My Hero Academia/Recap/U.A. Sports Festival Arc

The U.A. Sports Festival Arc spans from chapters 22-44 of the manga and episodes 14-25 of the anime.

As Aizawa, completely bandaged after receiving grievous injuries from the Nomu, informs his class about the upcoming Sports Festival, preparations go into high gear. At a private meeting, Midoriya receives words of encouragement from All Might to do his best in spite of his many doubts. Later on, Class 1-A is scoped by students from neighboring classes, but Bakugo rebukes them. The students are given 14 days to prepare.

On the day of the festival's beginning, Midoriya is suddenly challenged by his classmate, a recommendations student named Shoto Todoroki, for victory at the festival. Later, at the Freshmen Stage, Bakugo arrogantly declares his intention to win the festival, much to the embarrassment of his classmates and the outrage of other classes.

Stage 1: Obstacle Course

The festival's first stage involves a large scale race to the main stadium. The course is filled with giant villain bots, a pitfall and a large minefield. The first 42 competitors who pass the finish line will earn the right to move into the next stage.

Seeing how speed and mobility are imperative, Midoriya refuses to use One For All and focuses on using his wits to get ahead. Throughout most of the race, Todoroki maintains a steady lead, while Bakugo slowly closes in. However, at the minefield stage, Midoriya does something unexpected: using a large metal plate salvaged from one of the villain bots, he propels himself into first place with an explosion he caused by striking the mines, guaranteeing his entrance into the next stage.

Result: Izuku Midoriya wins 10.000.000 points, and 1st place in the course.

Stage 2: Cavalry Battle

Even though he's prevailed in the race, Midoriya now has to defend his 10 million points from students who also wish to advance. The second stage is a cavalry battle: point values are given to students in the form of headbands, and they must form teams of two to four with other students to either protect their own points, or to steal points from other teams. The 4 teams with the most points will advance to the third and final stage.

Midoriya is joined by Uraraka, Support Department student Mei Hatsume and classmate Fumikage Tokoyami, as he defends his points. Through solidarity and teamwork, Team Midoriya is easily able to keep up with the competition, but in the later part of the battle, Team Todoroki manages to steal their points, putting them at risk for elimination. In an intense chase, Team Midoriya manages to win back some stolen points and advances to the final round, after having prompted Todoroki to use his fire powers, something he's resentfully refused to do up until now.

Results (sorted by number of points won):

Team Todoroki (Shoto Todoroki, Tenya Ida, Momo Yaoyorozu, Denki Kaminari)
Team Bakugo (Katsuki Bakugo, Eijiro Kirishima, Hanta Sero, Mina Ashido)
Team Shinso (Hitoshi Shinso, Nirengeki Shoda, Yuga Aoyama, Mashirao Ojiro)
Team Midoriya (Izuku Midoriya, Ochaco Uraraka, Mei Hatsume, Fumikage Tokoyami)

Interim

Before the third stage begins, an interim complete with a lunch break and some recreational games is hosted. In the midst of it, Todoroki asks Midoriya to speak with him privately. He tries to ask Midoriya about his relation to All Might (having noticed a connection between the two), but he doesn't get a specific answer. He continues by revealing the reason why he hopes to beat him: he was trained by his father, Enji Todoroki (better known as the number-two Hero, Endeavor), who, driven by his envy of All Might, wanted to spawn a Hero who could overcome him in the form of a child. That child was Shoto: he and his mother. Rei, were both put through torment, and Rei herself suffered a nervous breakdown in which she scalded her son's left eye with boiling water, which led to the trademark scar on his face. Shoto concludes this horrifying recap by vowing never to use his flames, in order to spite the man who put him through such terrible torture. Though shocked by this horrifying story, Midoriya remains determined to do his best, should they face each other.

In the meantime, Ojiro and Shoda opt to withdraw from the festival, on the grounds that they were unaware of how they managed to win. They suspect that Hitoshi Shinso, the team leader and a general studies pupil, brainwashed them into cooperation with his eponymous Quirk. They are replaced by two students from Class 1-B who were in the next 2 teams by point count: Ibara Shiozaki and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu. The final stage is a tournament in 1-on-1 duels where combat is allowed with Quirks, in a fight for the number-one spot in the whole festival: whoever is eliminated from the court's bounds, or beaten by knockout or submission is deemed defeated. The duels for the first round are quickly determined.

Stage 3: Duels

The opening match of the first round is one between Izuku Midoriya and general student Hitoshi Shinso, who wishes to be transferred to the Hero course. While Shinso almost succeeds in causing Midoriya to eliminate himself, the latter miraculously breaks out of the Quirk's hold by engaging One For All. After the fact, he manages to throw Shinso over the ring line and secure his place in the next round. During his treatment at Recovery Girl's hands, Midoriya tells All Might that he saw a vision of something he believed to be "the former wielders of One For All", as one of them resembled All Might. Confused and weirded out, All Might rejects the claim. In the meantime, Todoroki has one-sidedly beaten Sero by encasing him in a mountain of ice, infuriated by his father meeting him in the hallway prior. Midoriya is the only one who understands that Todoroki is actually in pain.

The last match of the first round is one between Uraraka and Bakugo; for this, Midoriya offers his help, but Uraraka, wanting to stand her ground on her own merits, politely declines, noting how she should avoid using him as a crutch. When the match begins, Bakugo fights back zealously, much to the outrage of several emotionally brittle pro Heroes. Aizawa calls them out on their hypocrisy and notes that Bakugo is giving an appropriate defense against Uraraka's well-coined strategy. Even though she manages to surprise him several times, his sheer firepower and versatility prevent her from being able to harm him, and Uraraka gives in.

After Midoriya goes to console Uraraka after her defeat and prepares for his upcoming match with Todoroki, he encounters Endeavor in the hallway. Intrigued by the student's power, the hero compares it to All Might and urges him not to go easy on his son. Recalling what Todoroki told him earlier, Midoriya responds by saying he is not All Might, and that Todoroki is not Endeavor. After this, he heads to face Todoroki. Todoroki begins his assault as he usually does, with massive ice walls. Midoriya rips them apart with using One For All with his fingers, albeit breaking each of them after use, and multiple times. Knowing full-well that he would lose and sympathetic of Todoroki's plight, Midoriya chose the match to try and pull his opponent out of his bitterness and urge him to fight with both his flames and his ice, saying that the power is his, and his alone, nothing to do with his father. Moved by these words and recalling some of the fond memories he had with his mother, Todoroki unleashes his flames and very quickly wins the match in a spectacular explosion.

In the infirmary, Recovery Girl notes that Midoriya's repeated finger fractures and hand injuries have caused permanent scarring on his right hand and threatens to stop healing the boy's wounds if he goes overboard once again. When Midoriya reflects on why he wanted to help Todoroki, All Might can't help but agree with his sentiment, saying how "giving help that isn't asked for is what makes a true hero".

Later on, in the finals, Todoroki faces against Bakugo, but due of confusion and past trauma weighing on him, he is unable to use his flames again and is defeated. After this final match, All Might arrives to hand out medals to the top three students: Bakugo (gold), Todoroki (silver) and Tokoyami (bronze). He also congratulates everyone who was involved, as the festival comes to a close.

Results (Round 1):

Izuku Midoriya defeated Hitoshi Shinso by elimination
Shoto Todoroki defeated Hanta Sero by submission
Ibara Shiozaki defeated Denki Kaminari by submission
Tenya Ida defeated Mei Hatsume by the latter forfeiting the match
Mina Ashido defeated Yuga Aoyama by knockout
Fumikage Tokoyami defeated Momo Yaoyorozu by elimination
Eijiro Kirishima VS Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu ended in a no-contest (later resolved in an arm-wrestling match, which was won by Kirishima)
Katsuki Bakugo defeated Ochako Uraraka by knockout

Results (Round 2):

Shoto Todoroki defeated Izuku Midoriya by elimination
Tenya Ida defeated Ibara Shiozaki by elimination
Fumikage Tokoyami defeated Mina Ashido by elimination
Katsuki Bakugo defeated Eijiro Kirishima by knockout

Results (Round 3):

Shoto Todoroki defeated Tenya Ida by submission
Katsuki Bakugo defeated Fumikage Tokoyami by submission

Results (Final Match)

Katsuki Bakugo defeated Shoto Todoroki by knockout

This arc contains examples of:

Adaptation Expansion: Due to the tight deadlines in Shonen Jump, matches that aren't very plot-relevant get little to no attention in the manga, with some being skipped entirely. This is particularly egregious in the case of Yaoyorozu's ill-fated bout with Tokoyami, which actually affects her character, and Horikoshi chose to reduce it to a flashback. The anime wasn't tied down by such limitations and needed to fill up its allotted time, so all the minimized fights get the attention they truly deserve.
An Aesop: When competing, give it your all, even if you already have a massive advantage against your opponents. It shows sportsmanship and respect to them. It's shown through Bakugo learning how to be more judicious about assessing the capabilities of his opponents and through Todoroki accepting his Quirk as his own power, rather than it having anything to do with his abusive father.
Bandage Mummy: Eraser Head shows up looking like this due to the sheer number of injuries he's sustained in the previous arc. He even gained a permanent scar under his right eye.
Combat Commentator: Present Mic and Eraser Head.
Comical Angry Face: At the medal award ceremony, Bakugo makes one of these as he raves and rants about not accepting the gold medal.
Curb Stomp Battle: Fumikage Tokoyami's showdowns with Momo Yaoyorozu and Mina Ashido are one-sided, to say the least. Neither of the two competitors were able to stand a chance against Dark Shadow's relentless offense.
Dark Horse Victory: Having spent most of the opening race behind due to not using his Quirk, Midoriya manages to propel himself to first place during the very last obstacle. He uses a large sheet of metal from a defeated 0-point villain and slams into some of the landmines, sending him flying into the air and securing his victory.
Degraded Boss: The giant Villain Bots from the entrance exam make a reappearance in the obstacle race, but are dealt with much more easily than before.
Entertainingly Wrong: When Todoroki drags Midoriya away to talk privately, he comments on a similarity between his power and All Might's... and assumes that Midoriya's All Might's illegitimate child. Needless to say, Midoriya's completely flabbergasted by such a notion and denies it immediately.
Establishing Character Moment: All Might's encounter with Endeavor, juxtaposed with Todoroki's description when he speaks to Midoriya, gives the audience a pretty good idea of what he's like. The former shows that he's an unpleasant Jerkass who's very envious of All Might, while the latter sheds light on the Domestic Abuse he put his son and wife through.
Hero Antagonist: Shoto Todoroki, son of Flame Hero, Endeavor, who refuses to use his Quirk at full power due to the bitterness and resentment he fosters towards his abusive father.
Medal of Dishonor: When Bakugo prevails in his duel with Todoroki in the finals, rather than boasting about it in his usual fashion... he is absolutely livid. Why? Because he feels like Todoroki wasn't giving it his all when taking him on by hiding his flames.
Sequel Hook: The stinger of the arc shows Ida receiving a phone call from his mother about his older brother Tensei - the Hero Ingenium: he was ambushed and grievously injured by "Hero Killer" Stain, a notorious Villain who specifically targets Heroes he deems to be "false". This plotline is integral to the development of the story in the following arc.
Tournament Arc: As if it wasn't apparent enough; that said, there are some spins. In this arc, Midoriya doesn't even make it into the finals, as he was more concerned about Todoroki's well-being than his own safety.