Continuity mistake: When Peter and White are in sudden death, White gets hit with the ball and slides backwards. In the first shot he is parallel with the words and the next shot he is perpendicular. (01:22:20)
Continuity mistake: When White pushes the waitress into the table at the Dirty Sanchez, she takes the tray with her as she stands up and walks away. In the next shot, Gordon moves the tray off the table. (00:33:55)
Continuity mistake: When Owen wins the match for Average Joe's, the team puts him on their shoulders, and after Owen is put down he locks hands with Patches, but in the next shot, Kate is locked hands with Patches. (00:59:20)
Continuity mistake: When Peter walks into Average Joe's in the beginning you see Owen leaning over the counter reading. His hair is parted to the right and has spots where you can see his forehead (it's grouped). But in each shot where it focuses back to Owen his hair is different each time, sometimes combed nicely with no empty spots. (00:04:00)
Continuity mistake: When Peter La Fleur is presented with a contract to sign his gym over and Me'Shell opens the briefcase to "Show" the $100,000.00 the money appears in the middle of the briefcase, however, when the camera angle is changed so you see the back of White's head you cannot see a trace of the money in the briefcase. (00:59:50)
Continuity mistake: When White and Peter are going back and forth at each other in the Dirty Sanchez, White's "G" charm around his neck keeps going from forwards to backwards from shot to shot. (00:30:40)
Continuity mistake: When Joe's are playing Skillz that Killz, the Killz guy with number 3 and a bandanna gets a ball on his behind. 2 shots later, he throws a ball, despite the fact he must have gone out. (00:54:00)
Continuity mistake: When O'Houlihan throws the spanner at Owen, you can see it is a different spanner lying on the floor beside Owen two shots later. (00:36:15)
Continuity mistake: When Christine Taylor is on the court by herself and the announcer says "Hold your phone she's got a cannon," she is walking backwards and there is one ball behind her. The camera cuts to the team, then cuts back and there are two balls behind her. (00:48:45)
Continuity mistake: At the bar when Goodman says "Best bring your bib" to Peter you see Goodman lift both his hands. When it cuts from behind Goodman you should at least see his left hand, but it isn't up. (00:34:00)
Continuity mistake: When Average Joes are playing the Germans in the first round, only 5 Germans are eliminated, but they still win. (00:50:00)
Continuity mistake: The hairy girl scout is disqualified at the end of the game but she wasn't one of the six players in the beginning of the game. (00:27:35 - 00:29:30)
Continuity mistake: When the chest of winnings is opened at the end, the sign reading "Deus Ex Machine" is visible on the inside of the lid. A few shots later, that large sign is gone. (Don't confuse it with a second sign at the front of the chest, under the lock, that is always there.) (01:24:45 - 01:26:25)
Continuity mistake: When Stiller wants Vaughn to sign over his gym - he hands the paper with the top towards Vince Vaughn - when the camera angle changes the top is suddenly facing towards Ben Stiller. (01:00:05)
Continuity mistake: When a tray full of food falls on the Joe's Squad, Justin has some food on his right cheek. A few seconds later it's clean, and there's some gravy on his left cheek. (00:34:05)
Continuity mistake: Throughout the movie, Dwight's eye's change color from blue to brown at random scenes.
Continuity mistake: In the qualifier between Average Joe's and the Girl scouts, Peter starts talking to the girl he hit while another girl throws a ball at him. The girl who throws the ball is almost right in front of him but you can see the ball that hits Peter comes in from the right of screen and hits between the top of his left shoulder and the bottom of his neck. (00:27:30)
Continuity mistake: When the six main characters are watching the movie on how to play dodgeball, a young Patches messes the little boy's hair, leaving it sticking up in the back and mildly flat in the front. In the very next shot, the little boy's hair is neat and all flat. (00:23:50)
Continuity mistake: During the tournament when it's just Gordon versus the entire other team, the background advertisements change multiple times. The problem is, they appear to be hung there, not electronic.
Chosen answer: "Deus Ex Machina" means "God out of the machine." It's from Greek plays, wherein a god would appear at the end of the story to solve a problem. Nowadays it basically means that a totally new plot element appears out of nowhere and solves everything. It's an easy (and cheap) way out.