Absolutely beautiful episode that captures the emotion that competition brings out in people. The crushing weight of being at the top, the impossibility of climbing up from the bottom, and the pure joy of it all.
Absolutely stunning animation, you can just feel how much the animators love and appreciate what they do. It takes advantage of the freedom animation brings fully, with the exaggerated features, the way each characters point of view is represented by different quirks in the animation, it's jaw dropping and I've yet to see anything that does it quite like this.
And this is the peak of the series in its use of music, especially with Peco's theme during his game with Dragon just representing how much he loves the sport.
It's genuinely difficult for me to find the words to describe how unique and special this is, the entire anime is a 100% must watch for anybody that cares about animation, but this episode is just on another level.
Easy 10, and the closest thing I have to an 11.