History Main / DefeatingTheCheatingOpponent

See also UnderdogsNeverLose. Contrast ScrewTheRulesTheyBrokeThemFirst, when someone replies to a rival cheating by cheating right back.

** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'': Learning the dueling specialization from the pirate Isabela requires beating her in a game of Wicked Grace. However, she cheats. Unless your own Cunning skill is high enough for your character to realize it, Isabela is unbeatable. The only way to beat her without that high Cunning score is to have Leliana or Zevran in your party and listen to them when they tell you what to do.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': Scrooge [=McDuck's=] entire dynamic with Flinthart Glomgold can be defined as this trope. Glomgold is determined to usurp the moniker of "the World's Richest Duck" away from Scrooge through whatever dirty or unscrupulous means possible -- predictably a lot of Glomgold's fortune is stolen goods. But even with all his stolen loot, Glomgold never quite manages to outdo Scrooge, who takes pride in having earned every last penny he has by being "[[CatchPhrase tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties]]", all from the ground up, fair and square.

* In ''LightNovel/ChivalryOfAFailedKnight'', Ayane sets up a rather intricate minefield with her Noble Art and forces Ikki to exhaust Ittou Shura before the match starts. She's caught and is about to be disqualified because setting up traps during a fight is allowed, but not before a fight. Despite this, Ikki insists the match go on, and Ayane ends up losing. Not because her cheating got exposed, but because she's distracted from fighting properly.

* ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': Qui-Gon has Anakin enter into a podrace in a bet to get a new part for their damaged ship. His main rival on the track is a alien named Sebulba who won against him in the last race and smugly rubs it in his face. Anakin suspects sabotage since his pod had a malfunction that cost him but couldn't prove it. Sure enough, Sebulba breaks off a vital part on Anakin's pod when no one is looking before their next race so that when the race begins, Anakin's pod initially doesn't start. He manages get the engine going and quickly catch up to the competitors until it's only Sebulba and him once more. Despite Sebulba trying to run him off the track, Anakin turns the tables and causes Sebulba to crash, and Anakin wins.

*** Joey seems to have the worst luck being pitted against cheaters. His first opponent in Duelist Kingdom is Mai Valentine, whose supposed psychic powers allow her to predict which card she draws before she actually draws it. However, Joey discovers that Mai marked each of her cards with a certain perfume and committed the scents to memory. Mai is shocked by Joey being able to see through her ruse and is ultimately beaten.
*** Joey's duel against Bandit Keith ends with Joey defeating Bandit Keith despite having a machine hidden under his bracelet that makes it look he drew cards from his deck, but he was really drawing concealed cards.
*** Joey's duel against Espa Roba sees Espa's brothers spying on Joey's cards, and tell Espa via hidden comms what's in Joey's hand at any given time. After Joey exposes the truth with a card trick of his own, he proceeds to defeat Espa in a fair duel.

-->--'''Grandpa Lou Pickles''', ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', "King Ten Pin"

* ''Manga/EdensZero'': During the Nero arc, Rebecca gets captured by one of the elite guards named Lyra who forces her into a card game broadcasted across the web where if Rebecca loses a hand, she'll lose some of her clothing and if she loses completely, Lyra will take a body part. As the game goes on, Rebecca does win a few hands but suddenly Lyra starts to make a swift comeback. Rebecca uses her Reverse power to rewind time at one point in order to win a hand only for Lyra to still somehow beat her. This confirms to Rebecca that Lyra's cheating and, after using up her last Reverse to avoid losing the game, tricks Lyra into exposing herself by ripping a card in half and faking her out with guessing the wrong card. When Lyra complains, Rebecca reveals the real card she had hidden and asks her how she knew what card she had guessed before hand if she hadn't rigged the game. Lyra naturally can't answer that in front of her viewers, forcing her to abandon the game entirely and attack Rebecca directly. Luckily Shiki arrives to save her and Kleene takes Rebecca's place as Lyra's opponent, ultimately defeating her in direct combat.

* ''Manga/EdensZero'': During the Nero arc, Rebecca get captured by one of the elite guards named Lyra who forces her into a card game broadcasted across the web where if Rebecca loses a hand, she'll lose some of her clothing and if she loses completely, Lyra will take a body part. As the game goes on, Rebecca does win a few hands but suddenly Lyra starts to make a swift comeback. Rebecca uses her Reverse power to rewind time at one point in order to win a hand only for Lyra to still somehow beat her. This confirms to Rebecca that Lyra's cheating and, after using up her last Reverse to avoid losing the game, tricks Lyra into exposing herself by ripping a card in half and faking her out with guessing the wrong card. When Lyra complains, Rebecca reveals the real card she had hidden and asks her how she knew what card she had guessed before hand if she hadn't rigged the game. Lyra naturally can't answer that in front of her viewers, forcing her to abandon the game entirely and attack Rebecca directly. Luckily Shiki arrives to save her and Kleene takes Rebecca's place as Lyra's opponent, ultimately defeating her in direct combat.

* ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': Qui-Gon has Anakin enter into a podrace in a bet to get a new part for their damaged ship. His main rival on the track is a alien named Sebula who won against him in the last race and smugly rubs it in his face. Anakin suspects sabotage since his pod had a malfunction that cost him but couldn't prove it. Sure enough, Sebula breaks off a vital part on Anakin's pod when no one is looking before their next race so that when the race begins, Anakin's pod initially doesn't start. He manages get the engine going and quickly catch up to the competitors until it's only Sebula and him once more. Despite Sebula trying to ram him off the track, Anakin overcomes him and causes him to crash, allowing Anakin to win.

** In the [[Manga/YuGiOh manga]] (and by extension, the [[Anime/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries first anime]]), Yugi's first duel against Kaiba ends this way. With very little chance at victory, Kaiba summons Yugi's grandpa's stolen Blue-Eyes White Dragon straight from his uniform pocket. However, the Blue-Eyes destroys itself instead of defeating Yugi, allowing him to use [[BackFromTheDead Monster Reborn]] to bring it back to his side of the field and wipe out Kaiba's remaining Life Points.

* The ''Series/SideHustle'' episode "Thumb and Thumber" sees Presley facing off with her childhood thumb-wrestling rival, Rago, in the final round of a thumb-wrestling tournament so she can win a new boat for Tedward, allowing her, Munchy and Lex to pay off their debt after his old one was destroyed. Rago's mother supposedly kisses his thumb for good luck before each match, which the trio finds totally gross, but they find out that she was kissing it with thumb grease, which allowed Rago to slip out of his opponents' pins and easily win all of his matches. Lex and Munchy stop this by secretly stealing the grease from Rago's mother before the match begins. When the match begins, Rago is forced to prove to his mother he can beat Presley as he easily did when they were seven years old, but Presley defeats him fair and square.

* The ''Series/SideHustle'' episode "Thumb and Thumber" sees Presley facing off with her childhood thumb-wrestling rival, Rago, in the final round of a thumb-wrestling tournament so she can win a new boat for Tedward, allowing her, Munchy and Lex to pay off their debt after his old one was destroyed. Rago's mother supposedly kisses his thumb for good luck before each match, but the trio finds out that she was kissing it with thumb grease, which allowed Rago to easily win all of his matches. Lex and Munchy stop this by secretly stealing the grease from Rago's mother before the match begins. When the match begins, Rago is forced to prove to his mother he can beat Presley as he easily did when they were seven years old, but Presley defeats him fair and square.