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It can be argued that for the majority of sports each team is trying to come out victorious. "Victorious" is usually considered as coming out on top, wining. If each team was trying to "Lose" what sport would still look like a sport?

Example of this: Baseball might turn in to a game where the pitcher would be trying to hit the batter, resulting in a walk. The batter in turn would try and avoid the ball while swinging the bat hoping for a strike. This game would fall apart at some point with people not walking from base to base.

What I'm actually looking for: The over all goal is the come up with an obnoxious sport.

  1. A sport that would resemble a game or sport if both competing teams attempted to lose (in the traditional sense).

  2. Minimal adaptations to the rules if any. Ex) forcing players to walk in baseball from 2nd to 3rd and so on.

  3. This new version should be competitive and entertaining. Take this last point as you will.

  4. The game should look different then the traditionally sport.

  5. Trying to focus on sports rather then games.

    This is all taking place in our world/reality. Thanks for your time!! Comments have been very helpful!

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    $\begingroup$ Check checkers. There is a game where the goal is to lose as many pieces as possible. $\endgroup$
    – Olga
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 21:54
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    $\begingroup$ Soccer, Hockey, basketball...anything with a goal. Game is identical except you are trying to score in your own net as opposed to the opponents. Goalies eventually migrate to the opponents goal to try to stop the other team from scoring on themselves. Scoreboard is reversed. Heh, I think I'm missing the spirit of the question here ;) $\endgroup$
    – Twelfth
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 22:00
  • $\begingroup$ Cycling - stipulating that you can't step on the ground and can go forward only. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 22:47
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    $\begingroup$ All you're doing is changing the winning conditions. For some games, this results in new tactics (e.g. poker, sushi go, checkers) for others, it doesn't (soccer, as Twelfth came up with). Usually games where you are "trying to lose" are really games where what you are trying to do is force your opponent into a situation where their only option is to lose (rather than forcing your opponent into making a move that allows you to win). $\endgroup$
    – Draco18s no longer trusts SE
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 23:03
  • $\begingroup$ @Twelfth - In Soccer, I think the goalies would stay where they are - They would never be offside and be effectively a striker who is allowed to handle the ball! OTOH, they couldn't handle the ball in their opponent's goal, so might as well just put an outfield defender there... It wouldn't be identical, at least tactic-wise - a high ball into the "Goalie" would be a guaranteed goal - he catches the ball and just runs into the goal, American Football style, except that none of the opponent's team are allowed stop him. $\endgroup$
    – komodosp
    Commented Feb 16, 2018 at 11:49

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Demolition Derby

Although not a sport, it is always fun to watch people trying to crash into each other. In this case, the first one out wins.

However, they must all start with a brand new car.

The added bonus is that car manufacturers get to brag about not being the loser/winner.

In turn, car manufacturers will boost the survivability and redundancy of their products.

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Win and Lose are too binary, trying to lose is simply winning an alternate objective; What you really need is a third objective or a third party judging to make following the expected rules of gameplay and losing the desired choice.

One extreme idea is win / lose / die.

Imagine a life or death baseball tournament; the losing team is out (but not dead), the winning team keeps playing, and any team judged to not have tried hard enough (most errors as judged by the umpires) is put to death. This make every team want to play well as defined by the rules; they really don't want errors, but also gives them an incentive to not win, as it gets them out of the horrible life or death game situation.

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I can't not say anything about this sport, but it may not be what you had in mind. Your question reminded me of the ancient Mesoamerican sport which is referred to as Ulama. I first heard about it when I toured Chichen Itzá in the Yucatan peninsula. Basically, it's a mixture of futbol (soccer) and basketball - but it's hard to even label it as such as there isn't any close comparisons. The winner has to get a ball through a stone ring, but can't use the hands (elbows perhaps?).

The relevancy of this sport to this question, is that the winners get decapitated. Of course, one would assume that the players would wish to lose, but in the context of old times it was considered a great honor to be sacrificed .

Here's a link for a further reading.

enter image description here

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If you're trying to achieve a loss, then you're trying to win - because losing is winning. The loss is what you want - so... you win.

In the checkers example above where you're trying to lose pieces... the winner is the one that loses the most pieces. So they're not really trying to lose they are trying to win. (great example, cannot remember the name of that but I have heard of that variant)

I feel like I'm missing something in your question.
Either only one side intends to lose, or both are trying to win (even if by losing pieces). They can't both be trying to lose unless you're writing a comedy, or both teams are trying to 'throw' a game because of betting.

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Bobsledding, luge, ski long jump

Similar skills and understanding are required for doing well. Adding minimum safe speeds as a design consideration of courses would keep things moving. You ARE going down the hill, last one to the bottom who can still stand gets the prize.

Combat sports

Sumo, wrestling or other grappling would work almost the same, you would start touching (to avoid a simple foot race out of the ring) and endeavor to control the other person's body. Most martial arts already teach getting away from a fight is a win and some professional fighters seem to prefer fighting from their backs which would be losing in wrestling.

Striking sports could maybe work by diving with the head or body to touch the other person's hands or feet, but that sounds risky.

Obstacle courses

Similar to the sledding if the course is inherently difficult or dangerous to stay on staying longer is an interesting feat. Simply count a fall as finishing.

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    $\begingroup$ How is going down a hill as slow as possible entertaining? Going down as fast as possible is barely entertaining to begin with $\endgroup$
    – Raditz_35
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 22:47
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    $\begingroup$ @Raditz_35 slow-as-possible ski jump would be awesome. They’ve got to have enough speed that they can actually jump rather than just falling but so little speed that you still lose. Get it too low and you just end up falling at the end of the slope and breaking your face. $\endgroup$
    – Joe Bloggs
    Commented Feb 16, 2018 at 11:58
  • $\begingroup$ @JoeBloggs Fine, maybe, however there isn't a sport where you jump down as fast as possible but only as far as possible. If one could somehow fix the distance the athletes jump and have them do it as slowly as possible, it could be interesting - for 20 minutes. I completely agree $\endgroup$
    – Raditz_35
    Commented Feb 16, 2018 at 12:02
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    $\begingroup$ @Raditz_35: I've got to admit, I'd only really watch the highlights (which I assume would just be slow-motion videos of ski-jumpers face planting the slope) $\endgroup$
    – Joe Bloggs
    Commented Feb 16, 2018 at 13:20
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This is a adaptation of American football that is quite obviously ridiculous. I know it doesn't necessarily answer your question but it's the best I could think of. Also it's really just a ridiculous way to win.

for some reason I had this idiot idea where one team is trying to get the ball to the end of the goal while the other is trying to make sure the other team gets the ball to the end but only if they don't move more than twenty yards in a play or they get a changeover where they move over fifty yards.

If one of the teams achieve their objective the other loses (example: the "a"'s get the ball to the goal but a fifty yard changeover happened.at one point so the "b"'s get the point.). When one team gets a point the ball switches hands. Whoever gets 3-5 points win (for more complications) and if both the teams are in that range the highest wins.

Also if the "b"'s (the term for the defenders) make a goal they get a negative point, if the "a"'s make a field-goal they also get a negative point. This is just a starting point to jump from.

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Politics

The fine art of messing things up and blaming it on the other guy, the winning side is whichever is most obnoxious, incompetent and corrupt.

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    $\begingroup$ By what definition is politics a "sport"? $\endgroup$
    – F1Krazy
    Commented Feb 16, 2018 at 9:34
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    $\begingroup$ By this definition: blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/… "People perceive politicians to be playing a game in pursuit of political advantage rather than work earnestly to solve the issue of the day. The corrosive consequence of the game of politics is that everything that a politician says, or does, is treated with suspicion because of negative assumptions about why it is being said or done." $\endgroup$
    – RonJohn
    Commented Feb 16, 2018 at 15:58
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Faked bets in sports :

corrupted athletes (let's say tennis players) both try to lose on purpose one particular match. The one that makes it look like he tried his best not to lose, somehow wins by losing, but he lost the tournament. The opponent lost by not losing.

If one gets caught cheating, no matter if he wins or loses, he's lost for the rest of his career.

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