usually a combination between Team vs Team and Person vs Person. A game which shows it in a outstand and unique way is the final game between the devil bats and white knights. It has many extras which can‘t be expected in every game in a sports anime.

Sena vs shin, monta vs sakuraba, hiruma vs takami, Jumonji vs Ikari, Kurita vs otawara. every important character of the white knights had their rival which does define the rivalry between the teams.

Takami was no primary rival for hiruma but both still fought a mental battle throughout the game even when takami was on the beach. It‘s also a clash of different views of the teams on the sport they are playing. hiruma thinks that outscoring is the best way to win. the white knights, which includes takami, do think that defense is the best way to win. it‘s a thing since their first onscreen game which was in the beginning of the series.

Jumonji vs ikari is a rivalry which started in the final game thanks to jumonji remembering ikari in a bad experience of him which made jumnonji fearof him. the game before was the game where the viewer was shown that jumonji finally overcame everything. His status as former bully and his lack of full commitment towards american football. sena had a huge impact on tge commitment part because jumonji felt inspired by him during hard times. he bullied sena in the beginning but that turned into a great friendship. Ikari gave jumonji a new wall to overcome.

Otawara and kurita is a a rivalry where otawara shows his ultimate passion. kurita is the one linebacker who he wants to surpass. kurita also thinks if otawara as a rival to the extent in which his character is allowed to think that.

monta vs sakuraba never was a rivalry like sena vs shin where both knew that they are the main rivals of each other since day 1. monta wanted to become the best catcher (receiver) in tokyo. he changed that dream into changing the reputation of three great catchers in tokyo into 4. sakuraba was one of those and monta considered him as the best one of the three. both having multiple meetings before made that quite personal. adding the fact that they met when sakuraba was still spoiled and the time where he made his decision to commit himself to the sport instead of living by the fake reputation of being a good player because he is a model which made people try to get close to him by praising him for things in which he isn’t good at which equals lying to him.

sena vs shin is a outstanding rivalry in the sports genre. it‘s a rivalry where both have a huge amount of respect towards each other. Shin, a young man who committed his entire life to american footbal, sees sena as his kryptonite and uses it as motivation to improve himself even further to a point where he begs sena‘s childhood friend to teach him a technique. seeing a prideful man like shin who had the rightful reputation of being a perfect player, beg towards a player he easily defeated before was shocking. Sena sees shin as a ideal to surpass even though there are enough times where he is to insecure about being able to do it which is a very human like reaction. Sena thinks of him everytime he trains. Shin played a huge role into making Sena commit to the sport. That rivalry later shifts to sena vs panther.

kuroko did it to a lesser extent in the final game of the winter cup.