Speedy: Winning isn't everything.
Robin: It's just the only thing that matters!
Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy are whisked away by the Master of Games, who pits the three of them against four teen superheroes (and Gizmo) in The Tournament of Heroes, promising prizes. Robin becomes obsessively competitive, but Cyborg is suspicious of the Master's plans.
Tropes:
- Achilles' Heel: Robin discovers that the Master of Games' gem, which uses the losers' powers, is also his weakpoint. He and the other contestants he frees destroy it to finally defeat the villain.
- All Your Powers Combined: The Master of Games' goal is to gain all the powers and weapons of the contestants he summoned. He succeeds in gaining the abilities of everyone except Robin.
- Animation Bump: This episode has some serious improvements in the fight scenes. Notably the four-minute-long, mano-on-mano duel between Robin and Speedy, which seems to last forever and looks absolutely gorgeous.
- An Aesop: There are two lessons in the episode:
- Winning isn't everything.
- If something seems Too Good to Be True, it probably is.
- And I Must Scream: Whether physically trapped or otherwise, the heroes (and Gizmo) can be heard screaming in the Master of Games' gem necklace.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Robin breaks Speedy’s bow to beat him in the final fight. Robin says “You lose”, to which Speedy replies “But was it really worth it?”. This causes Robin to have a Heel Realization.
- Big "NO!": The Master of Games screams this as Robin kicks Speedy's arrow deep into his medallion, freeing the remaining captives.
- Boring, but Practical: While neither of them have powers like the other constants, Robin and Speedy both manage to become the final two champions in the tournament with only their gadgets and fighting skills.
- The Cake Is a Lie: The Master of Games said there would be prizes. He never said they'd be for the champion.
- Cassandra Truth: Cyborg is suspicious about Beast Boy "being sent home", so he tries to bring Robin along to investigate. Unfortunately, Robin is so caught up in the tournament that he believes Cyborg is attempting to sabotage him. Cyborg proceeds alone and discovers the truth, while Robin finds out after winning.
- Compressed Vice: Robin, the most level-headed (except for maybe Raven) of the Titans and most perceptive to suspicious activities becomes super competitive and doesn't question what's going on with the "Tournament of Heroes" it's a plot that would have made more sense for Beast Boy or Cyborg, but went to Robin because reasons
- Continuity Nod: Terra's appearance at the end of the episode counts as this (although strangely, she's absent during the rest of the episode, including shots of Raven and Starfire that she should logically have been included in).
- Eviler than Thou: The Master of Games fools Gizmo into competing in his tournament, traps him inside his amulet when he loses, and steals his weapons and gadgets.
- Exact Words: The Master of Games entices the heroes to participate in his tournament with a promise of prizes. He never said that the prizes would be for the champion.
- False Reassurance: The Master of Games lets the winners of Round 1 know that the losers had been sent home safe and sound. Combined with I Lied.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Robin wins the final match by breaking Speedy's bow, and Speedy acts as if Robin had gone too far. While this would make sense if Speedy's bow carried sentimental value, no such subplot was included, and Speedy is shown to have a new bow (or have fixed his old one) by the time he reappears.
- Field Power Effect: Inverted - the first round has contenders fighting in assorted environments, yet the combatant with an advantage ends up losing.
- Cyborg vs. Gizmo, in an arena made of floating platforms where Cyborg has to jump across whereas Gizmo can simply fly from one platform to another. Even when Cyborg rips off Gizmo's wings, Gizmo still has gigantic mechanical legs allowing him to leap around easier, but Cyborg managed to defeat Gizmo by getting his hands on the latter's pack.
- Speedy vs. Aqualad, in a massive indoor pool which Aqualad can sneak up from anywhere, besides his hydrokinesis abilities meaning the entire arena is Aqualad's weapon. Speedy still managed to turn the battle by freezing a pillar of water Aqualad is in.
- Robin vs. Hotspot in a straight corridor, where Hotspot can spam his fiery attacks ahead, coupled with occasional pillars blocking Robin escaping, until Robin instead uses the pillars as barricades and disables Hotspot's fiery attacks with a freezing disc.
- Wildebeast vs. Beast Boy, in a caged match where Beast Boy's versatility and ability to change into various animals of assorted sizes allows him to overpower Wildebeast - right until Beast Boy's T-Rex form accidentally rips a hole where he fell out from leading to his defeat.
- Foreshadowing: Why isn't Terra involved in the card game or seen in the living room wondering where the guys are despite having joined the team in the previous episode? Answer: because she's too busy sending information to Slade.
- Girl's Night Out Episode: Inverted; this is a Guy's Night Out episode. The episode does end with the Master of Games hosting a tournament of heroines, however.
- Hand Wave: Cyborg points out that for a tournament of heroes, Gizmo is is actually a villain. Gizmo insults him and the Master of Games invokes this trope.
- Heel Realization: After Speedy’s Armor-Piercing Question, Robin feels guilty and realizes that he placed too much value on winning, not even sounding the least bit excited when he asks the Master of Games what his prizes are.
- Here We Go Again!: At the end of the episode, the girls are summoned by the Master of Games in the same way the guys were for a "Tournament of Heroines". Unfortunately we don't get to see the outcome of this tournament to find out what happens.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: After all of the combatants are freed from the gem and the Master of Games is Brought Down to Normal, he quietly announces "I lose..." before being zapped into his own necklace. Subverted after the heroes leave, since the gem is zapped away and either the Master of Games is freed to summon a new batch of heroines (including Starfire and Raven) for another tournament or a new Master of Games was created by the plane the tournament takes place in.
- Ironic Echo: "Winning isn't everything." "It's just the only thing that matters."
- I Warned You: After Robin frees Cyborg and Speedy from the Master's gem, the first thing Cyborg says to Robin is an angry "Told you there was something weird about this game!"
- Mêlée à Trois: A rather brief one in the final round, which has Robin, Speedy and Wildebeest duking it out in a three-way battle to the finish. However, Wildebeest gets defeated roughly a minute into the match, and the rest of it is between Robin and Speedy.
- No Ending: The episode ends with the Master of Games kidnapping Starfire, Raven, Terra, and five other female superheroes to try and steal their powers. It’s not shown what happens next, but since Starfire, Raven, and Terra still appear after this episode, it’s safe to assume that he failed.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: How the "Tournament of Heroines" plays out at the end... after Robin, Speedy, and the guys all made it out, the Master of Games teleports Raven, Starfire, Terra and several other superheroines into his arena to start another tournament. It's likely the girls defeats the Master of Games at the end, but the results aren't shown.
- Only Sane Man: Cyborg is the only one suspicious of the tournament when he couldn't call Beast Boy to be sure if he returned to the Titans Tower. He also questions Gizmo taking part in the tournament as he's not a hero, and immediately revokes his Titans Communicator when he's given one at the end.
- Power Copying: The Master of Games' medallion allows him to copy the powers and weapons of whoever he holds captive inside of it.
- Released to Elsewhere: The Master of Games makes the remaining contestants believe that the losers have been sent back home, while Cyborg and eventually Robin find out that the losers actually become captives inside the Master of Games' medallion.
- Rule Zero: "Never challenge the Master; I always win."
- Shout-Out: The versus cut ins and Robin's Imagine Spot of a battle with Cyborg use the same visuals as the Teen Titans: Battle Blitz Flash game that was featured on Cartoon Network's website.
- Status Quo Is God: Enforced big time regarding Terra. Despite joining the team last episode she's nowhere to be seen until the very end of the episode at the Tournament of Heroines coda in a non-speaking cameo. The episode's premise as a Boys Night Out episode conveniently works so her absence isn't called into question. She's not added to the opening theme either. If you hadn't seen the previous episode you would have no reason to think there was more than 5 Titans.
- Shoryuken: Robin's last hit that knocks out Hot Spot has him performing a skyward spinning punch based off this move.
- Stepping Stones in the Sky:
- During the first round, Cyborg vs. Gizmo where Cyborg jumps around hovering platforms while fighting Gizmo (who averts the trope since he can fly).
- The penultimate battle between Robin and Speedy have both of them jumping around the debris of a destroyed meteorite to reach ground level before resuming combat.
- Stock Footage: The POV shot of Robin kicking towards the camera with a purple background and zoom lines is used twice, for Robin defeating Hot Spot in the first round and later to depict Robin kicking the Master's amulet (releasing Speedy and Cyborg in the process).
- Title Drop: In both the beginning and the climax, the phrase "winner take all" is used by Cyborg and then Robin.
- Was It Really Worth It?: Speedy to Robin after the latter wins.
- Wild Take: Cyborg has one through his arm drone when he sees the Master of Games using Gizmo's mechanical legs, including the lens shooting out of the camera finger.
- The Worf Effect: Speedy beating Aqualad in the first round since he was The Ace in his debut episode.
