loser's bracket 

1. the sub-grouping within a competitive tournament whereby those who suffer their first loss are demoted to a pool of similar types who have suffered a like fate; one more defeat in this category renders the unfortunate complete elimination from the field.
2. a common perception that certain individuals are moving through their respective lives already having suffered some type of major defeat (or many smaller ones), thereby rendering them to a decidedly less than ideal existence.

Look at Joe : he attended all the wrong schools thereby acquiring all the wrong type of friends; this precipitated choosing the wrong type of occupation and marrying the wrong type of girl. Now he's in the wrong type of neighborhood with the wrong type of kids. Joe could be said to be existing in the loser's bracket of life.

loser's bracket by Virgin Suicides October 17, 2017