/tnt/ - Tournaments & Events

Seeing as this has been an observable phenomena in /an/lympics for at least three years now, I decided to make a thread cataloging every time a large imposing animal lost to a small unassuming animal. Bonus points if the larger animal was a carnivore, and the smaller animal was a domesticated herbivore.

2023:
>Spinosaurus lost Round 1 to Goats 46 to 53
>Albatross lost Round 1 to Hedgehogs 44 to 55
>Frogs beat Borzoi in a close match 51 to 48 same round
>Tiger jobbed to Grass 51 to 48 same round
>Kiwi beat Anomalocaris 62 to 47 in Round 2
>Rat blew Panda the fuck out 72 to 27 same round
>Mantis Shrimp is maybe not the most "unassuming" animal but its run largely consisted of taking down bigger and more conventionally known animals (Giraffes in Round 1, Shoebill Stork in Round 4, Giant Pacific Octopus in Quarterfinals)
>Crows beat Sharks 52 to 46 in Quarterfinals
>most infamously, Crows ended up beating T. Rex in Finals 72 to 48 and winning the entire tournament
Generally though, this wasn't too prevalent in the first year and there was actually a good deal of matches against smaller animals that large predators won (Grizzly's run, Sharks' run, T. Rex's run)

2024:
>Spinosaurus jobbed Round 1 once again, this time to Tortoise 30-16
>Fennec Fox beat Catfish 31 to 15 in Round 1
>Pufferfish beat Stegosaurus 28 to 18 same round
This was the year that really kicked this trend into gear. Most notably, this happened to all four semifinalists that year:
>Bumblebee beat Armadillo 38 to 30 in Round 3, Megalodon 41 to 25 in Round 4, and Anglerfish 45 to 16 in Quarterfinals
>Chicken beat Anomalocaris 37 to 29 in Round 4 and King Cobra 37 to 24 in Quarterfinals
>Rat beat both Triceratops and Bald Eagle in a Round 4 three-way with 42% of the votes and later beat Komodo Dragon 33 to 28 in Quarterfinals
>Rhino Beetle beat Blue Marlin 36 to 30 in Round 4 and Tiger 35 to 26 in Quarterfinals, after which Tiger proceeded to get voted into 8th place

2025:
>in Round 1, Axolotl beat Rhinos 46 to 21
>Triceratops jobbed to Crabs 15-52 same round
>Rabbit beat American Black Bear 38 to 29 same round
>Kiwi beat Snow Leopards 36 to 31 same round
>Earthworm beat Capybara 35 to 32 Round 1 and Seagulls 38 to 34 Round 2
>Mantis Shrimp beat Jaguars 37 to 30 Round 1
>Lions jobbed to Sunflowers by one (1) vote, 36 to 37, in Round 2
>Snapping Turtle beat Monkeys 41 to 32 in Round 2 (Monkeys proceeded to beat T. Rex just the round prior but bizzarely couldn't beat the turtle)
>Pet Rock beat Squids 38 to 35 in Round 2
>Anomalocaris jobbed to Tropical Pitcher Plant 30 to 43 same round
>Stickbug beat Owls 55 to 37 in Round 3
>Geckos beat Whale Shark 53 to 38 same round
>Anon's Budgeriar Bird, the champion of the tournament, beat Borzoi 41 to 32 Round 2 and Crocodiles 54 to 37 Round 3

Here we discuss this phenomena, suggest potential reasons why this keeps happening, and maybe speculate if a large predator will ever truly make it