Man thought he’d landed a date. Instead, she invited him to compete against six other men at her 'dating event'
The woman had launched a whole dating competition and he was 'selected' for the next round with the enrolment number #7
A man (u/commercial_ape) took out his arsenal of icebreaker jokes only to find his mood free-falling in a sudden drop. The woman he thought would be a good dating prospect sent him an invitation that made him feel like he was being asked to compete for a date rather than simply go on one. In what seemed to be a gamified challenge, she invited the man to a coffee shop. Her response ruffled his feathers. His July 28, 2026 Reddit post has garnered a ginormous 12,000 upvotes.
Mass dating competition
In the post, the man shared the screenshot of a conversation he was having with a woman named Sarah on a dating app. As an icebreaker, he started off the conversation by cracking a soda joke: “What kind of doctor is Dr. Pepper? A fizzictian. I’ll let myself out.” About one hour later, he received the reply from Sarah. Instead of responding to his joke or making an introduction, she jumped straight into the schedule of a date. The catch — her message depicted that he wasn’t supposed to be the only man dating her.
Quite like the announcement of a college entrance exam, Sarah wrote that she was hosting a dating event and the man had been “selected to compete in the next round for an in-person meet and greet.” She told the man that he was "assigned #7" and asked him to show up at Kaladis the following Sunday for the meeting. The message instantly bruised the man’s pride, and he replied by saying, “Umm no thanks. I am not going to compete for someone. I am a grown man with self-esteem.”
Ugly side of dating apps
This man is probably not alone in experiencing a situation like this. According to EHarmony’s statistics, about 80 million Americans use dating apps, of which 34% are men. But only 20% of men receive 80% of interactions with women, as a study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships reported. Research suggests dating apps often create an uneven distribution of attention, with a relatively small percentage of male users receiving a large share of matches and interactions. That dynamic can leave many users feeling as though they're competing for visibility rather than simply meeting people. However, this romantic rat race often jolts men into a cesspool of dwindling self-esteem and low self-worth.
Comical or cringe?
Reddit readers found the interaction to be a cheesy betrayal of sarcasm. u/Infarlock remarked, “I don't even have a word to describe this; this is pure cringe.” Other readers, however, looked at the scenario from a different perspective. u/ToneBalone25, for instance, said, “You already are competing with other people when you're on dating apps. And in life in general.” u/BTGGFChris commented, “I’m pretty sure she’s just asking you on a date in a silly way. She’s not going to have 7 dudes there. You might be the seventh person she’s gone on a date with, but you’re taking this way too literally.”
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