendly guy]], to mind control that makes him fight like a [[TheBerserker crazed berserker]].
* In ''Manga/SaintSeiya'', by divine decree, of all of Athena's Saints only the Gold Saint of [[WesternZodiac Libra]] is allowed to wield weapons (and indeed, nearly every part of the Libra Cloth is a weapon. Even its shields.) Doesn't justify the iconic Nebula Chain wielded by the Andromeda Saint, the Chameleon Saint's whip, the Auriga Saint's discs or the Cerberus Saint's morningstar.
* The Davy Back Fight in ''Manga/OnePiece'' is blatantly rigged in the Foxy Pirate's favor--all of the referees are from their crew. They allow such things as using weapons in a game where weapons were exclusively forbidden, leaving the ring and returning later when doing so was also a clear foul, and trying to eliminate the Strawhat team members for 'mouthing off' to the ref. \\
This trope was played with in the anime-only dodgeball event, where what looked like cheating was actually using rules for uncannily specific circumstances that are rarely brought up--which the Foxy Pirate refs ''had'' to enforce faithfully, [[SeriousBusiness under penalty of death]]. This is not LoopholeAbuse either--[[LoadsAndLoadsOfRules there is a rule for practically every possible situation]], with their legality seemingly random. The rulebook is a doorstopper that took Robin the entire round to read, and she is a speed-reader.
* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' had the Desperate Fight of the Disciples tournament, where the referee A. was evil. and B. admitted to just letting anything go as long as it was entertaining.
* One chapter of ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'' had a wrestling tournament where this trope is averted twice. First is when Ikaros gets immediately disqualified for BeamSpam-ing, and second is when [[spoiler:Sohara]] is barred from winning when it's pointed out that [[spoiler:she]] didn't join from the start and only went in during the Tomoki and Mikako's match.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Fanfiction]]

[[folder: Film ]]
* In the live action ''Film/SpeedRacer'' movie, one of the drivers pulls a gun on Speed and spectators react with shock and alarm, making it quite clear that he'll be disqualified. While the race was full of illegal crap up to this point, the drivers were careful to use them in situations where the cameras couldn't catch them doing it.
* ''Film/MortalKombatTheMovie'': Let's just say Shang Tsung's tournament structure is a bit....suspect. Seems the writers thought as much as well, since they made the sequel skip straight to ''Mortal Kombat 3'', which was less "tournament" and more "war".

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]
* In Fighter of the Destiny, the TV adaptation of ''Literature/WayOfChoices'', the Star Seizer Academy's entrance exam involves defeating a troll without magic or weapons. Chen soothes one to sleep with music, then when the examiners release three more, he protects himself with a force field bauble while repeating the trick, none of which disqualifies him. In the source material, Star Seizer uses a straight up test of strength and persistence.

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* Despite being a game about boxing, Hoy Quarlo in ''[[VideoGame/PunchOut Super Punch-Out!!]]'' uses a cane, Dragon Chan mixes flying kicks in with his punches, King Hippo straps a manhole cover to protect his stomach and so on, and so on. Aran Ryan seems to make a living taking advantage of this, although in his case its more just [[FiveAcesCheater obvious cheating]], like the horseshoes he so obviously has hidden in his gloves. Soda Popinski's use of mid-round [[FrothyMugsOfWater Soda Pop]] probably qualifies as well

* Yoshimitsu and Kunimitsu from the ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' games seem to not object to [[NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight bringing knives and swords to the fistfights]].
** With all the Cyborgs and Robots around, this hardly seems a big deal. Not to mention pandas and bears (oh my).

* Not a tournament, but the double standard in the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' trials is staggering. The judge is shown to disapprove of intimidation from the defense in the courtroom, but has no qualms about the prosecutor frequently and indiscriminately using a ''whip''. A prosecutor presented forged evidence, he got a penalty. When the defense was accused of such, he got '''''disbarred'''''. Heck, Phoenix was once penalized for ''finishing the judge's sentence''.
** Even worse? '''Japanese lawyers confirm''' that this is TruthInTelevision. [[FlatWhat What.]]
* The Colosso tournament in ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'', where the player is allowed to get help from the other party members to cheat on the obstacle courses, and the enemies in the battle portions use only physical attacks while you have Djinn and Psynergy.
** {{Justified|Trope}} by the fact that the Ruler of Tolbi and host of the tournament told him to do that in order to see his powers. The beaten gladiators, though, can't stomach the loss and come after your party in ''The Lost Age''.
* The Imperial Arena in ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' is theoretically supposed to be a display of various martial artists' skills in one-on-one contests, with magic in place to prevent the contenders' deaths. Under the management of Kai Lan the Serpent and Qui the Promoter, however, gimmick matches are thrown together with absolutely no regard for standards, ranging from pitting contenders against demons, to one-versus-many matches, to the use of styles that had been expressly banned by the rules. Oh, and illegal poisoned weapons are used to get around the Arena's death-prevention systems. In short, the Arena has gone from a UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts competition to a [[TheMafia Mafia-run]] ProfessionalWrestling promotion, and your role in the storyline is to clean the place up by becoming the Champion. [[spoiler: Unusually, you can take advantage of this yourself: In the final match, when Kai Lan comes in to retake the title, you can have the Black Whirlwind fight in your place, and when the Serpent objects, you point out that it's not the first time someone's substituted a fighter for the scheduled match.]]
* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'': Shang Tsung's tournaments seem to have no actual rules. He can declare 2 v. 1 matches. Ermac, who hasn't had any match, can fight against Liu Kang, who's at at the most advanced stage by that point.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]
* In the web comic ''Webcomic/YetAnotherFantasyGamerComic'', one of the recent story arcs had players competing in a tournament with increasing convoluted cheats by the hobgoblins, which in the end have to be accepted due to a loophole in the rules that says the contestants use the rules from their own country.
* Done in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' when they parody the Tri-Wizard tournament from ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''. Any message that comes out of the "Goblet of Flameyness" forms a MagicallyBindingContract, so anyone who tampers with the goblet can create whatever rules or exceptions to rules they want. This includes having an olympic athlete compete in a student competition, expanding the number of competitors from three to five, and having one of the Duh-Mentors compete.
** This trope sometimes turns up even ''without'' goblet tampering, however. Such as when Torg takes "use the tools around you" to mean he can grab someone out of the audience and have ''her'' fight a giant monster for him.

* The Rankers from ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' have the explicit right to alter test rules while the test is running.

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

** One fighter is allowed to put a mask on partway through his bout, on the basis that it's just a costume. The fact that the mask is rigged with lenses that compensate for his poor eyesight goes unnoticed.
** Later on, the lenses are used to set another fighter on fire, causing the onlookers to believe he has magic powers.
** A spectator who's an expert in psychological manipulation manages to convince a fighter that they'll die instantly if they move, on the basis that unless they actually ''do'' die, the spectator hasn't actually interfered in the match at all.

##When Goku sees the full moon and turns into a giant ape, he's not disqualified even though he's clearly touching parts outside of the ring.
##When Jackie [[DisneyDeath seemingly]] killed ape Goku to stop his rampage, he's declared the winner, even though killing is supposed to get you disqualified. The ruling was only reversed when we they see he actually [[DetonationMoon destroyed the moon]], turning Goku back to normal.
##Finally, after Goku turns back, he's unconscious for what seems to be several ''minute'' before the count to ten even starts, giving him just enough time to get back up. Jackie complains about this, but nothing comes of it.

-->'''Ender''': "It doesn't matter if you try to beat me unfairly. I'll beat you unfairly first."

* ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII'' has the challenger for the final match explicitly break every rule in the book (groin kicks, punches to the face, surprise punches after a separation is called, etc.) in his match with Daniel. True, every such infraction costs him a point, but he gains it right back while Daniel is busy looking for his family jewels. Indeed, this is [[ToThePain his strategy]]: to kick the living crap out of him for the full time period and then win in sudden death. But despite his blatant disregard for anything resembling competitive decorum, he is never disqualified. A cynic might believe that it is because [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney Terry Silver had just spent thousands putting together a permanent arena for the All-Valley championships]] and nobody wants to disqualify his star pupil.
* Likewise, ''Film/TheKarateKid1984'' has Daniel win the All-Valley final with a Crane Kick to Johnny's face, well after the announcer explicitly stated that strikes to the face were prohibited. In the SequelSeries ''Series/CobraKai'', Johnny is still pretty sore over this, and makes sure to mention to Daniel that he won with an illegal kick.

->'''Mokaba:''' Seto, Melvin's invoking the power of Satan again.\\

* Averted in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' (the original manga) where the Tournament in fact allowed almost every form of combat (non-bladed weapons, no-incantation magic, KiManipulation, and other oddball techniques) - on the one occasion where a rule was broken, the guilty [[spoiler: (Asuna, when she summoned her greatsword by accident)]] immediately lost the match. [[spoiler: Of course, the tournament was part of a conspiracy to reveal TheMasquerade, so they ''needed'' them to pull off all those super cool abilities.]]

* In Fanfic/TheDominoCityEffect, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, the rules for the card game during Pegasus's tournament are just as non-sensical as they were in canon, such as being able to seemingly any monsters together and the gameplay more like an RPG than a traditional game of Duel Monsters. However, it's mostly justified here, as the main character Vivian Willow learns that Pegasus purposefully changed the rules of the game for his tournament, which is why players can pull off moves they couldn't normally do in the regular card game.
* In FanFic/TheTaintedGrimoire, during the Camoa Cup, Acidwire requested a single duel to decide the match between them and Clan Gully rather than the best of three that was supposed to happen. They got away with this because when they requested this, they made it seem like they were doing it out of consideration of the fact that Clan Gully has yet to recover properly from their last few matches when actually it was so they could make it easier for them to defeat Clan Gully. [[spoiler: This backfired on them when Luso defeated their leader Suzuka]].

** Even worse? '''Japanese lawyers confirm''' that this is TruthInTelevision. [[{{FlatWhat}} What.]]
* The Colosso tournament in ''VideoGame/{{Golden Sun}}'', where the player is allowed to get help from the other party members to cheat on the obstacle courses, and the enemies in the battle portions use only physical attacks while you have Djinn and Psynergy.

* ''Anime/KidouTenshiAngelicLayer''. [[WhipItGood Electric whips]] are banned. So are projectiles. Apparently ''nothing else is''. This includes ''hacking the program'', exploiting a programming error in earlier models, and modding the dolls to give them extra abilities (we've seen wings and a ''forcefield'').