History Main / TooQualifiedToApply

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'': If you use an OldSaveBonus where Isaac won [[InevitableTournament Colosso]] in the first game, then there's an optional subevent where several of the other competitors track him down and accuse him of cheating by using his Psynergy, an advantage the other combatants didn't have. Isaac defends his actions by claiming there AintNoRule against using Psynergy (in fact, the tournament's sponsor deliberately slipped Isaac in to test his power) and that, as an innate ability, it fit with the Tournament's theme of relying on your own power rather than tools like weapons or armor.

* The Olympic Games were originally reserved for amateur athletes and professionals were barred from entry. So for instance a student or soldier who did sports on the side could complete, but a basketball player who got a paycheck for playing could not. This restriction ended in 1986, particularly because of LoopholeAbuse by Communist bloc countries who had “professional students” who were nominally amateurs, but had the government paying for professional-grade training.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'': Leveling vocations is done by participating in a number of battles rather than experience points, but your characters' levels limit the amount of battles that count (i.e. RandomEncounters in the area around the starting town only counts towards characters under level 5). The earliest area with a limit of 99 is the Spiegelspire, letting it function as a PeninsulaOfPower of sorts.

* With the normalization of transgenderism, this has become a serious point of contention in athletics - whether someone with the advantages of a male physique should be allowed to compete in women's sports. (It wasn't so long ago that such a question was [[Recap/FuturamaS4E13BendHer played ]][[Film/{{Ladybugs}} for laughs]]). Trans advocates are quick to point out that while on hormone therapy, a trans woman does ''not'' have a male physique (as testosterone blockers will reduce muscle mass) and that nobody bothers checking a cis athlete's hormone levels.

* With the normalization of transgenderism, this has become a serious point of contention in athletics - whether someone with the advantages of a male physique should be allowed to compete in women's sports. (It wasn't so long ago that such a question was [[Recap/FuturamaS4E13BendHer played ]][[Film/{{Ladybugs}} for laughs]]).

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' encodes this in the mechanics for awarding ExperiencePoints: defeating a challenge far below a character's [[CharacterLevel level]] grants no XP, on the grounds that the conflict was too unfairly lopsided for the winner to learn anything from it.

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'': If you use an OldSaveBonus where Isaac won [[InevitableTournament Colosso]] in the first game, then there's an optional sub event where several of the other competitors track him down and accuse him of cheating by using his Psynergy, an advantage the other combatants didn't have. Isaac defends his actions by claiming there AintNoRule against using Psynergy (in fact, the tournament's sponsor deliberately slipped Isaac in to test his power) and that, as an innate ability, it fit with the Tournament's theme of relying on your own power rather than tools like weapons or armor.

* Until a rule change in 1986, the Olympic Games were reserved for amateur athletes, and professionals were barred from entry.

Or better yet, have them genuinely hate you for knowing more than them in the subject. This troper and his friends got a kick out of my 8th grade teacher insulting a 14 year old for not having multiple master's degrees.

* Having a doctoral degree makes it very difficult to get a job outside of academia, as employers tend to assume advanced degree holders are overqualified and thus more expensive. ([[MortonsFork Unfortunately, it's also very difficult to get a job inside of academia, as there just aren't that many to go around.]])

On the other side of the coin, this is a common problem for the precocious amateur or semiprofessional, who can find themselves excluded from opportunities for between being a NormalFishInATinyPond by well-intentioned rulemakers MovingTheGoalposts. These stories often come across as a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop that the talented should aim to DoWellButNotPerfect rather than striving to further improve.

[[folder: Film]]
* In ''Film/SweetAndLowdown'', professional guitar player Emmet enters a small-town talent contest while driving cross country. He effortlessly wins, being lauded as the second best guitarist after Music/DjangoReinhardt, and is run out of town when his identity is revealed.
* Discussed by Spiderman in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' where he mentions that he would love to play football but since he couldn't before his powers, it wouldn't be fair to do so after he gains them.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'': During [[InternationalShowdownByProxy an athletic competition between Athens and Sparta]], Hercules's SuperStrength lets him win the first twenty events for Athens with absurd ease. Frustrated, Ares [[EurekaMoment realizes]] the games are supposed to be about ''mortal'' competition, and so points out Hercules is a [[SemiDivine demigod]] (which is tested as an athlete would be tested for doping). Hercules is thus prohibited from future events, and his team loses half the points he won.

* In the first chapter of ''VideoGame/IcewindDale 2'', a barbarian trader will challenge one of your party members to a DrinkingContest (using fermented boar's blood as the drink) for his enchanted talisman. He will, however, outright refuse any challenge from a [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarf character]][[note]]whose natural Constitution bonus and saving throw bonus versus poisons (including alcohol) would all but guarantee a victory[[/note]], noting that he's not about to race a dwarf to the tavern floor.

* In the first chapter of ''VideoGame/IcewindDale2'', a barbarian trader will challenge one of your party members to a drinking contest (using fermented boar's blood as the drink) for his enchanted talisman. He will, however, outright refuse any challenge from a [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarf character]][[note]]whose natural Constitution bonus and saving throw bonus versus poisons (including alcohol) would all but guarantee a victory[[/note]], noting that he's not about to race a dwarf to the tavern floor.

** According to 5th edition's ''Chrome Flesh'', UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball bans all cyberware, bioware or use of magic (players are allowed to have datajacks or cybereyes, but they cannot enhance vision or contain skillsofts or similar). Despite (or perhaps ''because'' of) this restriction, it remains the most popular sport globally as no-one can buy their way to the top.

* When Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast ran an open submission contest for their new world for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', the winner was Keith Baker's ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' setting. This attracted accusations of the content being rigged because Baker was a previously published professional author and had worked previously with one of the co-authors of the line. (All entries were anonymous to avoid preferential treatment, and WOTC had said at the outset that amateurs and professionals alike were permitted to compete.)

* ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'' once had a case where a man who appears to be in the Navy enters an amateur painting contest. However, he gets numerous sailing terms wrong, calling into question his true identity. He turns out to be a professional painter and is disqualified.

Everyone loves an underdog story. It's why UnderdogsNeverLose is such a common trope. It's natural that we cheer for the one we don't expect to win. No one wants to watch DavidVersusGoliath where Goliath wins, but when this leaks out of narrative contexts, or into unrelated narratives, you often get this rather bizarre mutation: the person who won is seen as unethical or even evil ''because they won'' - or just because they entered with the knowledge that they'd have an advantage, which sounds like cheating to some people. Said advantage may be a result of TrainingFromHell or being the PrivilegedRival. There is also an element of ComesGreatResponsibility: people with an obvious advantage in a contest should be responsible enough to know they shouldn't enter it and ruin everyone else's fun. Or at least that's what the condemners think.

In real life, the most common case arises when a given opportunity is "opened" to everyone, yet the winner is someone who would arguably not have needed that opportunity to prove they're good at what they do, such as a professional athlete or artist. Despite what Hollywood might tell you, a talented amateur is unlikely to be better than someone with a decade or more of experience under their belt, and the professional likely doesn't ''need'' to enter an amateur contest to prove their skill, making it easy to see them as a {{Jerkass}} doing it just to deny others their recognition. A common avoidance is an evil character who could win by playing fair instead deciding to [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat cheat, and losing as a result]]. Other times, it can be unintentionally introduced or openly announced.