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EDIT: Also FWIW -- they were even with in the category of "Opponent's who KK'd", with ten apiece. To be clear, 7.73 rounds up to eight just as 8.07 rounds down, and with them both having a median of 8 it's difficult to make this argument around KK status. Looking at it another way for further clarity (though this is gonna get nerdy): Wakatakakage's opponents won 51.6% of their matches Takayasu's opponents won 53.8% of their matches. 51.6% is ~96% of 53.8%, so ~4% lower. A 4% difference is statistically insignificant in datasets such as these.

Senshuraku (Day 15), Haru 2022 J12w Atamifuji: 7-8 (7 KK, 47-17) Ms2e Kanno: 3-4 (6 KK, 36-13) Ms4w Oshoma: 3-4 (2 KK, 12-9) Ms19w Fujitoshi: 3-4 (5 KK, 33-9) Ms34e Kinbozan: 7-0 (3 KK, 19-2) Ms53e Mukainakano: 5-2 (5 KK, 24-11-7)* Ms53w Moji: 1-6 (5 KK, 28-14) Sd10w Suguro: 4-1-2 (3 KK, 15-4-2) Sd25e Miyagi: 5-2 (5 KK, 26-9) Sd29w Kiryuko: 6-1 (5 KK, 27-8) Sd40w Nobehara: 6-1 (5 KK, 26-9) Sd56w Tatsuguchi: 2-5 (5 KK, 25-17) Sd73e Raiho: 5-2 (3 KK 17-4-7)* Jd67e Aoifuji: 4-3 (2 KK, 9-5)

I love Takayasu, and am heartbroken, but his loss is on him. You get the opposition you get, when you get them. That's the sport, and it's never been any different. Hell, let's look at the total wins of everyone they fought: Wakatakakage's opponents had a combined 116 wins, 7.73 on average, median of 8. Takayasu's opponents had a combined 121 wins, 8.07 on average, median of 8. The slightest of edges to Takayasu, though really it's negligible. How about if we look at opposition ranking? Top spot on the banzuke = 1, bottom spot on the banzuke = 42 -- you get the picture. This gives us: Wakatakakage's average opponent ranking was 10.3, median 10, which would be roughly M1w this basho. Takayasu's average opponent ranking was 15.6 (M4e/w), median 19 (M6e). So overall, as commented on, Takayasu faced a slate with slightly better results than those who Wakatakakage face, but those Wakatakakage faced were facing much stiffer competition overall. Reality is, Takayasu lost to the 12-3 yusho winner, a 9-6 hot & cold ozeki, and an 8-7 hot & cold sekiwake. A very good 12-3. Wakatakakage lost to a 10-5 M4, an 11-4 shin-ozeki/sanyaku mainstay and the same 9-6 hot & cold ozeki, also a very good 12-3 -- and he beat Takayasu both in regulation and in the playoff. Doesn't get much more clear-cut than that.

I'd like to do a strength of schedule analysis but I went to sumodb and saw that Takayasu has a 12-12 record against Aoiyama and now I'm too shook to do anything.

How about a compromise - Just make 6 komusubi slots and then start counting the maegashira from M3e

Here come the Final Results! As first the final bout results, including the last ozeki bout between Mitakeumi and Takakeisho. Nr A - B A B X Day Result 1 S1w Abi - M1e Daieisho 24 5 0 D8 A 2 M15e Akua - M14w Yutakayama 5 23 1 D10 B 3 M10w Aoiyama - M13w Chiyonokuni 7 17 5 D13 A 4 M13e Chiyomaru - M5w Ishiura 7 10 12 X 5 M8e Chiyoshoma - M11e Myogiryu 7 19 3 D10 A 6 M12w Chiyotairyu - M6w Kotonowaka 7 12 10 X 7 M4w Endo - K1w Hoshoryu 7 22 0 D14 B 8 M6e Hokutofuji - M7e Takayasu 17 12 0 D7 B 9 M2e Ichinojo - M3e Onosho 21 8 0 X 10 M17w Ichiyamamoto - M11w Terutsuyoshi 14 10 5 X 11 M17e Kagayaki - M15w Tochinoshin 6 22 1 X 12 M4e Kiribayama - S1e Wakatakakage 13 16 0 D4 A 13 M12e Kotoeko - M8w Sadanoumi 16 8 5 D14 A 14 M16w Kotokuzan - M14e Kotoshoho 4 23 2 D10 B 15 M3w Meisei - Y1e Terunofuji 3 25 1 X 16 O2w Mitakeumi - O1w Takakeisho 19 9 1 D15 A 17 M7w Okinoumi - M9e Tobizaru 12 17 0 D4 B 18 M10e Shimanoumi - M9w Wakamotoharu 15 13 1 D2 B 19 O1e Shodai - M2w Tamawashi 18 11 0 D6 B 20 K1e Takanosho - M1w Ura 19 10 0 D10 A 21 M5e Takarafuji - M16e Nishikigi 11 2 16 X As Mitakeumi won we have now the following final players ranking: Rk Player Pts TB 1 shimodahito 12 182 2 Asapedroryu 12 156 3 Profomisakari 12 146 4 Hakuryuho 12 139 5 WAKATAKE 12 136 6 Yarimotsu 11 143 7 Athenayama 11 138 8 Wamahada 11 137 9 Asojima 11 135 10 Chankomafuji 11 134 11 Oortael 11 128 12 Flohru 10 123 13 Karasukurai 10 119 14 Tameiki 10 119 15 Susanoo 10 115 16 ChickyStarr 10 110 17 Shatsume 10 109 18 Hoshotakamoto 9 125 19 Benihana 9 99 20 ScreechingOwl 9 96 21 Kellyama 8 91 22 Chartorenji 7 88 23 Fujisan 7 74 24 kujo 7 57 25 Suwihuto 6 77 26 Hakuhonofan 6 66 27 Tochinofuji 6 63 28 RaeucherLax 6 52 29 chishafuwaku 5 89 As we can see, because he had the winner Mitakeumi and Asapedroryu had him not, is in a group of 5 players with each 12 point, but with the clear best tiebreaker value TB1, the winner of the game 21 in March 2022: S h i m o d a h i t o our japanese friend, living at the american western coast, the great torch manager. Great Congratulations !!! Many thanks to all players for partizipation. Special thanks to Tameiki for the hard work of bout selection and for the organizing of the direct vote inputs. And please excuse me Athenayama that your name was missing in the ranking table above. I also don't understand why my computer mouse has put the name Hakuhonofan in your place. Maybe this player bribed my computer mouse. I can't explain it any other way. I'll ban this mouse and buy a new one . And now the invitation: In May we'll have a new game 21. You all and many many new players are invited. Profomisakari

Well, I learned something new! Not necessarily about the reasonableness of scheduling but what Gish gallop means!!! (Had to look it up).

Wakatakakage fully deserved the yusho. Despite having a great basho, Takayasu squandered his opportunities to take the yusho. There is no controversy here. I just hope Takayasu continues with a good form going forward.

Good luck with the GTB guess for that banzuke

It's maths. This conflates the rank vs. win record issue, but I would note that 4% of 42 is 1.68, which I guess is 2 with some 'might convenient rounding' to give that full rank difference. This isn't a poll. These are two datasets based on observational results, a MOE doesn't exist here. The significance level for studies such as these is typically set to 5%. Also, either 4% is 1 rank difference, or it's significant. Which is it? I stand by the difference in overall opposition quality being negligible, which leads to a play-off making complete sense. The data supports that conclusion. Wakatakakage then got that playoff win, which combined with his regulation win over Takayasu more than makes up for any intrinsic factors that may have been involved.

I'm out of reactions, but I'm frankly baffled by the continuing argument that he was somehow unfairly denied the yusho by not being given an easier schedule.

Shodai made it to 2nd place in the end, it took him 9 days to enter the rankings at all. The 3 ozeki as the top 3, in the order of their result this basho. Wakatakakage in the end with just the same amount as Abi - but next basho his sponsor popularity will surely get a boost. Day 15 http://www.sumo.or.jp/pdf/honbasho/kansen/torikumi/2203_15.pdf １９４: Mitakeumi １３８: Shodai １１６: Takakeisho １０２: Takayasu ９６: Kotonowaka ８７: Endo ７９: Abi ７９: Wakatakakage ７４: Terunofuji ５９: Hoshoryu

This has gone on long enough (from myself included). Can we please not further bastardise this thread into being about the inner workings of FIFA World Cup seeding. . @Rocks has made his mind up about the reasonableness of scheduling and he can have that opinion if he likes. I personally am over the Gish gallop of it all.

And with that, we are done here.

Remember when Ichinojo, in his Makuuchi debut (!) at M10 (!!) had to fight two Ozeki and two Yokozuna in the final five days, only getting an easier opponent on the final day after he lost to Hakuho to drop a win back? This is par for the course; what's unusual is the recent san'yaku weakness that, combined with the schedulers not taking them seriously until it was too late, kept contending lower maegashira from being similarly challenged.

I think an impressive 13-2 will do it; anything less probably not.

Day 15 quickie:

The Haru Basho has come to an end, and it has been an epic battle among the two Yokozuna for the yusho. In the end, Kobashi prevailed over Andoreasu. Congratulations! You can compute your final W/L record by taking your win points (WP column), adding half a point and round down where necessary. That being said, the KK/MK line runs between chishafuwaku (last man in) and Wamahada (first man out). As a consequence, no less than three Ozkei are now kadoban as Oskanohana, Ganzohnesushi, and Asapedroryu did not straddle the KK line. The shukun-sho goes to Kitanoyama for picking Kinbozan (7-0) and Shishi (6-1). The kanto-sho is shared by Andrasoyama and Ketsukai with 61 wins (it should be noted, however, that the two Yokozuna had incredible 71! and 68! wins) And the gino-sho goes to Holleshoryu (18.72 points). His main point-getters were Haruminato (4.00), Yuki (3.00) and Dewataikai (3.00). Welcome back to returning player Suwihito as well as shin-deshi Chartorenji (9-6 debut) and The Chosen One. I hope to see many, most, and more of you in May!

Yeah, I take consolation in the fact that he still clearly belongs in the joi/sanyaku when he's healthy. If not for that injury 2-3 years back, his career could have taken a very different trajectory. But being a former ozeki is great, and being a sanyaku gatekeeper ain't so bad. Who knows, the Filipino Bear may even rise up to Ozeki again someday, his sumo is strong.

The Atami koenkai for Atamifuji started on the 24th, with about 20 officials at a press conference at the city hall o his mother is 2nd on the right Edit: o o o o o

In the past days, Shimazuumi used another kesho mawashi: I should also say that he used on Day 11 a white kesho mawashi but I didn't found a good enough picture of it other than this one: Also Atamifuji did indeed receive the Hiryu High traditional kesho mawashi, again the photo is extremely pixalated so a more detailed photo accompaning is Midorifuji's Hiryu High kesho mawashi. Again, sorry for the quality of the photos, I will keep looking for better ones in the next days, I just find important to document these.

New ozeki Mitakeumi is a May puppet expectation general for Children's/Boy's day on May 5th. Maker Kyugetsu for the 10th time produced a set of PR puppets of the (sports or politics) celebrities of the year. o o Kyodo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcKMBv-5Tq4 Edit: In 2016 Kotoshogiku and in 2017 Kisenosato were such kitai taisho 34283-sumo-art/?do=findComment&comment=331534

Takagenji/Takakenshin was on the stage of RIZIN 33 today and announced his debut as MMA fighter in RIZIN next year: Takagenji/Takakenshin will have his debut fight at RIZIN Trigger 3rd on April 16th, against ex-policeman Hideki “Shrek” Sekine jp.rizinff.com/_tags/関根“シュレック”秀樹 He wants to win by breaking facial bones o o o o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTUpXGbI_Z0

Hochi reports that Oguruma-oyakata (former Ozeki Kotokaze) will make use of the re-employment system and stay on as sanyo after he reaches retirement age next month.

Kanno's started much faster than I expected. He's always had plenty of tricks, but was underpowered at times even vs smaller opponents in amasumo, and his first basho is more in line with what I had in mind. Fujiseiun is another surprise, even more so as he wasn't a notable college competitor at all. Nishikawa I expected to make a fast start with his powerful all out oshi (I think of him as half rikishi half boxer) but perhaps be more limited than Kanno in the long-run. Either way, they've both done well and should become sekitori. The track record of the Sd100TD starters is very solid so far isn't it. Now, I am hopeful that current college beast and reigning amateur yokozuna Daiki Nakamura (who has an Ms15TD but is unlikely to use it soon enough) turns pro when he graduates next year. Even being 2 years younger than Kanno, he handled him (and most opponents) like a child in high school and college. 193cm/175kg, with power, balance, and skill, in oshi and yotsu sumo. Nakamura is the first in at least 20+ years to win all 3 major titles open to college competitors: amateur yokozuna, student yokozuna, and national sports festival champ. The only amateur rikishi who rivals him as a pro prospect is 2x high school yokozuna Tetsuya Ochiai, who was pretty much unbeatable in high school and just made the best 8 of the All Japan Championship, betting several much older competitors and earning an Sd100TD. He ended up losing to Nakamura....