What does Blue Lock’s First Selection Program entail?

The Third Episode of Blue Lock introduces the First Selection program, where impulsiveness and ego win over teamwork and cooperation. The ruthlessness of Jinpachi Ego’s pet project, Blue Lock, was on display when Yoichi was forced to eliminate his friends in order to become the best striker in the whole globe.

Although Yoichi’s first-round elimination of Kira in a game of tag astonished us, this is only the beginning for Yoichi and his teammates as they must overcome far more difficulties.

Jinpachi declared that all 25 teams had been sorted into five groups of five teams each, who will take part in the First Selection round after successfully completing the first round.

All five teams from each wing of Blue Lock will compete against one another in 10 matches as part of the First Selection program, also known as Round-Robin Group League Match. Only the top two teams from each wing will advance to the following round of selection.

Even if a player’s squad is eliminated in the first round, there is still hope. The player who leads their own team in scoring is eligible to move on to the second selection, even if their team loses, according to a player-specific rule for the first selection mentioned by Jinpachi.

The Blue Lock attackers are forced to make a difficult decision since both the individual and team regulations of the First Selection require them to choose between scoring their personal goals or helping their team win.

Points-based First Selection program

Jinpachi explains the specifics of the initial selection program and its point system during a video conference with Team Z in Episode 3 of Blue Lock.

Similar to any competitive game, the participants in the first pick plainly stand to gain more by winning. They receive more points for victories compared to defeats and draws.

• A victory in a game awards the team three points.
• The squad receives 0 points for losing a game.
• Both sides will earn one point if the game ends in a tie.

A player may become the “top scorer” of his squad by amassing the most goals within their own team in addition to the team’s overall point total. What happens, though, if two teammates each score the same number of goals?

Jinpachi also proposes the “fair point system” to address this situation. If a player receives a penalty, their points are taken away.

• One point is subtracted for a yellow card.
• In a single game, three points are deducted for receiving two yellow cards (suspension).
• One point is deducted for a red card.
• A player will lose a whopping five points if they receive a red card after receiving a yellow one.

The player whose team is rated higher will advance to the next round if the points of both players are equal following the tie-breaking procedure.

Will Team Z make it through the First Selection program?

Fortunately, Team Z makes it through the First Selection program. Due to a lack of teamwork, they lose their first match to Team X, but they make up for it by defeating Team Y in their next match and Team V in the championship match.

Additionally, Team Z and Team W’s game ended in a tie. Despite losing to Team W, Yoichi and the members of Team Z learn more about their own unique weapons during this match, which they later utilize to destroy Team V.

Blue Lock

Japanese manga author Muneyuki Kaneshiro and artist Yusuke Nomura collaborated on the Blue Lock series. Since August 2018, it has been serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shnen Magazine. The shnen category of the 45th Kodansha Manga Award was won by Blue Lock in 2021.

The movie opens with Japan being knocked out of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which inspires the Japanese Football Union to launch a program scouting high school players who will start practicing for the 2022 Cup.

The forward Isagi Youichi was invited to this program not long after his team misses out on going to Nationals because he passed to a less talented teammate.

Ego Jinpachi, their coach, plans to “destroy Japanese loser football” by implementing a radical new training program that segregates 300 teenage attackers into a facility resembling a jail dubbed “Blue Lock.”