Even if Souya was protected by plot armor, in a way, I enjoyed the way that this whole game kinda... "descended" him even more to the ground to the rest of the pros we have seen. I always had this image of him that he was quite untouchable, until that one time that Kiriyama spent some time with him and it was revealed that he is deaf, hence why he acts too "perfect" (more like, in an "automatic" matter) in front of the public (not talking about his shogi abilities in any way).
With Nikaidou, his "genius" status is humanized even more, somehow?, and I agree that that game was too intense because they were on the same level of game. Nikaidou must have won, definitely, no doubt and it would have been amazing seeing another game between him and Kiriyama (if he even won his first game in this tournament). Pretty proud of him to the last minute he could endure it.