When Team New Zealand line up on the water of Bermuda's Great Sound on Sunday morning (NZT), they will undoubtedly be the underdog.
Take a look at the scoreboard - the Kiwis are already trailing Oracle Team USA in the race for the America's Cup thanks to the bonus the defenders carried through as top team in the Louis Vuitton Qualifiers.
But there's a lot more stacked against the Kiwis.
Every step on the way to Bermuda has been uphill for Team NZ. They were late off the line following the loss to Oracle in San Francisco, and have been on the wrong side of the majority of rule changes and decisions made by the defenders and their group of friendly challengers.
The biggest of those decisions was the removal of the Qualifiers regatta from Auckland, which hit Team NZ hard in the pocket with the government unwilling to reinvest.
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The Kiwis have worked hard to get sponsors and money onboard, but on the other side is a defender bankrolled by the seventh richest man on the planet in Larry Ellsion, Masayoshi Son's $28 billion behind SoftBank Team Japan and Sweden's Artemis Racing, backed by Torbjörn Törnqvist's $2.9 billion.
To be fair Team New Zealand has never been flush with funds. If anything it's been the Kiwis ability to do more with less that's been a foundation of their success, going right back to the historic win in 1995.
Back then Sir Peter Blake's group worked away by themselves down in Auckland, keeping a lid on the rocketships they'd designed. Their opponents had just about written off the Kiwis chances before they blitzed everyone in the regatta with one of the most commanding displays in Cup history.
There are definite parallels between that campaign and the current one. The fact the Kiwis kept their cycle grinding system under wraps is an outstanding achievement in an event renowned not just for its secrets but also its spying.
It was a big call to go down the unconventional design path, but a risk they believed was worth taking. The same goes with designing a foiling AC72 for the last Cup. And despite Oracle putting one cycling position on their boat, they kept it out of sight long enough that no one has been able to follow their bikes.
Oracle has done their best to stop Team New Zealand from even making it to Bermuda, but instead the Kiwis have won through to the Cup Match.
As always the playing field is tilted heavily towards the defender, maybe more than ever this time around. But it's not a position unfamiliar to Team New Zealand, and one they've found success from in the past.
Greg Pearson is a sailing correspondent for Newshub.
