ScreechingOwl

I'm looking forward to using this next time, which based on past history will be 2057! (Although it certainly has to be rather freakish this hasn't happened in 37 years, and I can easily imagine having only one yokozuna in the near future and not being as fortunate as the two previous times we've only had one.)

1. X2. B3. A4. A5. A6. A7. A8. B9. B10. B11. B12. A13. A14. B15. B16. B17. A18. B19. A20. A21. X

I'm not sure its staged but if you think about the momentum of charging from that distance, its pretty easy relative to an normal match for the Yokozuna to throw them with that pulling-motion sort of throw (which is how he won all 5). Based on my viewing of the Hakutoumi performance of the gonin-nuki-sen as well as the one Harumafuji did in 2017, it's pretty evident that these exhibitions are staged: the respective yokozuna is expected to win all 5 bouts, and he does.

Looking at Scott's record history, last basho was his second kyujo in a row, and I believe most of the games treat a second consecutive kyujo as 0-15, not 0-0-15 (as the first is treated).

Sumo Game is now open for registration!

Calling Hakuho a "part-time" yokozuna is way off the mark. Hakuho competed in - and finished - his first 48 basho as yokozuna. He really has been the iron man of sumo. After being promoted to yokozuna he entered and completed his first 48 basho in a row before missing basho 49. To put that in perspective, that's more at the start of a yokozuna career than Taiho (17), Chiyonofuji (0), Asashoryu (2), Takanohana (11), Kitanofuji (11), and Musashimaru (3) combined! Time and injuries catch up to all athletes. Over his last 18 basho Hakuho has completed half of them. That's still a much better than most yokozuna at the end of their career. Moreover, of the 9 basho he's finished over the last three (plus one basho) years, Hakuho has won the yusho 7 times. I'd say any rikishi who manages to win 7 yusho in 18 basho isn't wasting anyone's time. Kakuryu, on the other hand, has a significant problem staying healthy. He's only managed to finish 8 of the last 18 basho and he was having trouble even before that. He has won the yusho in three of his eight finishes. He's already been given a compete and complete instruction once in his career and it wouldn't be surprising to see another one soon. The end is near for him. So it's highly unlikely either yokozuna will be competing in 2022. And we will never see Hakuho's like again in our lifetime. Not even close. So I'm fine with him calling the shots as to when he wants to hang up his mawashi.

There's almost always some luck in winning any of the games, of course, but Odd Sumo may be the one where luck plays the greatest part. It was an unlucky jun-yusho for Panda, who lead (by a lot) most of the way to be nosed out on the final day. It was a nice job, however, by Unkonoyama on getting a mountain of points on senshuraku: well played.

I think ryafuji is spot on: the intai papers are almost certainly going to be accepted. It's an unfortunate outcome for a rikishi whose style both on and off the dohyo was a bit different.

On the plus side, I won the Tipspiel yusho rather handily. It's the third time I've had the lead after day 14 in that game. The first time I played unnecessarily boldly on senshuraku and was overtaken. The second time I was much more strategic and won. It was the same this time: Tochinoshin and Onosho seemed the most likely to win (and had the most points bet on them), but I managed to pick the winners in the more difficult to read final two bouts anyway. Still, no sense in taking that chance. I regained my ozeke status in Toto with a rather frustrating 10-4-1. Frustrating because I was locked out of picking on day 9, and even thought I e-mailed a winning pick to the organizers, it wasn't counted. (I believe Taka had the same experience.) And more frustration in SG, where I believe I had the third highest number of correct picks in the top division but barely managed a kk, losing almost all my ties. In Bench I had the best team to get an MK and played reasonably well (I think I had the 11th best MP score): slight mistakes a few days all cost me and I also had the misfortune of facing teams I would have beaten on most days but had worse match ups on the days we actually met. Of course in head to head contests these things are not unusual, and I've often been a beneficiary in past basho. Lastly, I finished 4th in the Underdog game, but really only because I rode the Terunofuji train early enough, so not special merit in that. More frustration in Odd, where 9 days I had just one loser, including senshuraku, when I had five winners. I was 6-6-3 in TTT (one day locked out, two days negligent); 7-8 in ISP; a dreadful 5-10 in Quad and out on day 2 in Chain. All around miserable in the pre-basho games.

A very exciting senshuraku, with only three points separating the top three gamers. As for day 14, has there ever been a day before where no one managed a correct guess, Achiyama?

If Mitakeumi defeats Terunofuji tomorrow we will have a three-way playoff for the yusho (those two joined by the winner of Shodai v. Asanoyama).

Hmmm. An oyakata repeatedly beats rikishi and is demoted. I take Covid-19 very seriously - I wear a mask, socially distance, don't eat out, and minimize outside contact - I don't visit anyone inside or have anyone inside my house other than immediate family. Still, expulsion seems too great. He's already been pulled out of more than half this basho. A one basho suspension will drop him to lower Juryo. A two basho suspension will drop him to what - high single digits makushita? A suspension seems more appropriate to me, especially as I view an oyakata who beats rikishi (which is a criminal assault) as more harmful to sumo (who is going to let their son join an organization that tolerates this behavior) as more damaging to sumo.

Baruto And Asashoryu were both extremely strong too. I'm not sure who the strongest rikishi in the 21st century has been - it would be interesting to find out what each of them could life. In any case, there is no doubt Terunofuji is very powerful. Still, he has to get ahold of the mawashi, and Takayasu did a great job of keeping him off of it.

Let's be cautious about saying "for sure" regarding yokozuna promotion, because he has to stay healthy, and that requires some luck. Terunofuji strung together four basho at sekiwake and ozeki which were at (or near) yokozuna strength and his promotion seemed imminent - and then he was injured. It's great that he's back and doing well, but he'll never be the same. Nothing is for sure in sports, and sumo puts more of a strain on the body that most other sports do. So fingers crossed for a continually healthy Asanoyama.