Deliberately Jumping the Gun

Butch: [Stops another gang member from signaling the start of the fight] No, no, not yet. Not until me and Harvey get the rules straightened out.
Harvey: Rules? In a knife fight?! No rules! [Butch immediately kicks Harvey in the groin]
Butch: Well, if there ain't going to be any rules, let's get the fight started. Someone count 1-2-3 go.
Sundance: 1-2-3 go! [Butch finishes off a helpless Harvey]

— Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

In any competition, making the first move helps. Naturally, the Combat Pragmatists of the world and those who believe in fighting dirty often like to take that a step further, by intentionally getting in a first blow before a competition is even supposed to start so they have the advantage.

While an Anti-Hero may be able to get away with this, it's generally more of a villain move. After all, heroes can only get away with creeping out in front of a race's starting line or hitting an opponent that isn't ready in sparring so many times before they stop looking like a hero.

If the person doing it loses anyway, it's because Cheaters Never Prosper.

The "Why Wait?" Combatant has a lot of similarities to this tactic (and can occasionally overlap), but that sort of combatant often just wants to fight, while this one is fighting dirty to win.

Not to be confused with False Start.

---

Examples:

Anime and Manga

• KonoSuba: done by Kazuma when Mitsurugi challenges him to a duel over his perceived mistreatment of Aqua. Kazuma immediately says "OkayIacceptGO!" and attacks. Mitsurugi is so caught off guard that he's unable to properly defend himself, despite having far superior equipment.
• The fourth Blu-ray short for Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid has the dragons demonstrating various types of battles. When Tohru and Elma are having a Showdown at High Noon, Tohru (being a Chaos Dragon) just turns around while Elma is in the process of taking her three steps and shoots her in the back.

Films — Live-Action

• The live action version of Initial D has Itsuki starting before the countdown finishes during his race with Takeshi Nazakato. Being a casual racer, it doesn't help that much when he crashes.
• Played for Laughs in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. As the final duel is beginning, the Sheriff makes a thrust at Robin before he's ready. Only after Robin manages to dodge does the Sheriff say "En Garde." Robin responds by sarcastically thanking the Sheriff for the warning.
• In The Quick and the Dead, a Quick Draw tournament is held where both contestants start to draw when the town clock chimes the hour. Cort advises The Hero that there's actually a click that comes from the clock just before the chime, and to listen for it and start drawing then, since it's too close to the chime for anyone watching to tell the difference.
• In Fast Five, the guys have an impromptu four-way drag race after "acquiring" some police cars. Roman takes off before the others... and still loses.
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Butch is about to be in a knife fight with fellow gang member Harvey, who is challenging Butch to be leader of the gang. Butch tells the others that the fight isn't starting yet and approaches Harvey, pretending to be concerned about what rules they'll fight under. When Harvey protests that there are no such things as rules in a knife fight, Butch immediately disables Harvey with a Groin Attack, then instructs his other men to officially start the fight, then finishes off Harvey.
• The Man with the Golden Gun: James Bond is kidnapped by Hai Fat and taken to a martial arts school, where he is forced to fight the students. In a formal combat like this the opponents are supposed to bow to each other first. While Bond's opponent is bowing to him, Bond takes him out with a surprise attack. The next contestant only bows partway, keeping his eye on Bond the whole time.
• Superman II. Clark Kent (de-powered Superman) asks the bully in the diner to step outside so they can fight. The bully says "After you." As Clark starts to go out the bully attacks him from behind (and with surprise) and knocks him down.
• Death Race 3: Inferno: One of the racers tries to get a head start on the others by driving off before the race officially opens. He just ends up demonstrating how effective the prison's guided missile system is to punish anyone who might have ideas of leaving the planned route.
• The Quiet Man has the rivalry between Sean Thornton and Will Danaher come to a head, and the two combatants prepare for a slugfest. Danaher makes a show of raising his arms and announcing to the watching crowd, "Marquis of Queensbury! Marquis of Queensbury!" meaning that he intends to fight in accordance with the rules of boxing, as set forth by the Marquis of Queensbury. Sean Thornton, wanting to signify the same intention, mimics Danaher's performance. Thornton is still gesturing to the crowd when Danaher wallops him with right hook that sends Thornton reeling.
• Escape from L.A. has Snake in a seemingly unwinnable situation of a 4 to 1 gun duel, so he challenges the four gunmen to a duel where "No one draws until this (an aluminum can he finds) hits the ground. You ready?" After Snake throws up the can, he immediately shoots the four gunmen dead with his two pistols. After the can lands, "Draw".
• The Big Bad of Polar is setting up his retired assassins to be killed. He gives the protagonist Vizla an assignment to kill a man in Belarus who is supposedly responsible, but it's actually a Contract on the Hitman. Instead of waiting for his advance payment, Vizla goes straight to Belarus and kills the man, finding a target dossier of himself in the man's hotel room. He then calls and gets his down payment, then reveals that he's killed the target just moments ago.

Literature

• In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Gilderoy Lockhart hosts a Dueling club for the students to learn how to Wizard Duel. For the sparring match between Harry and Draco, Lockhart instructs them to attack On Three; Draco, being Draco, attacks on "two".
• In the climatic duel in Mort, Cutwell is asked to give a count of three. The blades meet in mid-air at two.
  Keli: They both cheated!
  Ysabell: Of course.
• In Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, Sheep won the previous war he participated in by waiting until the warriors were gathered in the space station that was supposed to be their battleground, then blowing it up while he left in an escape pod.
• In Nation, the Combat by Champion is supposed to start when a warrior picks up their weapon. Mau starts it by throwing a handful of sand into Cox's eyes. This isn't technically breaking the rules; he was holding a spear, put it down, and picked up the sand, his weapon. As Cox has a gun and is fighting on behalf of the Cannibal Tribe, Mau doesn't come across badly for the trick.

Live-Action TV

• Happens with surprising frequency on Street Outlaws. Doing so always nets the opponent a Disqualification-Induced Victory.
• In an episode of Seinfeld Jerry was in a footrace in high school and had gotten away with literally jumping the gun, taking a 10 yard lead before the race started, and for some reason nobody noticed except George. Many years later, a guy he beat comes back for a do-over.
• An episode of The Book of Pooh features Rabbit and Tigger accusing each other of making a head start before Eeyore gave the starting signal for the race they were doing (what really happened was that they both started early).
• Blake's 7
  • In "Death Watch", two systems fight their wars via Combat by Champion. One side tries to get the drop on another's champion—a skilled Quick Draw gunfighter—by attempting to assassinate him the minute war is declared, but before he's heard about it.
  • In the same episode, Tarrant becomes the Champion and has to fight on a killing ground chosen at random. Orac hacks into the gaming computer to find out the environment Tarrant is about to enter, so he has a few crucial seconds to prepare an ambush. In fairness, the other side is already cheating by using an android as their player.
• Game of Thrones: After Jaime Lannister loses his sword hand, he is forced to retrain his other hand, taking up sparring lessons with Bronn. Bronn, being a proud Combat Pragmatist, starts the match by punching Jaime in the face before he's even ready. Jaime calls him out on cheating, but Bronn just shrugs.
• Gladiators (2024): In a season one "Duel" challenge, the show's perpetually angry heel Viper lashes out before the referee starts the clock, knocking the surprised contender off his podium. The referee intervenes, warns Viper and restarts the challenge. Without the sneak attack advantage, Viper falls from his podium within seconds.

Pro Wrestling

• Oh so often, usually with the Heel attacking the Face before the bell. Technically illegal, but it happens so often that it's usually completely ignored by the referees nowadays, who just signal for the opening bell after the first guy gets in the first shot. Another version, taken a little more seriously, is when someone is attacked backstage before the match.
• In a fan participation run before WrestleMania 4, Mr. Fuji, wearing a full tuxedo, started running at the "On your mark" call, while everyone else waited for "Go." Of course, he was soon overtaken by the real racers, and then got into a push cart and had someone push him all the way to the finish line.

Theatre

• A tragic variation late into Hamilton ends up killing a main character in a duel gone wrong. In a duel where the competitors shoot on the count of ten, George Eacker shoots Alexander Hamilton's son at the number seven, even though Hamilton's son clearly motioned that he was going to shoot his gun into the air and forfeit the duel.

Video Games

• One racer in Midnight Club 2, Ricky, has a tendency to jump the start when you race him. He's not a terribly good driver, so this doesn't really help him.
• In Crash Team Racing, the Final Boss starts driving before the final light.
• In the boss races in Diddy Kong Racing, the bosses start before the signal to go.
• In The Guild, you can get an extra shot in a duel using your Stealth skill by turning and shooting after nine paces. The doctor won't help you if you're hit after cheating, but it's not like the law will come after you.
• In Nikolai's Trains, Neow-Neow challenges Nikolai to a race to see who has the faster, stronger, and better train. Just before the starter fires his pistol, Neow-Neow releases his engine's brakes and races away. This backfires immensely, as the lineman had neglected to change the switch, resulting in Neow-Neow's train being diverted onto a siding, where it crashes against a bumper and falls to pieces. Nikolai waits patiently while Neow-Neow has his train fixed, and restarts the race when Neow-Neow's train is back together. This time, Neow-Neow agrees to play fairly for the rest of the race.
• In Sleeping Dogs (2012), Wei phones Hotshot and challenges him to a race, which the latter agrees by meeting him at Victoria Park. Just before the countdown goes to "START", Hotshot will deliberately get ahead of the race which Wei calls him out for. It's a ploy to have Hotshot arrested by first leading him to a trap where the HKPD are lying in wait and proceed to apprehend him, by disabling his car, for killing a rival racer.
• In Undertale, Sans does this, attacking the player mid-dialogue — and taking the first turn, which the enemies in Undertale otherwise never do. If the player survives the attack, he wonders out loud why people don't always start off with their strongest attacks.
• In the Wacky Races (2000) video game for the Sega Dreamcast, there is a "3-2-1-Go!" countdown before each race begins. If you're playing against Dick Dastardly in his boss races or the elimination challenge, Dick starts at "3".

Web Animation

• In 50% OFF, a flashback crossover with Danganronpa Abridged Thing had Nagisa kill all the other students in the gym while the rules of the killing game were still being explained.

Web Original

• The LEGO website used to have a flash game based on its Drome Racers line wherein you could set your start to go on green, yellow, or red. Going on yellow was safest: no penalty, and if your opponent started on green you'd begin with a 3 second lead. If you went on red and your opponent went on green, you'd be penalized by 3 seconds.

Web Videos

• During the Bill Gates vs Steve Jobs episode of Epic Rap Battles of History, Jobs interrupts the announcer in the middle of introducing the contestants and goes straight into a high energy rap, trying to blitz Gates with it.
  • Former US President Donald Trump does the same thing in his battle against Joe Biden.
• All over the place in TF2 - Duel Failure (a Jerma-Star crossover). The two of them try to arrange a revolver duel, but both of them keep trying to betray each other. The first time, Jerma lies that he won't attack STAR_ as he approaches the duel zone, only to fire... and completely miss. The second time, STAR_ kills Jerma in the middle of explaining the rules. Then lastly, when the two of them arrange the rules to be to face away, take ten steps, and then turn to shoot, STAR_ tries to cheat by turning on step 3, except Jerma never turned at all and shoots him the instant STAR_ tries.

Western Animation

• Wacky Races often had a racer, usually Dick Dastardly (of course) either starting the race before the opening shot or trying to do so.
• Played for laughs in "Tortoise Beats Hare", the 1941 Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes short based on Aesop's fable "The Tortoise and the Hare". Bugs and Cecil Turtle are at the starting line for the race.
  Bugs: One for the money! [tiptoes a bit past the line] Two for the show! [tiptoes a bit further] Three to make like ready [tiptoes a bit further] And four to... [runs a long way past the line] Go!
• In the Tex Avery MGM Cartoon "The Chump Champ", Droopy and Spike are competing in sports events. For the first event, the 100 meter dash, Spike has the starting pistol, but after going "On your mark, get set..." he runs to within one step away from the finish line. The moment he yells "Go!" and fires the gun, Droopy instantly zips to the finish line, then tells Spike that he might be cheating.
• Jonny Quest TOS episode "Dragons of Ashida." When Dr. Ashida and Race Bannon have a judo match, they bow to each other. Ashida hits Race with a judo chop while he's still bowing.
• A Shaun the Sheep Championsheeps cartoon features this occurring twice. It leads to Shaun and the other competitors exhausted from their false starts...excluding Shirley who was the only one not to start too early, thus is not exhausted and finishes first!
• The Simpsons: During the annual company picnic Mr. Burns gets a very quiet "go" from Smithers in the sack race before everyone else. They all know that Burns is supposed to win the race.
• In the Rugrats episode, "Susie Vs. Angelica," Susie and Angelica compete in a race to see who's the best three-year-old in the world. Tommy is given the job of waving the flag (which consists of a pair of underwear on a stick). Angelica drives off before he waves the flag, which leads to this exchange:
  Lil: Hey! That was cheating!
  Tommy: Nah, Angelica told me, she was opposed to go right before the flag was waved, and Susie's opposed to right after.
  Phil: Oh. Well, as long as it wasn't cheating.
• Mike, Lu & Og: In "The Mother of All Marathons," Mike and Lu have a sprint race and Lu starts before Mike says "Go." Mike still wins because she's more athletic.

Real Life

• The Land Rush of 1889 had a number of people hide out in unoccupied lands of what is now Oklahoma to claim the land before the Land Rush officially started. Because they got there sooner than the others, they were referred to as "Sooners." This is why Oklahoma's state nickname is "The Sooner State."
• The shortest professional boxing match that ended by knockout went 10 1/2 seconds including the 10 count. It is estimated that Aurele Catoure was more than halfway across the ring before the opening bell sounded; he punched & knocked out Ralph Walton while Walton was still adjusting his mouthpiece.

---