68 People Share Stories About When Someone Challenged Them To Do Something Without Knowing They Were Experts At It

It's hard to imagine a more rewarding experience than being challenged to something by a person who doesn't know you're an expert at it. It's right up there with bringing a child into this world and becoming the first person to walk on the Moon.

Recently, a redditor who goes by the nickname Struedolf asked people who were in this position to tell their stories and oh boy, did they respond! From an archer forced to compete with a bow and arrows to a construction worker blamed for property damage, these are just a few priceless examples of the nearly 23K responses Struedolf's post has received. Scroll down to check out more and don't forget to upvote your faves!

#1

I’m really good at archery. My friend and I rented him a bow at the local range and he wanted to bet me beers for every round. I told him repeatedly no, you will not win. He could probably get lucky if we did one arrow shoot offs but he wanted to do proper three arrow rounds.

He insisted. I drank for free all night.

#2

A neighbor on my block in Brooklyn challenged me to a pizza bake-off. I recently catered pizza for my daughters school and word got around the neighborhood my pizza was pretty darn good. My first thought was, "this guy is a Brooklyn native, my pizza will be s**te compared to his!" But there was something about him bragging that I couldn't resist the challenge. He talked up how pizza was in his blood, how his dad ran the pizza place around the corner years ago. I remained silent and let my skills answer for themselves. I got a buddy to let us use one of Baker's Pride ovens at his restaurant. We even had total strangers try our pizzas. Every last person chose my pizza over his. I never mentioned to him that I've worked in pizza places almost every day for the last thirty years. I never mentioned that when I'm not working at a pizza place I'm making pizzas at home at least once every two days. I never mentioned that at nine years old I knew that I wanted to be a pizza man. Here I am 45 and getting ready to start my own pizza business.

#3

My landlord tried blaming me for damage to the kitchen cabinets but didnt know that im in construction and am very familiar with home building codes.

They placed the cabinets too close to the stove and the glue that held the laminate had melted.

#4

Wasn’t me, but there’s a story about an old geotechnical engineer who used to work for the company I work for.

Several senior staff had to attend a meeting with the client, and some government regulatory staff who were being awkward and not approving the design.

This geotech guy is pretty much quiet the whole meeting. Throughout the discussion, the government guy keeps referencing this research document and shooting down anything anybody suggests.

Near the end of the meeting geotech asks government guy if he has the research paper with him. He responds yes and places it on the table.

Geotech asks government guy who is the author of the paper? Then slides over a business card. Turns out it’s geotechs own paper that government guy has been referencing to defend his argument.

Government guy went bright red and apparently approved the design the same day

#5

A local mall had a portable climbing wall with a “make it to the top and win $100” side. The route was actually pretty challenging. As I walked by the guy asked me if I’d like to try “nobody has made it to the top, you think you can do it buddy”

At the time I was ranked top 12 climber in my age group and kind of laughed to myself.

After taking my $100 I then proceeded to call the rest of my climbing team and one by one they went to the mall and claimed their $100

After the 4th person they guy got suspicious and took the sign down. We later told him we were all Nationally ranked competition climbers and he got a good laugh. The company who owned the rentals was the one who lost the money, he just worked the booth and wasn’t the one who lost the prize money.

#6

I was a competitive swimmer for 14 years, including 4 years of NCAA, but I'm on the shorter side so people don't assume I was any good.

Was at a friends house on a lake one summer, and a macho guy challenged me to race to a buoy in the middle of the lake, to prove... something, I guess. The lake is deceptively large, about a half mile across, so I warned him that if he isn't a strong swimmer it could be dangerous.

He was running out of gas after about 2 minutes, so I offered to let him off the hook, but he insisted he would finish. I went to the buoy and was swimming back when I found him floundering, so I lifeguard swam him back to the house. His ego took a deserved hit that day.

Don't get cocky around water, even if you think you're a strong swimmer.

#7

I’m a teacher so people try to tell me how to do my job all the time (parents, kids, politicians, etc). How’d it turn out? Welcome to my world, f**kers. Home schooling is a b****, isn’t it? Your kids are kind of horrible, aren’t they? Lessons aren’t that easy to plan, are they?

Meanwhile, I’m drinking a beer at 10am while grading the assignments I posted last week.

#8

Some Japanese client that studied in France asked me for a translation job but wanted to change all my sentences to prove she was better than me at my own mother tongue. She ended up writing something grammatically correct but that sounded so horribly sexual that if you tried and googled the terms you would only find porn and erotic novels. I had to tell my boss she was forcing me to write porn (because it was for a mascara brand that was supposed to be sold in France) so he could stop her and after that she stopped trying to best me

#9

When working as a teacher I beat a lot of students in Pokémon battles, cause they didn't think of me being like 15 years ahead of them in fighting experience. Noobs

#10

My wife and I were taking an evening cruise for adults in Portsmouth Bay. The ship drove around the shipyard, where my submarine and several others were stationed. My wife and I are having a quiet drink when a really loud know it all starts spouting misinformation about each submarine we are driving by. Calling them all the wrong class, wrong names, etc. When he literally points to my submarine and says "and that is a 637 class" my wife finally speaks up and says "actually that is a 688" . The guy gets all gruff and says "well how would you know?". My wife smiles, hugs my arm and says sweetly "That's my husbands submarine, it is the Minneapolis St Paul, SNN-708." He turned beat red while his date laughed.

#11

Not me but my brother & best friend. We were in Baltimore for a baseball weekend in 2009 and hanging out at a bar across from Camden yards. They had a Silver Strike bowling video game. At our local bar back in Boston we had one as well. I’m decent at the game but my brother and buddy were F**king amazing at this game. Bowling 300 games and what not. So two dudes are playing this game and drinking. We ask them if we can play when they’re done. They ask if we want to play them. We said sure. My brother and buddy destroy these guys. Like it wasn’t even close. These dudes said it was a fluke and they wanted a rematch but this time for a round of beers. Again, annihilation city. But they kept wanting to play, to eventually win a game. No lie, after THIRTEEN ROUNDS OF BEERS they finally gave up. They were great guys. We saw them the next day at the same bar and they walked up to Us with beers in hand already and said “rematch”. To this day we still hang out with them whenever we go to Baltimore. And to this day, they have never won.

#12

I’m not a great swimmer but there was a time when I would do laps for literally hours. I would go slowly to make sure that I had the energy to do the time I wanted to. This kid challenged me to race. I left him so far behind it was funny. He though he was about to humiliate me in front of his friends.

#13

My nephew challenged me to Super Smash Bros Ultimate once. Once.

#14

Co worker - “I’m pretty good at running, I run every day. I could probably beat you in a marathon.”

They didn’t know I used to be a pro runner. Ran under 14 minutes in the 5k, sub 29 in the 10k, and under 15 hours for 100 miles on trails. Won a national title even.

So I agreed to run with them and jumped in the local marathon with no training. I took the prize purse and made myself a few hundred bucks and took everyone out for beers with it. Was an interesting next Monday at work.

#15

Just graduated as a teacher and I’ve been working as a Casual Relief Teacher. I play lacrosse which is a small sport already and even smaller here in Australia. I tried out for the last World Cup team and made it to the final cut.

I was team teaching with another teacher who worked at the school. Before the period he spoke to me and said “hey mate, we are doing lacrosse today. It’s a bit of an odd sport and hard to teach so just wait over there and then you can just help with supervision and discipline.” then walked off.

Being a CRT from an agency, didn’t really know how to speak to him/speak up. I tried to speak to him and say that I played but he didn’t give me a second so I just listened and did my thing. Few minutes into the start of the lesson I grabbed a stick and ball and just started to work my around the class giving them pointers and hints.

The way he was teaching was completely incorrect and I didn’t want to say anything so when the kids broke off into groups, I kinda just taught them correctly.

He pulled me over at a drinks break and asked how I knew so much/good perform the skills. I told him how I play lacrosse and my playing history. He asked why I didn’t speak up and say anything and I said I tried to tell him.

Anyway, I ended up running the rest of the class and even ended up sitting down with him and going through the correct and easier way to teach the game and skills.

#16

Went with a big group of college students to a bar. I was challenged by a cute little girl (and by that I mean she was maybe 95lbs, 4'11") to a drink contest with a pint of beer. I'm 6'1", 200lbs, so I just chuckled and agreed to it.

It seems like I had just enough time to tilt my head back to start chugging when I hear her empty glass hit the table. Turns out she had the ability to just open her throat and pour the beer down.

We dated for about six months after that. Seriously.

#17

Everyone thinks they are amazing at Mario Kart. They used to be good as a kid and think they still are.

I played 2-4 hours everyday in undergrad (a couple years ago). I raced in local and school tournaments and won most of the time. I was within seconds on several course records. I have every course memorized and know exactly when to brake on every turn.

I don’t play much anymore, but anytime somebody sees my Mario Kart painting (I won it at a local tournament), they tell me how amazing they are. I’m happy to absolutely destroy them. It’s an otherwise useless skill.

#18

Chess. I'm a Chess master. I think when people hear that they're like 'oh he's really good at chess', but what it means is that I've played in international tournaments and beaten other masters and some governing body has given me a title.

Anyway, I get challenged a lot by friends who think they're pretty good. What they don't realize is that your average 'pretty good' player is getting destroyed by your average tournament player. And your average tournament player is getting destroyed by a master.

#19

My Uncle challenged Jack Nicklaus to a golf game in college, without a clue. The humiliation burns him to this day

#20

I was visiting Kyoto a couple years ago (I’m an American) and my wife and I walked into a tiny bar which had 5 people in suits laughing and talking in Japanese. We instantly knew that this was not a tourist bar and felt pretty out of place. The bartender spoke the most English so I asked him what his favorite Shochu was, and things got a little more comfortable as we drank and the whole bar tried to talk to us.

Someone mentioned Mario Kart and I said “yeah yeah” - so the bartender points to an old super famicom in the corner and apparently I have accepted the challenge.

I smiled to myself and my wife thinks it’s funny because I used to have some skill at this game. Bartender selects battle mode and... the guy is f**king phenomenal. I haven’t played in a few years and he buries me in less than a minute. The whole bar is laughing and I’m a little stunned. We’re on to the 2nd of 3 rounds.

I destroy him. 3 balloons to 0. Everyone cheers except the bartender. 2 shots were put in front of me and I throw one down.

Round 3. We’re down to one balloon each and I swear it’s the longest battle round of all time. I’m sweating. Shell, dodge, shell, dodge. I have him in my sights and I fire.

I miss - the shell bounces off the wall and I self-KO. The crowd goes wild.

So that’s the story of how a self-proclaimed Mario Kart expert embarrassed himself and his country in a small bar in Kyoto. We drank a lot and made a lot of great friends that night that we’ll never see again.

#21

Not me but a while back a guy I knew from church growing up posted on facebook something about Crusades and medieval Christianity. A girl responded and gave x, y, z reasons why he was wrong. The guy responded back with you don't know what you are talking about, you need to do your research and linked couple of youtube links of armchair historians/pastors. She hits him back with a dozen or so academic sources and let him know that she was 3 years in a PhD program studying medieval history.

#22

While not a pro, I'm pretty darn good at poker. The church I was at had a Poker night and I was just going to watch. They insisted I join the 25 cent game.

Came home with $200 and they decided to never have a poker night again.

#23

Mine’s kind of dumb, but I think it still counts. At work I’m kind of the Google Sheets “expert” and I make lots of tools for different departments to use. Enter “new guy” who needed to collect, aggregate and display a bunch of data. My boss was like, “Send Wish a calendar invite so you can tell her what you want and she’ll set it up for you.” New Guy was having none of that and insisted he was going to do it himself. Well, a week later, he finally has this s**tty sheet that doesn’t have half the information we need, and we have to have the numbers for the State by tomorrow. So my boss asks me to fix it and new guy is like, “Yeah, okay, that’s not really possible. This is is a good as it’s going to get!” Two hours later, I send them both a fully functional and automated sheet that does everything we need, and we’ll be able to use it indefinitely, which means next time (and every time) the stupid state report is due, it will already be done. New Guy was like, “I would have added that in if I’d had more time.”

#24

A buddy mine was at a concert in bad seats and started complaining about it via twitter. All of a sudden the band starts reading some tweets and calls my friend up to sit on stage for a couple songs. They sit him at the piano and during the next song, they jokingly go "ok piano solo!" The crowd laughs for a second but then my buddy just starts jamming out, as he plays piano in his band. Talk about dream moment getting to play with your favorite band

#25

Hahaa, yeah. So there is this old SNES game called "Tetris Attack" that's a "Panel del Pon" port with a Super Mario World 2 theme. I played the s**t out of that game when I was growing up and I was pretty good at it. I'm actually still half-decent and I only play every few months when I visit my family. Anyhow, I was kinda-sorta seeing this guy and I have NO idea how the topic came up, but he challenged me to beat him at "Tetris Attack". I had sincere doubts that he had ever played before despite his posturing, and...it turned out I was right. I trounced him and he actually said, "How are you so good at this stupid game?" Practice, my dude. Years of practice.

#26

I found myself in a discussion about vaccinations with an antivaxx couple in a fkn smokers area of a bar.

I'm a scientist.

I tried every logical, emotional and personal plea but they ended up getting mad, telling me to get f**ked and walked off. My friends that heard it said I put forward a good argument and they walked away because they lost. Sucks because we all lose when they don't vaccinate their kids yeehaw

#27

Astronomer here! So if we were to just meet on the street, you probably wouldn't guess I was a scientist (I am a woman who enjoys dresses when the weather is nice), and this was doubly true when I was a few years younger in my 20s and single. Especially at bars.

So at the end of college I was doing a summer internship in Mountain View, California where if you went out there'd be a lot of Google boys who would literally sometimes wear "Google" shirts so you'd know they're extra obnoxious. I remember getting stuck chatting with one, and when he asked my major he sneered with the "do you really know the subject?" attitude. And ask me if I knew how the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle was. And when I explained his 20 questions, said "it's probably not so hard because they go easy on women because they don't want to scare them off."

Then he proceeded to tell me about a lecture he attended in Mountain View that he'd been lucky enough to visit, as a Google employee, by Jill Tarter who runs the SETI Institute. And proceeded to tell me about the Allen Telescope Array they were building in northern California because I "might not know about it."

I gave him a minute for his spiel but then said I actually was working for Jill that summer at the SETI Institute, on interference mitigation for the Allen Telescope Array. And did he want to hear what she was really like, or see some pictures from the ATA site? I'd also just met Frank Drake, and he was really nice!

Oh man, was that guy not happy! But hey at least he stopped talking to me like right after.

#28

People say all kinds of random s**t how weather and climate functions. I’m a meteorologist in disguise—work as a data scientist but has a Master’s and a PhD in meteorology. When I politely (and gently) inform them how things actually work, people are usually super interested to know more. But occasionally I got something like “Oh yeah?! And how do you know?” Well, I have published several papers on the matter, would love to discuss it all night. So far, they’ve all backed down after that.

#29

I have studied memorization techniques and mnemonics. I decided to have a bit of fun with my teacher.

He wanted us to write down a list of 20 items. He was the type of guy to quickly call you out for not paying attention in class. I sat there memorizing the list in my head (knowing full well he would see me not writing anything down). He chewed me out for not taking notes - as predicted. He took the bait. I said I "have it all in my head". I KNEW he would call me out the next day and have me recite the list.

The next day he turns to me in the middle of his lecture and has the biggest smug smile. "So RollerDerby88, what were those items from yesterday?" I immediately proceeded to list them in order without hesitation. Then listed them backwards. His smile grew bigger and bigger and the rest of the class was cracking up!

#30

I guy I went on a date with tried to serenade me with his okay piano skills. He was incredibly patronizing to me and tried to explain to me what the notes were even when I told him I’m also a pianist. So after his endless explanations I asked him to move over on the bench so I can try to play. I’m a two time Carnegie Hall pianist. He never called me back afterwards. Worth it!

#31

A tinder date bet me dinner that I couldn't beat her in smash. I've been playing competitively for around 6 years, so she ended up paying for dinner.

#32

Someone at a bar bet me there were only 30 days in a particular month. $20 if I could prove them wrong right then (pre-cellphone days). I was born on the 31st of that month, showed them my drivers license

#33

Guitar Hero. That poor bastard didn't know what he was getting into. He suggested we play and was making joking comments about how he could totally beat me. We played on expert and I absolutely demolished him. My man was even struggling to hit the orange notes smh.

#34

Not a physical challenge but I sell building materials for a living (think Home Depot but for guys that build skyscrapers and stadiums). There has been many occasions where an old man with zero construction knowledge tries to lecture me on what I do for a living.

#35

My office announced a laser tag teambuilding event, two weeks after I played in the laser tag (Ultrazone) national championships. Which were an actual thing in 1997.

#36

My dad was into video games before they were really a thing.

He had a Magnavox Odessey, intellivision, etc...

In the 80s you could rent Nintendo's and games from video stores. He would do this when he visited and I would almost always smoke him at whatever game.

I didn't see him that much, but he was visiting and decided to rent one and the game Double Dribble (old NES basketball game). It was pretty new at the time and he knew I didn't really like basketball.

He played it all day while I was in school and when I got home he challenged me to a game.

The look on his face when his 10 year old son beat him by 20 points or so was priceless.

My friends and I basically rented every game when it came out and I had played this one a lot.

I mean, it's sports but it is still a video game. I was good at games.

Karma time is now my teenagers can regularly beat me at just about anything.

#37

I had a mate that would play Call Of Duty with me & I'd usually beat him in a 1v1 but he occasionally would maybe win or at least get close, but then we played a different game. Motorstorm Apocalypse. I was a legitimate top 10 player on that game with multiple #1 time attack times etc and he had just started playing through the offline mode and was winning the races so he thought he was good, I warned him but he insisted on a 1v1 to show off his skills.

2 minutes later & I've lapped him on a 3 lap race and he's quit the race before he's finished due to the embarrassment of not being able to finish because there's a 1 minute timer on the end of the race where anyone that hasn't finished doesn't get to finish.

He never played that game again.

#38

Shotgunning beers. He lost and wanted a second go. Then proceeded to fall down after second round loss

#39

We had a golf work outing and he challenged me at golf. Now I've played golf my whole life, I also played in highschool and have played at public courses every year since. He did not know this.

The first hole, he gets to witness a 200 yard drive down the middle, he tries to play it off like I got lucky but no, every hole after that was the same. He drank alot after the first couple holes.

He, to this day, refuses to say I won because we didn't keep a scorecard..

#40

My buddy was dismissing my advice to another friend about Overwatch because I don't play ranked at all.

I did my placement games that day and ranked 3 full leagues above him, and have only risen since then.

#41

For reference, this is clay pigeon shooting, kinda known as trap in the south. Well, I'm from a rural area and not exactly super "southern" so when I'd go to other trap fields to practice different conditions there's always be a smartass or two try and place a bet with me. This is definetly an old money sport with some of the guns going upwards of 5,000 dollars. I had an old bt-100 that we got in a trade for lead shot and some cash on the side, while not cheap, it was still much "lower" than other peoples guns and people would take that as me being a newbie. They'd learn pretty quick though, since the team I was one went to the Nationals almost every year from 11 to 18. It was always funny because some would be good sports but others would throw an absolute fit. I saw a guy damage a 10,000 Perazzi because someone else beat him before. Even funnier part is there was a guy from the county next to us who could blow us out of the water and he always shot with an 870 pump from Walmart.

#42

Camped out for tickets to The Phantom Menace. Guy in a group behind me challenged everyone to Star Wars Trivial Pursuit for money. It got to my first turn and I ran the board and won without anyone else getting to go. I felt bad so I didn't even take his money. He still accused me of having memorized the cards to cheat. Nope, just seen the original trilogy dozens of times all my life

#43

This kinda qualifies. Not me but my brother:

He works for a scientific instrument company as a technical expert in gas chromatography. He and his colleagues went to a trade show to show off their new instrument.

A couple of German scientists come up, ask a bunch of questions, breaking the conversation intermittently to speak to each other in German. Little do they know, my brother is fluent in German. He lets them talk amongst themselves until one of the Germans says (in German) “I bet this one is just as s**t as the last one.”

To which, my brother replies, in German, how it is not in fact s**t because they’ve done a tremendous number of improvements.

The two Germans, now stunned that they’ve been caught, politely thank my brother and apologize and walk away.

The ultimate, “No, f**k YOU” way to have handled that in my opinion.

#44

Kind of similar: I told a guy at work that I could play guitar. He didn’t believe me and challenged me to learn and play Minor Swing in 2 weeks. Nailed it in the time frame, performed it at work. I had only accepted to perform it to him (I’m a bit shy and don’t like performing!) but there were no meeting rooms free. Had to perform in front of the whole office. Not my idea of fun. It went well and he/they now believe I can play a bit.

#45

Not really a "you got owned" moment but in college my buddies and I always got "the new fighting game" when it came out and would put in a couple hundred hours or so on it basically dicking around with it (in online or practice mode) before dropping it... but DURING that time we'd have "fight nights" couple times a week where we'd all get together at someone's place and duke it out, loser switches controllers. It's not like I never won but I was always just "middle of the pack" and after 2 years of this literally no one would consider me to be some "fighting game wizard"--quite the opposite if anything.

Then, for the first time ever, the group decided to pick up a 3d fighter (instead of a 2d one): Soul Calibur (3 I think?)... and unknown to anyone in our play group I'd grinded Soul Calibur I for 10 hours a day, every day, for 3-4 years... against 5 people who were doing the same and were just as good as me.

It honestly wasn't even fun. After the first half hour they were playing with 200% health while I was playing with 50%, picking random character select, and I still hadn't passed the controller once.

And thus it was tacitly agreed that we would all play 2d fighters from then on.

#46

My college has a dedicated gaming room in it's central building, there's TVs for people to plug whatever into and use.

I went in one day and saw someone playing Guitar Hero. He was playing on Expert, so he was decently good, but not perfect. I sat down, chatted him up, and eventually he challenged me. Pro-Face-Off on Through the Fire and Flames (get more points than your opponent). I'm not perfect at TTFAF, but I figured what the hell, it'll be fun.

Well, our fearless protagonist got a little to big for his boots on that one, because our man couldn't hit the intro. The higher your combo in GH, the more your score is multiplied, all the way up to 4x. If you don't hit the intro in TTFAF and can't keep your 4x through the fast strumming at the beginning, you're imediately behind somewhere in the echelon of 30k to 60k points. The solos didn't fare him much better.

He blamed his gear

#47

It happened all the time back when Guitar Hero was a big thing. I was that kid who was only a few notes shy of hitting every note in Through the Fire and Flames. People were always shocked at how well I could play, and never lost to anyone in person, only to some people online.



I still play Clone Hero, and I've gotten better since then, but now my competition is a lot more fierce since it's a niche community.

#48

In primary school, I'd say grade 3 or 4, we had a head-to-head times tables tournament. The teacher would ask a random multiplication question to a pair of students at a time, and the winner progressed.



I wasn't exactly an expert at times tables, but I was an expert at 6x8. For whatever reason, 6x8 just wouldn't stick in my head, and I had to spend additional time to bring the answer to the forefront of my mind. I was decently prepared for any other multiplication problem, so while waiting my turn I was constantly repeating in my mind "6 times 8 equals 48, 6 times 8 equals 48, 6 times 8 equals 48" over and over again.



Lo and behold, when it was finally my turn to be quizzed, the teacher casually selected 6x8 - to which immediately. Instantly. Without a single moment of pause. Not an iota of time had lapsed from the teacher finishing her sentence - I yelled "48!".



The astonishment spread as I became a human computer in the eyes of my peers. Even the teacher was taken back. I went on to win the tournament, having already won in the minds of my would-be opponents. It was more than victory, it was complete annihilation.

#49

When I was around 10 there was an old man with alzheimer's in my neighbourhood who would often approach my friends and I. He would ask us questions that we obviously didn't know the answer to such as "what's the square root of 2?" Which was one of his favourites. One day I decided I'd memorise the square root of 2 to 20 digits. Sure enough he did ask me the question again and I was totally prepared. He was extremely impressed and of course he forgot who I was so would continue to ask over and over again.

#50

Was challenged by a friend who had played rocket league for 300 hours approximately. He had never played with me before because he was playing on ps4 and crossplatform was not a thing. He didn’t know that I’ve played for about 1500 hours and ranked c3... because we had never talked about rocket league. So I act like a noob on discord and do crazy s**t while acting like it’s my first time doing it. Needless to say, I won

#51

Basketball. So I’m actually pretty tall and iv played my whole life. In my twenties I was a pretty goofy stoner. I would show up to competitive opens gyms all over my cities and with my long hair and tall skinny body usually get picked last or near last. Well I can dribble, dunk, shoot threes and I’m 6’5”. I was always asked back and never picked last when I went back

#52

My brother had claimed that wind parks in Germany were massively unpopular with German citizens and barely producing any energy compared to the German coal industry. I had just finished my thesis on that very topic.

#53

While I'd never claim I was an expert, I used to be pretty damn good at pool. My aunt and uncle had a pool table downstairs and my parents fir a variety of reasons would go over regularly and spend all day there. There was nothing else for us (me and my brother) to do so we just played pool all day for years, eventually we got bored and saw that he had a book on trick shots so we started doing that for fun. Never really mastered them, but they made for really good practice in understanding how to get the ball to do what you want.

So anyway, for my buddies 20th birthday he wanted to go to a pool hall and invited a ton of people. Then he told he it was going to be a tournament, drinks for individual games, and a 50/50 type of deal for the winner (he gets half regardless because it was his birthday), insisted I come and I caved eventually.

Get there, first game, they break, and that was the only shot they got. Rest of mine were pretty similar. At the end I just looked at him, "told you not to invite me..."

Found out after that a bunch of them had never even played pool before, felt pretty bad so I took the money and bought everyone drinks with it.

#54

I had my ex-fiancee's little brother challenge me to a game that he was "...The master of." The game was Halo: Combat Evolved.

"I play this all the time, so I'm gonna kick your ass." He squeaked. "Choose any map you want." I replied. He chose 'Hang 'Em High'.

After loading in, I stood there for about a minute or so. He chuckled as I 'fumbled' with the controller. "Its been a while since I've played this..." I say. Unbeknownst to him, I had played that game every day since I got it when it released. And by every day, I mean every day. I played Halo into the ground, every difficulty and by the end I was just goofing off on Legendary with self-imposed challenge runs like "Only Covenant Weapons" or "Pistols only". It was fun.

He beelines for the rocket launcher and the sniper rifle. I take the pistol... And then proceed to open a can of whoop ass on this 13 year old that I still like to reminisce about to this very day. Sniping an angry squeaker half-way across the map using only a pistol, you can imagine the enjoyment.

We only played the one time.

#55

This wasn't me, but my mate and my boss. My boss is well known to be a betting man and luck really loves him since he's never yet lost an in house bet. So my mate decided to boast that he could keep up with my boss on one of our specialised machines. My boss managed that specific machine for years and to this day is still faster than me. He took him up on it and the wager was made on a bottle of their preferred alcohol. Obviously my mate lost the bet and now owes my boss a bottle of jack Daniels. I tried to warn him.

#56

I once went to a museum with my sister and her friend, who I hadn't met before. We got to the Greek art bit and her friend started telling me how she was super into Greek myth, and I thought that was cool, because I was, unbeknownst to her, doing a Master's in it at the time and also keeping a blog of myth retellings, which was pretty popular, and it was a relief to have something in common with this stranger.

She then got weirdly haughty and told me she probably knew more myths than I did, so, being polite, I didn't challenge her on it and just asked her to tell me her favourite, so that we could have a conversation about it.

She proceeded to tell me the myth of Daedalus and the minotaur. I asked her how she'd heard of that one, because it's fairly obscure. She told me she'd read it on a viral blog post on a blog about mythology.

It was my blog.

#57

I was out skating in my driveway one day practicing a difficult trick (for me) over a 6 inch tall board. I had it on it's side trying to land the trick from only six inches in height and I kept screwing it up for a good hour. IIRC, I was trying to land a 360 heel flip and I always had trouble with that trick cause I skate goofy to begin with.

My neighbor must have been watching because he comes out, grabs the board I'm jumping over and turns it on it's side so now it's two feet tall. He pulls $100 bill out of his wallet and says "If you can jump over the board and land it, then I'll give this to you."

What he didn't know, is that I was s**tty at the trick I was practicing, but among my skater friends, I was known for my ridiculous ollie height. I'm not very tall, but I could put my knees to my chest in a jump and clear 30 inches regularly.

So I took the bet, backed way off, took a running start, cleared the board, stuck the landing and came to a screeching sideways stop about six inches from him.

He knew he got played and just laughed while he gave me the money. Good thing too, cause I needed a new deck right then pretty badly.

#58

This guy trying to be a major alpha at any interaction with another male challenged me to a distance race, saying they could run longer than I could. I knew they weren't a runner at all but they did not know I run ultramarathons and had recently set the course record in a 50 mile race. Well I said sure and we set out the next morning at 6am around a track with 3 of our mutual friends watching. I just trailed behind him by like 20 feet at a casual pace. That way he'd always be expending energy trying to put distance in between us. Surprisingly he kept that up for like 4 miles (which is a lot for a non runner). I eventually ran up to him and stuck with him for another mile talking about my running accomplishments and how this was a stupid thing to try and be better at.

Eventually our friends wanted to leave and said it was the last mile so I was like "if you want we can run in together." He agreed. But then the very last lap started he said "sorry but I'm gonna win" and tried to speed up to pass me. I was like "okay you stupid b****" and dropped my pace to like a 4 minute mile and came in like 150 meters ahead of him.

He was full of excuses and challenged me to a sprint a few days later. I also completely rekt him at that. Just give it up dude you don't have to be "alpha" all the f**kin time

#59

I've always been a bigger dude (husky not fat) but somehow managed to be athletic and decent at any sport I did. Anyways I was on a damn good baseball team and when the season ended we moved from very southern California to about 45 minutes north of Sacramento. Being the new kid at school I was very quiet because I didn't know very many people at all, which I was initially ok with. But this athletic prep f**ker made it his life mission to mess with me on the daily always picking on me or any insults made were about me. Until we got to PE, just so happened we were playing baseball and I'm a damn good 1st baseman and hell of a hitter. Anyways I let him witness my hitting firsthand since he was on the opposite team and low and behold, asked if I wanted to try out for the city team he was on. Told him no because I only played on GOOD competitive teams, his look like priceless

#60

Yes, many times. I was a competitive distance runner for a while in my early 20s. Not a top professional or anything, but I’m talking 5k in the 14:15-14:30 range and 10k around 30:00 even. Not fast enough to go to the olympics, but fast enough for a local sponsorship and pretty much a guaranteed win at any local road race, usually by a pretty big margin. I was running a 5k or 10k nearly every weekend for the prize money (which for the record, was never a lot, only $100-$200 or so in value... but enough to pay for running gear, travel to races, etc.)

Every week, I would search online for whatever race had the most prize money that weekend within 2 hours, and drive up to two hours to race it. I was going places where people didn’t recognize me. Every so often, the local town hot shot with a big ego who was used to winning their small church 5ks would “challenge” me or talk s**t before the race. It never worked out for them. Normally, I would show up, not really talk to anyone, humbly run my race, and go home. I wasn’t there to prove anything to anyone, I just wanted the $200 gift card or whatever they were offering. But when this happened, I had fun with it. I’d let them talk their s**t, which inevitably would always include them bragging about their PR or recent race times. “Yea, I won this race last year... ran a 17:45 and won by a minute”... things like that. I’d respond with, “wow that’s cool... impressive!” I mean, an 18:00 5k is a good time, it really is and is quite respectable. But if you know 5k times, you know a 14:30 5k is in a different world. A 14:30 5k runner will run 16:00 5ks back to back as a regular workout. Something in the 17:30-18:00 minute range, which would win you a lot of local 5k road races, is not a challenge for a 14:30 guy. For reference, around this time, I ran the marathon under 2 hours and 30 minutes. I averaged 17:45 per 5k in my marathon (i.e. running a 17:45 5k eight and 1/2 times continuously in a row without rest). So, it’s not really going to be a “competition”... but I wanted them to think it would be. If they asked me about myself, I’d just brush it off and just say, “oh I’m just out here to have fun and support the local charity” or something like that. When the race came is when the real fun began. It always went something like this (using a 5k (3.1 miles) for example): the race begins and they take off like a bat out of hell, trying to prove a point. They’d try to put distance on me, but I’d just stay on their shoulder letting them dictate their pace. This was almost always a pace they couldn’t actually sustain the whole race. Remember, at this point they’ve usually told me what they run, so in my head I know what pace they should be able to sustain. So I’d let them lead for the first mile, just running right behind them, never letting up. Then I’d slowly come parallel with them and take over. But I’d read their pace, and run just fast enough to let them think they still had a chance, so they wouldn’t let up. They’d push themselves harder than they ever should have. You could see it on their face, the grit, them trying to hold on, letting their ego prevent them from slowing down to a realistic pace. They got lost in the moment and wouldn't realize what was happening. Then I'd slowly start creeping up my pace ever so slightly, but progressively until they started to hit their limit. At about mile 2 to 2.5, they’d crash (metaphorically speaking). Their body hits it limit. They reached their lactate threshold, the point in which their muscles are producing more lactic acid than their body can remove and reconvert into energy. This is the physiological breaking point that literally forces a runner to slow down significantly. It would be like you trying to bench press 2000lbs - your muscles literally can't no matter how hard you try. When a runner hits this point, their body literally no longer has the strength to continue at that pace. And that’s when I’d kick it into overdrive. Remember,

#61

I once challenged a girl who was a friend to foosball, not knowing she grew up with a table in her house and older brothers. I even, jokingly, put money on the game. Well I learned a bit about humility that night.. the icing on the cake was when she drove me to an atm to get her the money

#62

Basketball.

I'm a very unassuming looking guy. 5'8", 150 pounds, not a tattoo to be found. But back in the day, I was pretty athletic and could hang in games with fringe D1/semi-pro guys. But I can't emphasize how much I didn't look like it at all.

Anyway, in college, hanging out in someone's room, it came up that I play a bit and some dude I didn't know started running his mouth about how he could destroy me. Just wouldn't stop talking. I gave him every out, until it basically became personally offensive.

Other guys were a bit tired of this ***hole hanging around, and they knew I could play, so we all trooped over to the gym, late as f**k in the dead of winter, so we could settle things.

11-0 the first game. Not sure if we played after that, but I remember it was 11-0 because I made sure to not let the guy score. And I'm a pretty mellow guy and usually would have laid off and let him score a couple when it was clear that I was better, but this guy was a real ***hole, so I just clamped down on him start to finish. I blocked a ton of his s**t.

He stopped hanging around nearly as much after that, so I was kind of a hero to the rest of the guys. Like St. Patrick. Drove that snake out of our nation.

#63

I would never go as far to say that I'm a fencing expert, but I have been fencing casually for about 5 years total, and consider myself pretty good for someone who's casual. A new person came to our fencing practice and demanded of a few men that we do a king of the hill style match up. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but I could smell the toxic behavior rolling off of him when everyone declined but he continued to insist we do it. He somehow fixated on me, and I decided I'd give it a go on a normal 15 point bout. Initially I always fence one style, in order to test out my opponent before switching to a style to trump theirs. So the first few points I see him cheering himself on as he established a 1-2 point lead. By 4-2 in his favor, I already figured out all the flaws in his fencing style, and proceeded to get the next 10 points without losing one round. I could see the guy fuming at the end when I beat him 15-5. It was a good feeling.

#64

I dated a guy in college who was incredibly book smart - working on his master's with the intention to pursue a PhD. I was doing the good ole 5 year plan for college and quite content with my level of brain power compared to his. What he underestimated was my fondness for word games, especially Scrabble. I like to think I'm quite good. Well, in the 3 years we dated, we only played Scrabble once and I beat the s**t out of him. The icing on the cake was when I got a 50+ word score for playing one letter. He literally wiped all the letters off the board and had a mini hissy fit, claiming that I cheated. I got out my trusty Scrabble dictionary and proved his loss.

#65

I’m a mechanic, this happens on a daily basis. one of my favorites from messing with a buddy. I was helping him fix his truck in my garage for free. By helping, I mean I was fixing his truck for free.

Me: your MAP sensor is bad

Them: pretty sure it’s the plugs or wires.

Me: no, your spark is fine, fuel pressure is fine, Air is fine. Your fuel regulation is the issue, which is why there is fuel in your oil.

Them: you sure it’s not the spark plugs, how do you actually know?

Me: hands them a spark plug still hooked up to the coil wire and presses the remote start button

Then: WHAT THE F**KING HELL MAN!

Me: spark is fine isn’t it?

Them: how much is a MAP sensor?

#66

Ping pong.

I was hanging out with a girl I was seeing at the time and they had a ping pong table near the bar. Two guys were playing and making a big show about how good they thought they were- grunting, rolled sleeves, the works. When I handed them back a wayward shot, I made a comment about how it looked fun to play. They said that I could get the next game after a guy that was waiting, but their “rule” was anyone that they added in the queue to play and lost had to buy drinks for everyone else. About 6 people total were playing.

I played competitive ping pong in a league back in med school, and even placed highly in some New York City championships. I still play every so often in my current city, and have won a few tournaments here as well.

Played possum in the beginning, went down 4-1. Won 21 to like 7 or 8. Didn’t have to pay for a drink or give up my spot until my date was ready to go. No one even made it out of the single digits.

#67

I'm no professional sprinter, but I'm pretty fast. Fast enough to never have lost a sprinting challenge. One day a new guy at my old job (now a good friend of mine) told me he could run faster than I can so I gladly accepted the challenge (the length was about 60m). I let him start half a second before me and then proceeded to overrun him around 10 meters before the finish line. He was so surprised he tripped and ate the asphalt. We had a good laugh despite his minor injuries

#68

I (38F) am a government auditor. One of the programs I oversee is a sort of boarding school for teens with delinquency history; it’s very athletics heavy.

I’ve put on like 30 pounds of body fat since getting this mostly sedentary job and drifting into bad nutrition habits. But I’m meaty underneath and above average strong. Prior to this job I had a side gig as a personal trainer and posing coach. At the program one day I needed to interview a student who didn’t want to leave his weight lifting class. He told me he’d talk to me if I could deadlift the bar he was working with, like 90kg. The staff were visibly annoyed that this guy was giving the state a hard time, but I was wearing stretchy pants so I gave it a quick setup and pull. Interview followed and now it’s an ongoing joke at the program that when I ask for interviews, they ask if I need chalk or anything for the mandatory deadlift.

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