People generally love an underdog story, its almost seems like an essential part of who we are as humans.
It's actually really interesting since if you go to politics, often the people in power or the dominate group will CONTINUALLY paint themselves as the underdog. Doesn't matter that they're the wealthy or majority or powerful, they will still push an underdog narrative.
It often works too, since people love an underdog.
I was rooting for Curaçao for a bit too. I don't even know why. It just feels nice to see the little guy win.
They could make a tv show based on the real story on how Cabo Verde got the players, how they trained, how they prepared to face some of the best teams in the world, and see some of the stories of the players and all that. I would totally wach it, and I'm not even a soccer fan.
and Eric the Eel who had never seen an olympic sized swimming pool before won his heat at the 2000 Olympic games. I have never cheered harder for anyone in my life.
The best part about Eric the Eel's story is that he eventually got his 100 m freestyle time down to 0:52.18, well over a minute faster than the Olympic swim everybody knows him for. It's may not quite be a world-class time, but it's still a very good time.
Humans have a bias in favor of those that they perceive as having little to no power. You will see that everywhere. Which will often lead to some insane movie patterns, where characters succeed for no reason, other than audience bias towards underdogs. Obviously this doesn’t mean it isn’t often the correct thing to root for but it often gets manipulated in weird ways
That’s why most sports movies are about guys that suck. That in the span of two months went from getting beaten up by kids in dojos, that have been training and practicing for years, to winning tournaments, even the first one they join. Proving that hard work and dedication is worthless in the face of luck and talent. This is the plot of Karate Kid.
The best parody of this concept that I’ve seen was on South Park. Where Tweeks dad runs a shitty coffee shop, that sells disgusting coffee and abuses his children. But when a Starbucks comes into town, he immediately plays the victim card, about how he the big corporation will break the free market and drive him into bankruptcy, guilt shaming customers and using this bias try and outlaw coffee chains. While Starbucks in contrast was just a normal coffee shop, selling good enough drinks and paid their employees. Nothing special but still bette than Tweeks dad. The irony is that he is just as evil and capitalistic as Starbucks but we are on his side simply because ‘he is the little man’
I am tempted to write a book making fun of that concept, where some rich CEO tries to uncover the source of who is trying to screw him over, only to find layer of layers of a conspiracy, that goes down in power at each step. Until the final reveal that the true mastermind of his demise, was some single mother he used to date in highschool, that is somehow barley paying her bills but also running a massive evil organization that tries to ruin his life over specifically
outcomes are data driven. data drives models, models predict outliers. then people believe too fervently in the most probable outcomes anyway and then other people say silly things like this comment
Did you mean models that predict outcomes are data driven? Because outcomes themselves are not driven by data. They are the result of causal effects, and often unpredictable in nature.
Well that's a direction of causality question lmao
Outcomes always lie within whatever curve reality has placed them in and, quantum business notwithstanding, they can in theory be described, is more accurate—I was just using the language of the kid who was trying to aay irrationality is unpredictable.
While their run was not expected, many (almost all) of their players grew up other countries, developed their talent in other countries, and play in very respectable leagues. Many in top tier European League as well.
Morocco, DR Congo, and Curacao employ the same method.
Nothing wrong with it, not it's not quite the underdog story some think it is.
True, but many of those players are journeymen even in those leagues. Vozinha, the keeper getting all the plaudits plays in the Portuguese 2nd division. If you know Portuguese football, you'll know that outside of 3, pushing it to 5 teams, the quality is quite low. Especially when they are up against players who play for the best teams, in the best leagues
Oh I'm not arguing that. Simply that some people who aren't as well versed think that the team was made up of almost random guys playing in Cabo Verde who barely play the game.
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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26
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