This article is on the annual event held by U.A. High. For the story arc, see U.A. Sports Festival Arc. For Class 1-A's tournament seen in the series, see U.A. Sports Festival/First Year Stage.
The U.A. Sports Festival is an annual event held by U.A. High School where students from all grades and courses have the opportunity to showcase their abilities in different competitions in order to be scouted by Pro Heroes and support agencies.[1]
Description#
In the days before Quirks, sports fans would obsess over the Olympic Games. When powers became part of the equation, the U.A. Sports Festival became the most watched sporting event.[2] Students from each grade and every course compete among each other in their respective age groups. The event begins with preliminary elimination rounds, those who pass moving up to compete in the main event.[3] Each stage has a teacher as a chief referee, with the principal usually overseeing the senior stage.[4]
This event is a great opportunity for students from each of the departments of the U.A. High School. For the students of the Hero Department, the U.A. Sports Festival gives them the opportunity to display their abilities in front of Pro Heroes who might want to hire them after graduation. For the students from the General Department, this event gives them the chance to prove that they are worthy of being transferred to the Hero Departments based on the results of the U.A. Sports Festival. The reverse is also possible if Hero Department students perform subpar.[5]
Students from the Support and Business Departments can also be transferred, but prefer to use the Sports Festival for other purposes. Some students from the Support Department use the U.A. Sports Festival to show off their inventions to support company executives.[6] Meanwhile, Business Department students generally have nothing to gain from the festival itself, so they use it to hone their skills as salespeople and run business simulations by selling snacks and souvenirs to the crowd and calculating the odds of other students.[7]
Once the event concludes, Pro Heroes from any agency can nominate the students that earned their attention, as an expression of interest in their future potential. However, these nominations can be dropped by the time the student reaches graduation, should the Hero lose interest in them.[8]
The Sports Festival is one of the biggest events in Japan. So popular in fact, that following Class 1-A's competition, the students were easily recognizable to the public.[9][10]
Arena#
The competition is held at the Sports Festival Stadium which is located on the school campus. There are several concession stands outside the entrance with signs pointing to each grade's stage.