Kashunowaka

Takanosho was robbed. Another very close call without mono-ii was the final makushita bout, Kitaharima vs Nakazono.

At this moment I agree - this is Daieisho's yusho to lose, considering his opponents so far. If Daieisho goes 7-0 as M1: only done twice before in the modern era, one of which was none other than the bewildered head shimpan. If Daieisho goes 8-0 as M1: unprecedented.

Had to be Nishikido Oyakata, right (moto-Mitoizumi)? He wasn't on camera.

No, jonidan was around when I was active, I just didn't start from there.

As a player who played for a few years way back, quit, and is playing again, part of the fun is climbing the banzuke. Last time around I started in sandanme, spent over a year in makushita and then reached Akiseyama-like heights before life took over. This time around I am almost sad that there is no sandanme division anymore to start from.

What about Akiseyama! Today he completely annihilated Sadanoumi and stays atop the leaderboard. Tomorrow co-leader Midorifuji, who has lost three in a row to Akiseyama...

If there was a requirement that you had to defeat a yokozuna to become one, Akebono would never have become yokozuna in 1993 since there were no yokozuna at the time. You cannot select who you fight, and you can only defeat those who participate.

On the third hand - I still think that the best strategy is to pick 4 rikishi per day for as many days as possible. If you run out of rikishi after day 12, so be it. You could of course elect to skip days earlier in the basho to save your picks. Day 1 might be a good candidate for that, but other than that my feeling is that the last days are usually the hardest anyway.

On the other hand, it's a fair game for everyone. You can either skip certain days, or try to get a win with 3 rikishi on some days.

1. Kotoshoho MK 2. Terunofuji 12-3 3. Yoshii MK 4. Murata KK 5. Jokoryu KK 6. Ura KK 7. Tosamidori KK 8. Takakento KK 9. Nakazono MK 10. Dewanoryu KK 11. Watanabe MK 12. Takanosho 8-7 13. Ichinojo KK 14. Oho KK TB 17

Perhaps it's just me. I managed to get the page by other means. Quite disastrous but it seems I was not alone.

I cannot access http://www.dichne.com/. Checked with https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/dichne.com?proto=http&www=1 and it also says the site is down. Edit: and now the check site says that the site is up, but I still cannot reach it. Edit 2: it seems to be flapping.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bhgZG9eNyk0sk8AGEO4-eYty5idJAIh1/view?usp=sharing

Judging from this poll, Asanoyama seems to be underachiever of the year. His result of 10-11-12-10-kyujo is actually pretty good, but almost everyone thought he would win at least one yusho.

To be fair, Kaio and Wakanohana each won one yusho as komusubi as part of their ozeki runs, and 4 yusho as ozeki. And it took Kaio 25 basho as ozeki to get 4 yusho while Wakanohana took 29, so Kaio didn't actually need twice the number of tournaments to get to five yusho - it's just that their paths diverged at that point. Their careers could so easily have been reversed, and were ultimately decided by a couple of 12-3 results. If Wakanohana's 12-3 in Natsu 1998 had been good for the usual jun-yusho or third place, he might have spent 7 more years as ozeki going 8-7. And if Kaio hadn't tumbled to his third loss on day 12 in Kyushu 2004 against Miyabiyama, he might have been promoted at age 32 and would in all likelihood have been a short-lived yokozuna.

You probably need either patience or a more powerful computer.

Final rank J9e.

Hakuho Y Takakeisho Terunofuji O Asanoyama Takanosho O Hakuho will start in four basho in 2021, win two yusho, go kyujo twice, sit out two whole basho, and decide to postpone retirement until the Paris Olympics 2024.

Last question also has 2021 in the options.

I think SalaryCap is a fun concept and I enjoy trying to spend my ¥1000 wisely. However, the way the scoring is done puts a lot of emphasis on simply trying to guess the yusho and sansho winners, since the bonus points can be bigger than the regular score. A 13-2 yusho winner already has 39 points for the wins, but gets another 40 for the yusho, which seems a little unbalanced. Perhaps smaller bonuses would make the other picks more meaningful, i.e. selecting rikishi with a good score but without yusho/sansho.

Why not five sekiwake, so that Kotoshoho can get his long overdue sanyaku debut.

Let me guess: you had Kotoeko, Okinoumi and Mitakeumi.

Not promoting Hokutofuji to sanyaku from M4 with 11-4 would be a first. Usually there is no need for an extra komusubi in that situation since there are free slots, so it might be a coincidence. But it has opened up an extra slot in the past, the latest being after Nagoya 1995. On that occasion, Kenko was in fact ranked higher than Kotonishiki, so you could argue that 8-7 from M1e opened the extra slot. (And there are of course counter-examples where even M1e with 8-7 wasn't promoted, although that was back in the 60s.) Edit: OTOH, the very same Hokutofuji was denied promotion after 11-4 from M3 in Kyushu 2017, so my argument goes out the window.

I hope that Takakeisho can continue to improve his defensive skills to be a more well-rounded rikishi, pardon the pun. Great to see an ozeki winning the yusho.

Wow, I didn't expect that! Well done Takakeisho!