Second Selection Arc

Titled Second Selection: Rivalry Battle, this storyline stands as the third arc of the manga and adapts across Episodes 11 to 23 of the anime. It picks up where the First Selection Arc concludes and leads into the Third Selection Arc.

Once the First Selection wraps, 125 strikers pulled from the five stratums carry on into a tiered challenge split across four stages, and a competitor may only advance by clearing the one before it. The opening test pits each striker alone against BLUE LOCK MAN, a holographic keeper, demanding 100 goals inside 90 minutes within a confined zone; the task grows harder past 30 goals as motionless holograms crowd the space, then past 60 goals as those decoys start darting about and the incoming balls speed up and spin. The second stage sets pairs against one another and serves as the cut point, since anyone left unpicked drops out of the program entirely.

Stages three and four scale the sides up to trios then quartets, each decided by the first squad to reach five goals. A victorious team absorbs one player from the beaten side and climbs higher, while the losers slide back down a level. Jinpachi Ego frames the whole ordeal as a filter for strikers capable of sparking so called chemical reactions, blending their individual strengths into plays no defense can stop. Clearing the final stage sends a team onward to the Third Selection.

The arc introduces heavy hitters such as Rin Itoshi, Jyubei Aryu, and Aoshi Tokimitsu while thinning the field considerably, with players like Rensuke Kunigami among those sent home. By its close, seven cleared teams emerge, their reshuffled rosters carrying the qualifiers into the Third Selection.