History Main / UnderdogsNeverLose

Related to TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin and the HardWorkFallacy. Conceptually related to InvincibleIncompetent. Can overlap with the UnspokenPlanGuarantee -- both tropes happen because watching a foregone conclusion happen as expected, whether because it's part of the plan or because the expected winner is [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment expected to win]], is boring for the audience. The irony is that for a trope about subverting audience expectations, it is so commonplace that it does nothing to subvert the viewer's expectations. Also related to ConservationOfNinjutsu, where the team with fewer people always wins.

SuperTrope of SlowAndSteadyWinsTheRace. See also SecondPlaceIsForWinners, for cases where the underdog loses but scores a moral victory for going the distance. See also DisqualificationInducedVictory for cases where the underdog also loses but manages to win anyway due to their opponent's disqualification, and DefeatingTheCheatingOpponent for when the underdogs still win even though their opponents had been caught cheating. Contrast ChampionsOnTheInside.

* Also subverted in a ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode where the inexperienced crew plays a baseball game against a super-skilled team of Vulcans. They get clobbered, but they do manage to score one run in the [[DownToTheLastPlay last inning]] and celebrate anyway because the Vulcan captain is an asshole and had declared the [[IncrediblyLamePun DSNiners]] wouldn't score at all. They did it just to piss him off and succeeded.

* Exaggerated in one episode of ''Series/GreenAcres'' where Lisa and Eb are watching a movie about a horse race with the underdog horse wins even though he was dead last without any mention of him pulling ahead. Eb tells a befudled Oliver that it's a case of dramatic license.

** The same subversion is used in the final installment of the [[Film/{{Creed}} (main)]] series, however, where he goes the distance with Mason "The Line" Dixon and only loses in a split decision, exactly how he lost to Creed in the first movie. What makes it more impressive is that Rocky is ''in his 60s'' at the time of the fight, leaving no impression that had he been younger he could have easily defeated Dixon.

* Subverted in ''Film/AShotAtGlory'' in which a small Scottish football team from the Third Division (managed by Robert Duvall and owned by Michael Keaton) reaches the Cup Final against all odds - and loses.
* ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog22022'' gives Sonic a rival in the form of Knuckles. In their first fight, Sonic's SuperSpeed is easily countered by the SuperStrength of his much larger and more skilled opponent. Sonic pushes himself much harder in the rematch and learns to avoid the ineffective head attacks that didn't work the first time, but in the end, he still loses despite Knuckles' difficulty hitting him. When Knuckles' attacks do connect, he puts Sonic down for the count without much difficulty, while Sonic cannot do any real damage to Knuckles.

* ''Film/DownPeriscope'': The odds against [[MilitaryMaverick Lt Cmdr. Dodge]] in the proposed wargame: He commanded an obsolete diesel-powered WWII-era sub vs. the entire East Coast fleet in a mission to launch a sneak attack on a target in Norfolk. [[BigBad Admiral Graham]] stacks the deck further by sticking Dodge with a [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits crew full of castoffs and misfits.]] The things in Dodge's favor: Subs like the ''Stingray'' were virtually invisible when going silent, his mismatched crew provided vital individual skills and [[BigGood Vice Admiral Winslow]] had already given Dodge orders to "Think like a pirate" (i.e. disregard military protocol and even the rules of engagement and do what it took to complete ''his'' mission).[[spoiler: Graham catches the ''Stingray'', but not before they can get off a live shot at the Norfolk target, which struck true, giving them the win.]]

* Horribly averted by Wrestling/TripleH at Wrestling/WrestleMania XIX in his match against Wrestling/BookerT. Booker was presented as the underdog all the way in: HHH cut some truly horrible promos (some of which bordered on racism), and by the time the feud was white-hot, Booker could not have been more underdog. HHH had been presented as an unstoppably dominant force of selfish evil, and Booker a man who'd made some poor decisions, but could redeem himself at 'Mania. In the match, it turned out that HHH ''was'' an unstoppably dominant force. Given that 'Mania title matches usually feature performers kicking out of finishers (to show the importance of the event), HHH duly kicked out of Booker's finishers. When Booker got hit with HHH's first finisher, he stayed down, and HHH got the strap. What made this even more galling was that HHH botched the finish, and as a result, it took him ''twenty-seven seconds'' to make the pin, meaning he not only squashed the underdog, he inadvertently got a legitimate ''thirty count'' against the Booker Man. After that, it was pretty much all over for T, and it wasn't until his "King Booker" gimmick a few years later that he managed to build up the slightest credibility as a main eventer again. Needless to say, there's a reason that HHH's 2002-2004 season is called "The Reign of Terror." It was also around this point that Triple H's status as son-in-law to Wrestling/VinceMcMahon (he was dating Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon at the time and they were married later that year) came under intense scrutiny from Smarks.

In the case of a BasedOnATrueStory film where the real-world team eventually ''did'' lose, the movie will [[OffscreenInertia cut away at their biggest win]], frame their loss as a victory of another kind, or [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory just say they won]], and HandWave or ignore the [[HappilyEverBefore less successful parts of their history]]. SecondPlaceIsForLosers.

** Dresden may be a subversion of this, as while he's normally in an underdog position, he's one of the smartest, strongest, and most clever wizards out there. It's gotten to the point where most powerful enemies are more concerned about him than the entire White Council.

** While they look like the RagtagBunchofMisfits, the Gryffindor Quidditch team are hardly underdogs for much of the series run. The other teams often have one or two good players, generally the captain and the Seeker (when they aren't the same person, at least), and Draco Malfoy infamously bribed his way onto the Slytherin team with a gift of a full complement of top-of-the-line racing brooms, Gryffindor rarely lost a game that Harry played. In fact, in six books, Griffindor losses can be counted on one hand. In ''Stone'', Harry was in hospital from his confrontation with Quirrell and Voldemort; in ''Azkaban'', Harry was mobbed by Dementors in a critical moment (and even then, Cedric Diggory tried to call a rematch when he realised Harry had been attacked); in ''Phoenix'' he was disqualified by Umbridge for two of the three games, and in ''Prince'' he was knocked out by Cormac [=McLaggan=] in a fit of pique. Harry Potter is a brilliant Seeker with a strong pedigree who was sequentially gifted two of the best brooms on the market, the Weasley twins are widely recognised as fantastic Beaters from, again, a family of good players, the Chaser trio were a tight-knit team with few weaknesses, and Ginny is a prodigy who excelled at both Seeking and Chasing. Though they all seem disparate and lackadaisical, the team make up for it in raw talent. Nearly all of their losses were bare attempts at sabotage.