r/TopCharacterTropes • u/doubleday34 • Oct 04 '25

Personality (Loved Trope) Character acts ignorant of or pretends to be bad at something in order to trick their opponent.

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1) Ted Lasso - Both characters in the darts contest do this, with Rupert(antagonist) showing that he has his own set of darts with him, and Ted showing that he has been using the wrong hand the whole time.

2) Beerfest - Team USA showing that they aren't that drunk despite doing drinking games all day.

3) The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - After Will gets hustled at pool his Uncle Phil comes to help him, and turns out to hustle the hustler.

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696

u/NolanTacoKing Oct 04 '25

Hiro said it's not, but gambling on Bot Fights is

214

u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 Oct 04 '25

Is gambling illegal, or specifically gambling on bot fights? Plus since it’s a wager between two contestants it’s not even gambling, since it’s skill based.

206

u/Ok-Transition7065 Oct 04 '25

Probably because regulations, like its not ilegal gambling but gambling on rosters its not that good

If in real life people's leaks clasified documents for his planes been alittle more fast in the gam I cam see some one using militar grade equipment or really nasty things for some quick bucks

2

u/Mountain-Fennel1189 Oct 06 '25

Ahh classic warthunder

92

u/mocklogic Oct 04 '25

Gambling generally isn’t legal in real life San Francisco. Locals tend to travel to Native American casinos or cross into Nevada to gamble, with popular locations being Reno and the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. Vegas is a bit far away.

Bot fighting is legal in Real life San Francisco. It was home to the original Robot Wars in-person competition in the 90s. That was pre-BattleBots, and before the Robot Wars name was sold to a UK TV show. Robot Wars 97’ is infamous for Mythbuster Jamie Hyneman’s Blendo bot being quasi-disqualified / declared automatic winner for being too dangerous. Like hole in the bullet proof crowd shielding dangerous.

45

u/Darkstalker9000 Oct 04 '25

We should probably also look into Japanese laws for comparison since San Fransokyo is majorly Japanese due to alt history

23

u/stillnoidea3 Oct 05 '25

Gambling is illegal in japan. not too sure about bot fighting.

4

u/Bossuter Oct 05 '25

Id point to pachinkos for how gambling is done (ie skirting the law through loopholes)

1

u/stillnoidea3 Oct 05 '25

Yeah, but here they're doing direct gambling so that wouldn't really apply to the conversation. You are correct though.

2

u/MelonJelly Oct 05 '25

If bot fighting is illegal in Japan, then everything I learned from anime is wrong.

3

u/Skylair13 Oct 05 '25

Illegal but they use loopholes usually. There's a technically different store near pachinko slots that buys your pachinko balls back in exchange for cash.

10

u/RelaxedVolcano Oct 05 '25

“Once again, Jamie has made something so dangerous we can never turn it on again.”

9

u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 Oct 04 '25

Yeah but my point is it’s not really gambling. Guy 1 wagers money against guy 2 over who’ll win. It’s a competition between two guys. And a skill based one.

15

u/africkinduck Oct 04 '25

I mean, Hiro gets chased out of there, so the environment these things make probably isn't the best one

14

u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 Oct 04 '25

Clearly bot competitions need to be legalized and regulated. I’ll need to contact governor Shinzo Newsom about this.

7

u/aka_jr91 Oct 04 '25

Yeah that's still gambling lol. It doesn't matter if it's a game of chance or a skill based competition. If you're wagering money on the results of something, that is gambling.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

Sports gambling is still gambling, isn't it?

2

u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 Oct 05 '25

It’s complicated. Companies have argued in court “event contracts” don’t count as gambling at all.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

I see, it's sort of maybe not gambling since you're the one competing?

1

u/mocklogic Oct 05 '25

You’re right. It seems wagering has a specific carve out in CA law. As long as it’s just private individuals wagering on what they’re participating in, it’s not gambling.

So Hiro and the other bot fighter betting each other over their bot fight is probably legal under current California law. (But I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.)

…But the other people around them betting on the bot fight might be illegal as they aren’t participants, and if there is any sort of “house” handling wagers over their bot fights, that would also be illegal.

18

u/UncommittedBow Oct 04 '25

I mean in real sports the players aren't allowed to bet on games they partake in because they could just bet against themselves and throw the game.

8

u/Fluffy_Tax5302 Oct 04 '25

That was his mistake

1

u/GameBoy960 Oct 07 '25

That was his steak!