Roaring Sports Festival

All Might frames the Sports Festival as Izuku's chance to introduce himself as the next Symbol of Peace. The boy doubts he can carry that, so his mentor tells him to aim for the summit, refuse to settle, and hold on to what he felt while clearing Takoba Municipal Beach Park.

Getting out of the classroom proves harder than expected, since students from other courses have packed the corridor to size up the hero class. Katsuki tells them to move, which prompts a general studies student to declare war on 1-A: strong results at the festival can earn a transfer into the hero course, and he intends to take one of their seats. A Class 1-B student arrives next, saying he came to see the class that fought real villains and found a room full of arrogant kids instead. Several of 1-A worry their reputation is now ruined, but Katsuki only cares about beating everyone. Watching that resolve, and remembering the same conviction in Tenya and Ochaco, Izuku decides his own doubt is shameful and commits to training. He works at the shore while his classmates drill at the Replica City District or at home.

Two weeks later the festival arrives. Inko sends her son off with encouragement, the school tightens security and broadcasts the event live, and three pros are hired to guard the grounds: Death Arms, Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady. In the waiting room the class changes into P.E. uniforms so that costumes give nobody an advantage. Tenya calls everyone to the arena, and Shoto stops Izuku first: he considers himself the stronger of the two, but Izuku has the top hero backing him, and Shoto intends to beat him. Eijiro tries to defuse it and gets brushed aside. Izuku answers that nobody in the course may have greater potential than Shoto, yet he is aiming for the top all the same.

The class files onto the first-year stage and the event formally opens, with chief referee Midnight calling on the student representative to give the pledge. Katsuki instead announces from the podium that he will win, drawing boos from the entire field, and Izuku recognizes it as both self-motivation and a target painted on 1-A. Midnight reveals the preliminary: a four-kilometer obstacle race around the stadium. The narrow exit tunnel becomes the first obstacle as the pack jams together, and Shoto solves it by freezing the corridor and breaking away. Eijiro, Yuga, Momo and Katsuki all keep off the ice, with many others close behind, which surprises him. Minoru reaches him and is swatted away by a villain bot. Machines from the entrance exam then form the second obstacle, including the zero-point giants that panic much of the field; Shoto calmly freezes one solid, topples it into the path behind him, and runs on. Facing bots of his own, Izuku refuses to freeze up the way he once did and starts working out a plan.

Hitoshi Shinso and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu both make their debuts by challenging Class 1-A, establishing the transfer stakes attached to the festival.

Shoto tells Izuku outright that he will defeat him, opening their rivalry.

Competition opens at the U.A. Sports Festival, Katsuki hijacks the pledge, and the obstacle race starts with Shoto seizing the lead through ice.

The episode adapts Chapters 23, 23.5 and 24. Small continuity details differ from the manga: the rice cooker and tea sit on the opposite side of All Might during the lunch conversation, and Katsuki's pant legs are tucked inside his boots rather than over them.

The training montage is broadened to the whole class, where the manga shows only nine students, and several routines are swapped. Eijiro tests his hardening by falling from a building instead of doing combat drills, Kyoka throws darts with her earphone plug rather than lifting pencils, Tenya trains in his U.A. P.E. gear with headphones instead of a hoodie, and Denki discharges into an open field rather than charging a phone. Present Mic and Eraser Head also get extra commentary as the race starts.