𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐮'𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞

Reasons: 1) The gold medal meant so much more to them than it would to Seigaku. Especially for Sanada. He definitely deserved the gold medal for his carrying the burden of Yukimura’s surgery, managing the team matches and handling his own match all by himself.

2) Inui himself pointed out that his victory over Renji was pure luck.

3) Ryoma constantly using his cyclone smash to win points is unrealistic. Sanada could easily just refrain from lobbing. Unless Ryoma managed to pressure Sanada so much that he couldn’t help lobbing. But I don’t believe he is that weak. He’s the Emperor, one of Rikkaidai’s Sannin Bakemono, plus #1 in the junior ace tournaments.

4) Ryoma unlocking Muga no Kyouchi at the last minute is so deus ex machina. Like grasping at straws, coming up with something outrageous so that somehow the tables would turn in his favour. Just because Ryoma doesn’t lose.

- just bc seigaku (and particularly ryoma) are the main characters doesn't mean they can't suffer any losses. i mean i love ryoma but it's honestly unrealistic how he managed to win against 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 he played with (besides tezuka but that wasn't even an official match) including sanada and yukimura in their first meeting.

- rikkai have been referenced by inui (i think) when they rewatched rikkai's match with fudomine that all seven regular were at tezuka's standard, aka national standard. at that point, seigaku was not (with the exception of tezuka ofc)

- the fact that rikkai and hyotei both lost to seigaku in kantou, had a rematch with them in nationals, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 ?

- and no bc kirihara had always wanted to join rikkaidai to win nationals, and the very year he became a regular, 𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘬𝘢𝘪 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 16 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘬𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 2 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬