Ass Pull / Deus ex Machina: How some of the characters won their matches, such as Sanae finding the right opening or Mokou and Kaguya suddenly getting stronger in the middle of their match with Komachi and Shikieiki. Though Sanae has gotten better in this regard, winning through more skill/determination than writer's saving grace.
Broken Base: The Hourai vs Pyramid Volcano battle was a massive readership divisor. There are those who accept the outcome because Mokou chose Keine's well-being over the victory, those who hate Kaguya's guts for all the underhanded tactics she pulled from her first encounter with Mokou until now and think she deserved to get her ass kicked and didn't deserve the win, those who agree with Mokou but still despise Kaguya for the aforementioned reasons and those who dropped the series entirely as a result. And although team Pyramid Volcano managed to come out of the Heel fame they got because of Kaguya, that Kaguya still managed to come up on top of everything without any sort of comeuppance for her underhanded tactics and that if not for said tactics, Pyramid Volcano would have achieved victory way before the climax did not help matters at all.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Tenshi and Okuu with support from the underground youkai. With the efforts made by Parsee, Yuugi, Orin, and Yamame leading into the duo becoming an effective yet fun to watch team in dealing with tough foes (unlike Red 75%) in clean ways, english fans are rallying behind them. Their off ring interactions reveal traces of Fun Personified, moments of heartwarming, and Tenshi's intent to oppose the sneakier elements of the tournament, such as how the Immortals and Organizers do things.
Growing the Beard: The 4koma was never exactly bad, but it started out as a silly, light-hearted parody of Kinnikuman. Somewhere around the first few fights, it lost the parody part and became just a straight homage... and then during Hourai vs Pyramid Volcano it bid farewell to the light-hearted part.
Never Live It Down: No matter how much of a serious referee she is later in the series, no one will ever let Aya's biased refereeing in Hourai's favour against Pyramid Volcano be forgotten.
