Kei has a similar struggle to Smile from Ping Pong, but I guess it's different for a team sport since Kei vs Haruka is not on the table. I do get the sense that Kei is the only one of the two who really cares about winning, even though at the same time he's afraid to. I'm not sure there's any indication that Haruka actually wants to be the best of the best. I feel like he'd be content to lose as long as he gets to play ball with Kei. Maybe Kei is torturing himself for nothing. Either way, I love seeing how much these two adore each other