Taka

I'll post my Yokozuna acceptance speech here. Please feel free to re-post it on the benchsumo group where I do of course read along and keep up, but haven't been signed in a long time and I am unable to do so right now. Maybe I'll need to sign up again! Yokozuna promotion acceptance speech Dear BSYDC and fellow Bench Sumo gamers I humbly accept the promotion and will do my best to honor the rank. It's also very appropriate for me to echo many other newly promoted Yokozuna in saying that this promotion will strengthen my sumo spirit. In fact it is not wrong to say that it will have helped keeping my bench-sumo career as well as my whole sumo-gaming career alive. Retirement or at the very least a prolonged break from sumo-gaming has been looming larger and larger recently but becoming Yokozuna must serve as powerful motivation. The short term goal is to yusho as Yokozuna. I've been victorious across divisions, but the close calls and near misses lately have been frustrating. Winning as Yokozuna will more than make up for it! When it comes to the lifespan of a Yokozuna and era, I did some quick research, and thanks to my predecessor Flohru, who talked about it in his promotion speech, and I quote: "Looking at the careers of my predecessors, however, caused me some kind of shock: As none of those Bench legends managed to last more than 9 basho (average time of duration: just 6.4 basho!)" it is clear that the future is not at all guaranteed and all I can do is gambarize one day at a time. I also want to thank all involved in Bench Sumo especially those running the game, and finally if it's at all appropriate I wish to dedicate this newest bench sumo Yokozuna title to those great people who were involved and did so much for the game, who are not with us anymore. Thanks again Yokozuna Taka

I submitted my day 9 Toto picks via mail. Did any other absentees (who weren't able to enter) do this? I didn't remember what the correct method was these days, just that via mail had worked once upon a time before.

1-5 Pandaazuma 6-10 Screechingowl 11-20 Susanoo 21-40 Flohru 41-80 Oskanohana 81-120 Kishikaisei 121-200 Kaiomitsuki 201+ Domichi

In SG it will be interesting to see if Japanese players will be proven spectacularly right a little later today. I've only looked around in makunouchi, but most players from outside Japan have Kakuryu in their lineups and I'm guessing no one Tochinoshin (who has a lot at stake of course). However I noticed that both Norizo and Susanoo were confidently picking Tochinoshin, then checked to see if this was some kind of Japanese trend and found out that almost all other Japanese listed players Chankoyama, Natsunoyama, Hironoumi and Survivor were avoiding the bout. So not exactly picking Tochinoshin but not picking at first, second and maybe third glance good favorite in Kakuryu either. Fujiyama is the one exception going with Kakuryu like the gaijin! Interesting! And yes if I could I probably would pick Tochinoshin right now! Or at least avoid the bout (which did actually enter my mind a lil bit)

I really wish I could claim it but instead rather embarrassingly this was an extreme case of it better being lucky than good! At first I had picked the fusen bout and Mitoryu over Aminishiki as my two picks but even though at first I did have a strong feeling Hakuho could lose, when I started looking at other possible picks and considering the overall + - in the TTT Yusho race I started talking myself more and more into going with Hakuho (to win!) which increasingly seemed like the most rational pick. So I kept picking back and forth between Mitoryu and Hakuho and depending on what I ended up going with I also had to change "to lose or to win" in the fusen bout and I guess I just accidentally ended up screwing things up and picking the opposite! I think I've done similar once or twice over the years in TTT and fortunately for me, this time it worked out beautifully.

1-5 Pandaazuma 6-10 Norizo 11-20 Flohru 21-40 Chishafuwaku 41-80 Achiyama 81-120 Pitinosato 121-200 Kintamayama 201- Smoczayama

I was pretty sure that there was unusual potential today for a big score in OddSumo. It did not disappoint! However, those who just missed out on that big score (including me) can now feel unusually bad. Today was a great chance.

What a great blast from the past (and into the present) getting to read these again!

Not scoring more WC points at the end of last Basho was very disappointing (things had been looking so great!) so this points record serves as nice encouragement that things have indeed still been going great. I think I'm close to my limit though and expect downswing very soon... Thanks for the continued work Randomitsuki!

Ozeki! Until some time last year I had never really cared more about SB than WC placings but frustratingly last year WC-points just weren't happening despite me feeling pretty good about my sumo-gaming performances, which is far from always the case, and at some point, maybe for the first time ever crazily enough, I started seriously appreciating rising on various Banzuke (+holding on) over WC top 10 placements or failure to do so. It was quite satisfying and also a much needed motivational refill and I guess this is the culmination. Now, there are actually room to grow in some places (I was once again NC entry-didn't happen victim for starters and then there are games where I've done better in the past and quite fancy myself - it may also finally be time to try out GTB) but of course downswings will happen, some drastic ones too, and I fully expect some notable gamers to rise again and overtake me, but in the midst of seemingly Pandaazuma sumo-gaming invincibility, for this player, this is a nice bright spot. As always, thank you Randomitsuki for still doing this!

C A R N A G E The Tochiozan picks are the last ones standing as we speak! I could see him lose too. We shall see. edit: NOPE! Two players left then.

When was the old chat's heyday? And what was the resolution back then? That must have been years before 2010 but I think I'm mixing the years up right now in my head and whatever it was that I was I was doing at the exact time. I just remember early very dark mornings, getting up, entering the chat and first in, sometimes before the Juryo action if luck would have it that the feed had started early would always be Kashunowaka, you (Asashosakari) though I think sometimes I would beat you to it so to speak and then sporadically people would come in and out the coming hours, including the original Sumoforum owner/founder occasionally. But you and Kashunowaka are who I mostly associate with this time. And yes there were all kinds of stream quality issues (the worst was having to restart the stream and then despite hammering away somehow not be able to get in during the final bouts where the feed was often falling apart anyways) and sleep sacrifices to be made that I could never tolerate now (for sumo at least) I don't think, but I remember the chats on the sumo itself and of course the sumo games that I was just getting into (there's my clue to what year this was!) quite fondly. Good times!

I think most agree that you can't get too caught up in the H2Hs alone but still I only ever NOT click the ST bout number when desperate, depressed, disillusioned and I guess in the mood for experimentation following a number of bad losing days in a row. I did it this Basho on day 6 after losing badly three days in a row, and go figure I end up with the best score of the day... Now I probably ended up looking at a few H2H after all where I was just too curious but far from every bout and jumping in more "naked" felt like it was nice refresher at that (low) point.

I'm sure it also happened to others in OddSumo today, probably also with bigger quotas at stake than the 42,38 that I was aiming for, but there is something especially frustrating about your OddSumo loss whenever you get, going against Hakuho right, something I almost never gamble on, and it's someone else in your accumulator who lets you down RUINING EVERYTHING. In my case none other than Kisenosato who I'm also so annoyed that I ended up adding, against all reason I'm sure value-wise, as as an "ultra-safe go-along", even when deep inside all my warning signals were going off following his nervy escape against Okinoumi and how against all people, that kind of advantage handed to him would work very well for Kotoshogiku (despite being so weak right now). UGH!

This basho at least, Odd sumo is also doing something different - Ikioi today and Takayasu yesterday - compared to the original rules: