The first round is Izuku vs. Hitoshi Shinso. Shinso is from the General Education department, but wants to be in the Hero Department. He even also applied for the Hero Department, but failed the exam because his Quirk was unsuited to fighting robots. Most people believe that it's unsuitable for even being a hero, but Shinso wants to prove them wrong. His quirk is Brainwashing- respond to him, and you're put under his control. It only works on living creatures, hence why he tanked the exam, but when it works, there's no way to snap out of it by yourself. Well, almost no way.
Despite knowing the activation parameters for Shinso's quirk, Midoriya still falls for Shinso's taunting. But before he can walk himself out of bounds, something strange happens. He sees a vision of shadowy figures - including one of All Might- watching him from a distance, and One for All is activated in his fingers. He is able to move them to cause a shock to himself and break free, before fighting Shinso. Shinso has the physique of a normal teenager while Midoriya has been training relentlessly even before One for All, so it's no contest. Shinso at least has the consolation of demonstrating the usefulness of his Quirk, and the watching heroes talking about just how good Brainwashing would be for a hero.
The next round is Shoto Todoroki vs. Hanta Sero, and poor Sero doesn't even get any good hits in. Todoroki is kind of emotionally unbalanced from meeting his abusive father earlier, and he ends the match by freezing Sero in a massive stadium-spanning iceberg. Sero is okay once Todoroki melts the ice around him, but isn't going to live it down any time soon.
Thus, Todoroki will be Izuku's opponent next round.
Tropes:
- Bad Powers, Good People: Shinso has the ability to control anyone who responds to him. A flashback reveals a few of his students teasing him, saying his quirk sounds better suited for a villain.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Two of them:
- A downplayed one in the form of Midoriya's battle against Shinso. Shinso didn't stand a chance if he couldn't get Midoriya to respond for his Quirk to activate again, but he did get a few good hits in as Midoriya was pushing him out of the ring.
- Todoroki gives a brutal one to Sero. Like with Shinso, Sero does get close to eliminating his opponent. Unfortunately, unlike Midoriya, Todoroki has full control over his Quirk (well, the ice side anyway) and was easily able to immobilize Sero in a gigantic glacier in seconds.
- Hive Mind: Unbeknownst to Shinso, Midoriya experiences this aspect of One For All (noticing several presences and a blurred figure of All Might in his mind) just before he steps out of the ring; they help him activate and channel One For All into his arm, before he flicks towards the ground and fully snaps out of the brainwashing.
- Nightmare Face: Shoto has some incredibly unsettling facial expressions before and during his "duel" against Hanta Sero, highlighting his disheveled psyche.
- Oh, Crap!: Shinso when he realizes he has to get Midoriya to respond again.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Midoriya breaks out of Shinso's mind control, Shinso tries to provoke him into saying something else by telling him that he has it easy as a hero-in-training compared to him."Come on, say something. I didn't know you had so much power in your fingers. I'm kind of jealous of you! Thanks to the way my quirk works, I've always been at a big disadvantage. But someone as blessed as you wouldn't understand that. You're lucky enough to have a 'heroic' Quirk! It'll be easy for you to reach your goal!"
